What's in a Label?

All the vocational test I took in school indicated I should have been a Forest Ranger. I turned out to be an Attorney. I still love to go walking in the woods though.

Fuel has posted a link to the Myers -Brigg personality type test and there is an interesting conversation going on in his comments about the "best" personality type for a poker player. Felicia has written about this before but it is always a good time to revisit the idea that there may be more to learning a skill than merely reading about how to do it and then practicing. Some may have to make radical attitude adjustments.

I am an INTP by the way (which was what I was years ago when I first too the test for waht it's worth).

(From various sources)
INTPs are

They are the "absent-minded professors", who highly value intelligence and the ability to apply logic to theories to find solutions.

They're very tolerant and flexible in most situations, unless one of their firmly held beliefs has been violated or challenged, in which case they may take a very rigid stance. The INTP is likely to be very shy when it comes to meeting new people. On the other hand, the INTP is very self-confident and gregarious around people they know well, or when discussing theories which they fully understand.

A major concern for INTPs is the haunting sense of impending failure. They spend considerable time second-guessing themselves. The open-endedness (from Perceiving) conjoined with the need for competence (NT) is expressed in a sense that one's conclusion may well be met by an equally plausible alternative solution, and that, after all, one may very well have overlooked some critical bit of data. An INTP arguing a point may very well be trying to convince himself as much as his opposition. In this way INTPs are markedly different from INTJs, who are much more confident in their competence and willing to act on their convictions. (THere are a lot of INTJs over at Fule's site)

Famous INTPs:

Socrates
Rene Descartes
Blaise Pascal
Sir Isaac Newton
James Madison
William Harvey (pioneer in human physiology)
C. G. Jung, (Freudian defector, author of Psychological Types, etc.)
William James
Albert Einstein
Henri Mancini
Bob Newhart
Rick Moranis (Honey, I Shrunk The Kids)
Midori Ito (ice skater, Olympic silver medalist)
Tiger Woods

Fictional INTPs

Filburt (Rocko's Modern Life)

As children, INTPs are inwardly focused, often enjoying their won thoughts more than the company of others. They are full of questions, sometimes voiced, most often not. INTP children often challenge and even stump their elders. They enjoy fantasy, mysteries, inventing, thinking and doing things that may be somewhat atypical for other children of their age, and they sense their uniqueness early on. If INTPs are fond of books or games, it is likely that their choices will be the current rage. If and INTP is fond of music, it is likely to be of and unusual sort.