Thoughts on MBTI After Two Years
After two years of exploring MBTI, the author realizes personality is less important than expected. Appearance seems to play a more significant role in distinguishing people when they are not familiar. MBTI is becoming stereotypical, and the author decides to treat it as an entertainment tool like constellations.
Thoughts After Two Years of MBTI Exploration
In the two years since I delved into MBTI, I've come to a profound realization: personality is far less important than we might think.
Many traits in a person have little to do with their personality. In interpersonal relationships and romantic choices, personality never takes up a large proportion. When people discuss their ideal types, they often envision someone with a specific personality type (such as gentle, aloof, or neutral). But in reality, these are just stereotypical adjectives.
After observing my own and others' behaviors (I mean peers and normal people), I've found that everyone's state is constantly changing. A gentle person can't be gentle all the time, and a rational person can't be rational forever. So it's really questionable whether a person has a specific and stable personality.
What we see of others is often what they intentionally show. I never idolize celebrities. At most, I appreciate their looks. I would never truly like a stranger wholeheartedly because it's all so untrue. We can't see the real state of a person, so the reasons for liking are still based on looks, image, and temperament.
In the end, I want to emphasize that personality is really not that important. In real life, except for those with extremely obvious personalities, most of the traits people show have little to do with personality.
In a similar environment, people grow and live. How big can the internal differences be? We all study, work, and have fun.
However, appearance is truly important and currently a significant factor in distinguishing people when they are not very familiar with each other.
Or what else can we use to distinguish people?
Admitting this is not a sad thing or a compromise. I used to think people who value appearance are shallow and I was very disdainful and repelled. Personality and inner qualities used to hold a significant place in my heart.
But the truth is not like that. People value appearance not because they are shallow but because it's the most visible and tangible. Other indicators are too homogeneous.
What I find most absurd is that recently, I often see on the internet some people who know little about MBTI labeling people they think are 'aloof, highly intelligent, and highly executive' (like the image of Professor Do in 'My Love from the Star') as INTJ. But in fact, those of us in the group should know whether we are like that in daily life. I can definitely say I'm not.
On second thought, using MBTI for stereotypical descriptions is already much more scientific than using constellations or more generalized adjectives like gentle, aloof, and sunny (at least so far, MBTI seems to be the theory with the highest degree of classification).
Seeing MBTI becoming more and more stereotypical, I have basically abandoned using personality to determine interpersonal relationships. It's a very boring way of choosing. Instead of relying on this, it's better to rely on appearance. In fact, a person's external temperament has little to do with their internal personality... We can't infer personality from temperament either.
In conclusion, I've decided to give up this theory and from now on, just treat it as an entertainment tool like constellations. Goodbye.