Discovering your Architectural Personality
Taking a Myer-Briggs Personality Type indicator test yields great results for personal growth and self-reflection. After having taken the test from 16personalities.com I was pleasantly surprised at the results and how accurately they depict my personality. I learned that am a ‘Revolutionary Architectural Innovator Philosopher who is not so good at Communication and Emotional Connections’, and after a bit of self-reflection I can take the next steps of mastering strengths and weaknesses.
My personality type came-up as INTP-T which is termed ‘The Logician’. This personality type makes up 3% of the population and 11% of architects according to Architect Magazine. INTP’s are known for inventiveness, creativity and unique perspective. This is very much true since I work in a creative profession constantly proposing innovative solutions; generally with a very unique perspective.
This personality type is usually known as ‘the Philosopher, the Architect, or the Dreamy Professor’. I thought this was extremely accurate. Having studied and in the Architecture profession for over 10 years, I have recently began to teach as an Adjunct Professor at the Northern Virginia Community College, and I am an advocate of Philosophy.
Speaking of Philosophers; there is a great number of philosophers that are identified as INTP’s including Immanuel Kant, John Locke, Rene Descartes, Thomas Aquinas and Socrates all of whom I have studied in college. Socrates, for example, makes a lot of sense since he was extremely logical and was executed for refusing to conform to the rules of ‘recognizing Greek Gods’ and being extremely analytical. I know in the past some bosses wanted to execute me as well for not following the office rules, which I thoroughly analyzed and concluded to be and inefficient; example of which would be redundancy in architectural drawings.
I am pleasantly surprised and excited to learn that many INTP’s have been responsible for various scientific discoveries throughout history; most famous of which were Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin and Isaac Newton. I am excited because in recent years I have undertaken several projects in design and architecture that involve a level of research and discovery. Having innovation as the agenda and passion I have proposed innovative ideas to my company CEO which were well received and yielded benefits to the firm and projects.
Part of the reason why Socrates was so stubborn was because INTP’s loathe rules. There is a good number of political thinkers, economists and revolutionists such as Abraham Lincoln, James Madison, Fredrich Hayek and Adam Smith. This is interesting because out of the blue I wrote an economical theorem proposing tax reform called ‘Tax Payer Controlled Distribution - A New System to Individualize Taxation System”. I have also been contemplating about solutions to revitalize architecture industry & architecture education.
This personality type comes with some difficult challenges that I can certainly relate to. INTP’s struggle with communication, emotional connection and are introverted. They tend to live in their heads, constantly analyzing and ruminating; and when they attempt to get those ideas out they have difficulty expressing ideas coherently. Not being able to convey a good explanation of a thought or an idea can create communication issues. This is very unfortunate because some of the most creative thoughts and ideas get lost or are not heard in the process. I can very much relate having experience of great ideas being shut down because of not explaining idea well enough.
INTP’s being very logical and analytical process emotions via reason and logic. This can be problematic in friendships and relationships; effectively allowing for little success in social situations making us more comfortable as introverts.
All this creates quiet a conundrum for success. On one hand INTP’s can be genius innovators tremendously benefiting person, corporations or the society; on the other hand those ideas may never be implemented because of the communication issues. Yet not all is lost and I am confident that by simply practicing empathy and communication skills INTP’s can be trained to be better. This is exciting because a potential of an INTP who is well spoken can be world-changing.
Having taken the personality test and self-reflecting I am able to identify my strengths and identify what to improve on. I would encourage everyone to take a personality test; reflect, embrace your strengths and ask 'how can I improve on my weaknesses?
Links:
Architect Magazine - A Difficult Character
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