Thread by @startupdaemon

Cognitive Type and How to Type Anyone

Recently I typed the one and only @KittenHoliday. She had previously been typed ENTP, ESTP and ESFP. We ended the confusion quickly

You can learn to do this, too, and this THREAD will tell you how.

We can determine cognitive type in four ways. From least to most difficult:

1. Tests.
2. Interaction styles.
3. Cognitive functions.
4. Behavioral experience.

Interaction styles are the most accurate method. They let you to type people without theory and interviews.

Kitten's typing was challenging because of her level of development. And she had been typed differently several times.

Understand this. Cognitive type does not change, as some charlatans might tell you.

We develop. Then transcend.

How did we determine CONCLUSIVELY that Kitten was an ESFP?

My first impression from experience was that Kitten is an ESFP or ESTP, but I needed to take a deeper look.

And whatever we found, I wanted to make sure we've considered and rejected all viable alternatives.

1) Kitten had tested ENTP and ESTP.

Her tweets and messages are about specifics. She avoids abstractions when she communicates. So she is obviously not an N type. We can throw out the ENTP result.

2) Kitten gets involved in all sorts of fights. She engages profusely with people in her mentions. She had also been very responsive in our communication.

Being responsive is not typical for ESTPs, who are a structure-loving type. They prefer things "on schedule".

Kitten's interaction style is also informative. She can judge you and fight with you all day, but she almost never tells you what to do DIRECTLY.

Informative: You're a fuck-up.
Directive: Unfuck yourself.

Disagreeableness alone tells you little about type.

Because Kitten's informative and doesn't need structure in her interactions, it was clear that she isn't an ESTP.

An ESTP would find my questions and interruptions unsettling; Kitten was having fun with it all.

Interaction style rejected the ESTP type conclusively.

3) Kitten shared her Extroverted Thinking child-function development during interviews.

This is a clear distinction between ESFP and ESTP, who have an Introverted Thinking parent. ESTPs enjoy logically organizing information. Kitten gets bored with theory.

4) Kitten's job, youthful appearance and Twitter behavior struck me as very similar to ESFP women in the wild.

That same experience had taught me that ESTP and ESFP are easy to mistype for one another. So I was extra vigilant in rejecting the possibility she's ESTP.

With interaction styles, typing is quicker and more conclusive than this thread would suggest. Typing Kitten was much easier than convincing her that she's an ESFP.

The letters alone mean nothing. How do they map her own cognitive experience???

Kitten had reason for discomfort with the ESFP conclusion. She doesn't see herself as a hypersensitive feeler at all. How come the "feeler" F type?

Everyone has feelings. But the Feeling *function* is about value preferences - personal (introverted) or collective (extroverted).

Why care about cognitive type? Because it gives you POWER in:

- personal development
- life satisfaction and material success
- relationships
- communication
- sales and marketing
- management

And all else that is about people.

Interaction Styles are the way for ANYONE to type people quickly and easily, without ever having read Jung or any other author.

And the book is just about 50 pages. It really is so easy to understand.

amazon.com/Understanding-…

1. Type tests require little preparation, but you will need to test everyone you're interested in.

Imagine asking people to take a test before doing a sales pitch. Not even remotely feasible when it matters.

Worse, tests are INACCURATE, especially for "socially unwieldy" types.

Cognitive type tests ask many social questions, but disregard differences in type expression driven by gender biology and social norms.

Which is a big reason why test results are so often wrong.

https://twitter.com/startupdaemon/status/992496981409959937

INTJ women exemplify the failure of cognitive type tests.

Although fundamentally nonconformist, INTJ women put personal goals before the need to "express" their individuality. Because of their individuality, they also tend to be very feminine. And don't fit the test.

Undeveloped INTJ males commonly act out Fi child because for them it's more socially acceptable to do so. Because the social cost to realizing objectives is lower, even negative.

This leads to a huge disparity in test accuracy AND cognitive development relative to INTJ women.

Test statistics say INTJ women are the least common of the 32 personality types. But this is almost certainly wrong.

Experience shows that INTJ women are a lot more common in the wild than the statistics would lead you to believe. And friendly!

2. Interaction styles are the easiest method to type ANYONE you can observe online or off.

You have many indicators to pick from, you need few to get the type. This makes interaction styles very powerful.

They are fantastic on accuracy relative to cost of learning & doing.

3. Cognitive functions are hardest to learn and most difficult to do. The cost/accuracy ratio is bad.

You can apply this method to type infants fairly well, after reading a lot about it. Using it with developed people requires interviews.

Good news is you don't have to use it.

With @KittenHoliday, we were twice lucky when using cognitive functions.

- Kitten was unusually self-aware of her cognitive development.
- I was already looking for an ESTP/ESFP differential on several dimensions.

But we still had to use other methods to ensure accuracy.

4. Behavioral experience is a typing tool which is probably best for professionals and the gifted.

For best results, you need a strong Extroverted Intuition (or at least Extroverted Feeling) and still lots of experience typing people online and off.

Cognitive development is a powerful way to improve your life, personally and professionally.

It doesn't require a gym membership or expensive online courses.

Because my newsletter is FREE.

startupdaemon.net/signp