Self-discovery Starter Pack
I would do those two things starting once again with self-discovery.
Dear Reader,
Before writing my first post, I worried I wouldn't have any ideas for future content.
While writing the post, I generated about 15 new ideas for future posts.
Now, my worry is deciding which one to write about first!
I hope you’ll like the topic I prepared for you!
Best, Patryk
In today’s post, we’ll cover something elementary and, at the same time, extremely valuable both for personal development and the development of the LLM-based personal assistant we discussed last time.
In today's post, we'll explore personality assessments. They offer perhaps the easiest entry point into the world of self-discovery - at least, that's what I found when I began my own journey. As mentioned in the subtitle, this is definitely the approach I would take if I were starting again. Furthermore, these tests provide one of the most time-efficient ways to generate an information-rich context for LLM models.
Q: So, what are the personality assessments?
Claude: Personality assessments are standardized tools designed to measure and categorize different aspects of human behavior, thinking patterns, and emotional tendencies through questionnaires and structured evaluations. These assessments attempt to provide insights into how people typically think, feel, and behave by mapping responses onto established frameworks that describe different personality dimensions or types, though it's important to note that any single assessment provides just one perspective on the complex nature of human personality.
The last sentence is a very important one - those assessments are only tools that provide an approximation of reality. Personally, I think about the results in a Bayesian way. The more evidence I have of specific personality traits, the more accurate my beliefs about them are, and I act accordingly. So, I really encourage you to keep exploring and gathering more evidence1.
And to provide you, Dear Reader, with some options, today we’ll talk about the following tools:
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
Gallup StrengthsFinder
Other alternatives like Red Bull Wingfinder, Big Five, RMP
Disclaimer: I’m not associated with any of the recommended tools. They are simply so good that it’s hard not to recommend them.
Now, let’s begin!
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was the first personality assessment test I took. It’s usually my first recommendation for anyone interested in starting self-discovery work - it’s free, takes only 20 minutes, and has a rich library of materials.
Q: What is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment?
Claude: The assessment is based on Carl Jung's theory of psychological types and categorizes personalities into 16 distinct types using four key dichotomies:
(E)xtraversion / (I)ntroversion,
I(n)tuition / (S)ensing,
(T)hinking / (F)feeling,
(J)udging / (P)erceiving.
Each combination, like INTJ or ESFP, offers insights into how you process information, make decisions, and interact with the world around you. Understanding your type can help explain why you might feel energized by group brainstorming sessions while your colleague prefers solitary problem-solving or why you tend to make decisions based on logical analysis while others rely more on their gut feelings.
If you haven’t done it yet, I recommend doing that here:
Once you complete the assessment, you should see the following screen:
The results of the MBTI personality assessment display a personality persona on the left, containing additional information about roles and strategies, while the right side offers more detailed information on traits. As you can observe, many buttons, such as “Learn more” and question marks, lead to additional knowledge.
Personally, when I took the test for the first time, it was my “aha” moment as I realized how much different people's perceptions of the world could be. Probably, the most classical example is a distinction between “Introverts” and “Extroverts.” As an introvert, my reception of stimuli is much stronger than for extroverts, and after a three-day long conference, I’m more keen to stay at home or enjoy alone walks at parks for the next few days rather than enjoy the next meet-up or social gathering. Now, it’s normal for me. I do understand that, and I plan accordingly. However, it was not true a few years ago.
Moreover, it is interesting that the results are not set in stone2 - they change as we change as individuals, which is clearly visible in my results:
As you can observe from my example, for many years3, I was an INFJ personality type. While some traits are still very similar (Introvert, Intuitive, Judging), there was a significant change in my Feeling vs. Thinking and Turbulent vs. Assertive patterns. Firstly, it seems that I started to be more rational and let my brain decide more than my heart. Secondly, I became more assertive!
Gallup StrengthsFinder
If I were to start my self-discovery journey again, Gallup StrengthsFinder would be my first choice. In fact, I have been so obsessed with this particular assessment that I encouraged my team at work to do it. After that, together, we created a map of the team's strongest traits, leading to much better collaboration between us. For me (and some of my colleagues, too), Gallup StrengthsFinder was a real game-changer, and while it cost 25/60 USD, the price was definitely worth it.
