Carl Jung came up with a personality test of sorts that gives you a four letter result. It’s pretty interesting to see your strengths and weaknesses explained back to you. I’ve taken the test a couple times and I am a INTP. My sister in law found a website called mypersonality.info that has a simplified version of the test and then some interesting results. Here’s me in a nutshell:

“INTPs are logical, individualistic, reserved, and very curious individuals. They focus on ideas, theories and the explanation of how things work. They are especially adept at discussions and debate. They have the ability to focus intently on a subject. They appreciate and respect intelligence in others.”

“INTPs are relatively easy-going and amenable to most anything until their principles are violated, about which they may become outspoken and inflexible. They prefer to return, however, to a reserved albeit benign ambiance, not wishing to make spectacles of themselves.”

“INTPs live in the world of theoretical possibilities. They see everything in terms of how it could be improved, or what it could be turned into. They live primarily inside their own minds, having the ability to analyze difficult problems, identify patterns, and come up with logical explanations. They seek clarity in everything, and are therefore driven to build knowledge. They are the “absent-minded professors”, who highly value intelligence and the ability to apply logic to theories to find solutions.”

And some people (real and fictional) that fall under the INTP classification:

Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, John Quincy Adams, John Tyler, the Olsen twins from Full House, Blaise Pascal, Carl Jung, Charles Darwin, Socrates, Rick Moranis, Rene Descartes, Gerald Ford, James Madison (this is the 5th President on the list…I’m just saying…) Data (from Star Trek), Brian Griffon (Family Guy), and Ash (from Alien)

It’s pretty fun to see. You should do it.

On the same website there also is a simplified test Mulit-Intelligence test. It basically is a test to see what categories your intelligence lies in. My results:

Intrapersonal: 80%

Bodily/Kinesthetic: 70%

Visual/Spatial: 70%

Interpersonal: 60%

Verbal/Linguistic: 60%

Naturalist: 60%

Logic/Math 55%

Musical: 30%

Kind of a “Jack of all trades, master of none” it looks like…

A recent series of studies concluded that “zoning out”, or allowing your mind to wander is good for you:

The regions of the brain that become active during mind wandering belong to two important networks. One is known as the executive control system. Located mainly in the front of the brain, these regions exert a top-down influence on our conscious and unconscious thought, directing the brain’s activity toward important goals. The other regions belong to another network called the default network. In 2001 a group led by neuroscientist Marcus Raichle at Washington University discovered that this network was more active when people were simply sitting idly in a brain scanner than when they were asked to perform a particular task. The default network also becomes active during certain kinds of self-referential thinking, such as reflecting on personal experiences or picturing yourself in the future.

LINK TO FULL ARTICLE

This is definitely good news for me, because it’s something I’ve done my whole life. It’s where I imagine new creative things while I’m mundanely walking from my car into work, or sitting bored in a class. It’s allowed me see other perspectives, discover my testimony, work out arguments, and recognize my place in life.

It’s not always a good thing, mind you. Too much zoning out can detach you from the real world around you. I remember in 5th grade, I was sitting at my desk completely zoned out for some reason. And while I was thinking of something else, a girl had walked in front of me and stopped. I only jarred myself back to reality because I could tell she was looking at me. I lifted my eyes to meet hers and saw a completely disgusted look on her face. While I was zoned out, I was staring at her chest. Now, I wasn’t really staring at her chest (in 5th grade I’m sure there wasn’t a whole lot to stare at anyway), I was staring through her and through the wall behind her, past the parking lot to another world inside my head. But she didn’t know that.

I think one of the problems in society now is the lack of zoning out. We are being feed constant stimulation through TV, computers, cell phones, etc., that it robs us of the repetitive or boring times that are prime to zone out in. A lot of the younger generations have trouble concentrating, NOT because they are zoning out, but because they are text messaging or surfing the internet. It’s actually pretty sad if you zone out about it.