The distinction reminds me of the foxes vs hedgehogs model from Superforecasting / Tetlock. Hedgehogs being “great idea thinkers” seeing everything in the light of that one great idea they’re following, whereas foxes are more nuanced, taking in many viewpoints and trying to converge on the most accurate beliefs. I think he mentioned in the book that while foxes tend to make much better forecasters, hedgehogs are not only more entertaining but also good in coming up with good questions to forecast in the first place.
An entirely different thought: The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene was the first audible book I returned without finishing. It was packed with endless “human archetypes” described in great detail, making some rather bold claims about what “this type” will do in some given situation. You mention in the footnotes already that people who dislike e.g. personality profiling tools might not like this post. And it did indeed somewhat remind me of that book, but maybe your “assessor” way of describing the model, as opposed to Greene’s very overconfident seeming way of writing, made this seem much more reasonable. There seems to be a fine line between actually useful models of this kind which have some predictive power (or at least allow thoughts to be a bit tidier), and those that are merely peculiarly entertaining, like Myers-Briggs. And I find it hard to tell from the outside on which side of that line any given model falls.
There seems to be a fine line between actually useful models of this kind which have some predictive power (or at least allow thoughts to be a bit tidier), and those that are merely peculiarly entertaining, like Myers-Briggs. And I find it hard to tell from the outside on which side of that line any given model falls.
I have mixed feelings here. I think I’m more sympathetic to Myers-Briggs when used correctly, than other people. There definitely seems to be some signal that it categorizes (some professions are highly biased towards a narrow part of the spectrum). It doesn’t seem all too different to categorizing philosophy as “continental” vs. “analytical”. It’s definitely not the best categorization, there are some flawed assumptions baked into it (either/or, as opposed to a spectrum, most famously), the org that owns it seems pretty weird, and lots of people make overconfident statements around it, but I think it can serve a role when used correctly.
Anyway, I imagine what we’d really want is a “Big 5 of Intellectuals” or similar. For that, it would be great for someone to eventually do some sort of cluster analysis.
I don’t necessarily recommend that the disagreeables/assessors terminology takes off; I’d prefer it if this can be used for discussion that finds something better.
The distinction reminds me of the foxes vs hedgehogs model from Superforecasting / Tetlock. Hedgehogs being “great idea thinkers” seeing everything in the light of that one great idea they’re following, whereas foxes are more nuanced, taking in many viewpoints and trying to converge on the most accurate beliefs. I think he mentioned in the book that while foxes tend to make much better forecasters, hedgehogs are not only more entertaining but also good in coming up with good questions to forecast in the first place.
An entirely different thought: The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene was the first audible book I returned without finishing. It was packed with endless “human archetypes” described in great detail, making some rather bold claims about what “this type” will do in some given situation. You mention in the footnotes already that people who dislike e.g. personality profiling tools might not like this post. And it did indeed somewhat remind me of that book, but maybe your “assessor” way of describing the model, as opposed to Greene’s very overconfident seeming way of writing, made this seem much more reasonable. There seems to be a fine line between actually useful models of this kind which have some predictive power (or at least allow thoughts to be a bit tidier), and those that are merely peculiarly entertaining, like Myers-Briggs. And I find it hard to tell from the outside on which side of that line any given model falls.
I have mixed feelings here. I think I’m more sympathetic to Myers-Briggs when used correctly, than other people. There definitely seems to be some signal that it categorizes (some professions are highly biased towards a narrow part of the spectrum). It doesn’t seem all too different to categorizing philosophy as “continental” vs. “analytical”. It’s definitely not the best categorization, there are some flawed assumptions baked into it (either/or, as opposed to a spectrum, most famously), the org that owns it seems pretty weird, and lots of people make overconfident statements around it, but I think it can serve a role when used correctly.
Anyway, I imagine what we’d really want is a “Big 5 of Intellectuals” or similar. For that, it would be great for someone to eventually do some sort of cluster analysis.
I don’t necessarily recommend that the disagreeables/assessors terminology takes off; I’d prefer it if this can be used for discussion that finds something better.