Q: What is Gallup StrengthsFinder, then?
Claude: It is a personality assessment tool that identifies a person's natural talents and potential strengths. The assessment consists of 177 paired statements, ultimately revealing the top 5 strengths from a list of 34 possible themes. These themes are grouped into four domains: Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building, and Strategic Thinking. Unlike other personality tests, StrengthsFinder's philosophy emphasizes developing one's inherent talents into strengths. It is based on the belief that people are more productive and successful when they build on their natural abilities rather than trying to fix their weaknesses.
If I convinced you that the assessment is worth doing, you can find it here:
The results of the assessment look as follows:
Each tile represents a Gallup Talent, which - depending on how high it ranks on your list - reveals your greatest strengths. In my case, it’s Ideation, Input, Learner, Achiever, and Futuristic. This roughly means that I’m good at inventing things, gathering things, learning things, making things, and thinking about the future of things.
But there is more. One of the very surprising aspects was that those talents can be both productive and unproductive. For example, while generating ideas is generally valuable, it can become counterproductive during group decision-making when the Ideation persona introduces too many new possibilities. New ideas can lead to analysis paralysis, preventing the group from reaching a conclusion.
There is much more. My favorite aspect of these talents is the interaction between them. For example, my Ideation and Futuristic talents blend such that I can easily generate various scenarios for a possible future. Another example is my combination of Input and Learner talents, which led me to create a personal knowledge base where I store all the different pieces of knowledge collected from anywhere.
There is much, much more.
But start small by reading the detailed description of your personalized TOP5 report and then the full report to better understand the basics. Then, dive deeper into additional resources and exercises that allow you to extend your knowledge about yourself. I personally recommend the official podcast and, for Polish-speaking folks, the content4 produced by Dominik Juszczyk.
Alternatives
MBTI and Gallup are not the only options available. I personally experimented with a few others, though I didn’t spend much time exploring them in depth. However, they might still be of use to you. The list goes as follows:
The Big Five emerged from empirical research, and it’s an interesting alternative to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment. Red Bull Wingfinder focuses on your strengths and the things that you’re naturally inclined to be good at. It might be considered a free alternative to Gallup. Reiss Motivation Profile is a scientifically developed approach to measure human intrinsic motivation.
Referring back to Self-discovery with LLMs
I mentioned those personality assessments in the “Output of Self-Discovery Work” section, which was one of the main motivations for this post.
But how do I use that knowledge?
For MBTI, I copy pasted everything from the “Your Profile” section.
For Gallup, I copy pasted everything from CliftonStrengths Top 5 Report.
With the above-mentioned data and the system prompt from the previous post, the model is now better equipped to provide more personalized and meaningful responses, especially in the area of self-discovery. You can check the results using an example from the previous post, i.e.
Q: Based on my unique personality traits and talents described in the attachments, what would be my ideal work environment?
Let me know how your conversation went!
The next post will cover data collection using “week summaries.”
PS After subscribing, you should get the welcome email. Unfortunately, I learned it might go to the SPAM folder - please check if it’s a case for you, and if so, please add the newsletter email address to contacts or simply respond to the email5.
Personality assessments are not the only option for gathering valuable information. I really recommend mindfulness practices for that purpose. You can check them yourself, or we’ll cover that in one of the future posts.
Some criticize that they change too easily, while I did not experience that—keep that in mind when interpreting.
I did the test many years before 2021 but don’t have detailed results saved in the profile.
Personally, I love the book "Time for Your Strengths." Unfortunately, it is no longer available, but some of the information can be found on Dominik’s page or in courses.
Great post! I love the idea of using test results to personalize the output of LLM, it’s really interesting. I’ve done some tests myself, but I struggled to turn the insights into something actionable. Thanks for the inspiration!
For someone without a technical background, it’s a little tricky to understand how to properly work with such type of prompts in LLMs. Some step-by-step guide would be really helpful! 😊
Love it. Very interesting approach. Interesting that for one of my past job interviews I was asked to do MBTI and...it was really good. Very eye-opening!