Lemmiwinks
06-06-2008, 11:21 PM
Just recently I was forced out of an organization for saying truthful but unflattering things about a colleague. I was told that criticism of anyone else is out of bounds. This certainly strikes me as odd - honest criticism, taken correctly, is how we improve ourselves. I actually love criticism, from whatever source, as long as it's honest, for I am always trying to improve. Oddly, instead of expressions of gratitude, I was greeted with loudly expressed profanities and an invitation to a fistfight.
And that is yet another of many similar stories from my life. Throughout my existence, I have been accused of being a loner, an asshole, a weirdo, even a druggie (once, while on tour with an orchestra, I ate all of my meals alone and basically avoided people - I needed "alone time" - that was interpreted as a sign that I was stoned - amusing, because I have never even sipped alcohol).
Several years ago, while in law school (after studying music, math, and physics as an undergraduate), I was given the Keirsey test. That's when I found out I was an INTJ. Oddly enough, though perhaps the rarest personality classification, if is quite common in the legal field.
Anyway, while surfing the internet tonight (a favorite pastime, I must admit), I typed in INTJ as a search term and found you lot. It had never occurred to me that INTJs might actually search one another out and socialize. I certainly wouldn't have. But given that this forum exists, it might be interesting to see how I interact with other versions of me.
Throughout my life, I have been haunted by the idea that the world is filled with a finite number of dopplegangers of me. For example, my personality is quite distinctive and, I think, unique. However, I must be mistaken about my uniqueness, for when people meet me, the ones who choose to engage me and not run in horror after a few minutes, they always tell me "I know someone just like you!" It's always just one other person. And seemingly, everyone I meet knows exactly one other version of me. What are the odds of that?
And that is yet another of many similar stories from my life. Throughout my existence, I have been accused of being a loner, an asshole, a weirdo, even a druggie (once, while on tour with an orchestra, I ate all of my meals alone and basically avoided people - I needed "alone time" - that was interpreted as a sign that I was stoned - amusing, because I have never even sipped alcohol).
Several years ago, while in law school (after studying music, math, and physics as an undergraduate), I was given the Keirsey test. That's when I found out I was an INTJ. Oddly enough, though perhaps the rarest personality classification, if is quite common in the legal field.
Anyway, while surfing the internet tonight (a favorite pastime, I must admit), I typed in INTJ as a search term and found you lot. It had never occurred to me that INTJs might actually search one another out and socialize. I certainly wouldn't have. But given that this forum exists, it might be interesting to see how I interact with other versions of me.
Throughout my life, I have been haunted by the idea that the world is filled with a finite number of dopplegangers of me. For example, my personality is quite distinctive and, I think, unique. However, I must be mistaken about my uniqueness, for when people meet me, the ones who choose to engage me and not run in horror after a few minutes, they always tell me "I know someone just like you!" It's always just one other person. And seemingly, everyone I meet knows exactly one other version of me. What are the odds of that?