Gretchen Rubin's Four Tendencies & Mustachians

[koshtra]

Questioner?

[dragoncar]

Does anyone else think of these sorts of quizzes as gimmicky? 

I don't think it's possible to distill a complex human personality into one of four boxes.  I think most people probably fit each of these categories at different times of life and with respect to different issues. 

I mean yes people have tendencies, some more than others, but most people cannot be over simplified in this fashion. I certainly cannot.

I think inventing some sort of scientifically worthless pop-psychology quiz is a GREAT way to get your name in a bunch of sound-byte type articles and TV shows and sell a bunch of repetitive books that are either common sense or dumb down real psychological research.  So it's useful for Gretchen Rubin to come up with these categories but a waste of time for me to think about them.

As an example, I am definitely not a rebel but I am also not taking her dumb quiz.

Omg you’re such an INTJ

OMG like such an Aries.

https://youtu.be/lEYSd_Sb8b0

[oldladystache]

rebel. I didn't give my email address, since I'm a rebel, but I got the results anyhow.

[dragoncar]

rebel. I didn't give my email address, since I'm a rebel, but I got the results anyhow.

haha, glad I'm not the only one who just clicked "next".  If it was a hard firewall I probably would have just given up, and my "tendency" would be "Quitter"

[barbaz]

If you’re thinking, “Well, right now I question the validity of the Four Tendencies framework,” yep, you’re probably a Questioner!

Ha, she got me there.

[E.T.]

Rebel. And INTJ. Quizzes are dumb but fun. I liked this sentence: "Rebels resist habits, but they can embrace habit-like behaviors by tying their actions to their choices and their identity." I think of myself as a person of habit but I also live in line with my personal values. I am very opinionated and have a strong identity that drives my choices but I don't like legalistic thinking.

[Sailor Sam]

rebel. I didn't give my email address, since I'm a rebel, but I got the results anyhow.

I found the email address yourmom@yourmom.com worked perfectly well.

[mathlete]

Does anyone else think of these sorts of quizzes as gimmicky? 

I don't think it's possible to distill a complex human personality into one of four boxes.  I think most people probably fit each of these categories at different times of life and with respect to different issues. 

I mean yes people have tendencies, some more than others, but most people cannot be over simplified in this fashion. I certainly cannot.

I think inventing some sort of scientifically worthless pop-psychology quiz is a GREAT way to get your name in a bunch of sound-byte type articles and TV shows and sell a bunch of repetitive books that are either common sense or dumb down real psychological research.  So it's useful for Gretchen Rubin to come up with these categories but a waste of time for me to think about them.

As an example, I am definitely not a rebel but I am also not taking her dumb quiz.

I love this post so much, I could kiss it.

Introspection is a great quality, but taking a quiz that sorts you into a large, easily understandable category is shallow introspection. Still good, but shallow.

It's in our nature, humans at large, and posters on this forum specifically, to seek out low hanging fruit. It's the most bang for your buck. You can see this on the Amazon Non-Fiction best sellers list all the time. "The Clean 20", "The 12 Rules for Life", "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People", "The 5 Love Languages". Readers crave the type of wisdom that can be distilled into an enumerated list.

Picking low hanging fruit great, but only so long as there is still fruit down there to pick.

[hadabeardonce]

rebel. I didn't give my email address, since I'm a rebel, but I got the results anyhow.

Same. Apparently I resist everything... and therefore have no faith in the validity of this quiz.

http://time.com/4938409/four-tendencies-gretchen-rubin-rebels/

[dragoncar]

rebel. I didn't give my email address, since I'm a rebel, but I got the results anyhow.

I found the email address yourmom@yourmom.com worked perfectly well.

How did you know my moms email address?

[undercover]

Does anyone else think of these sorts of quizzes as gimmicky? 

Yes, but no less than any other human attempt to compartmentalize extremely complex behaviors with limited information (IE the whole of psychology).

I don't think it's possible to distill a complex human personality into one of four boxes.  I think most people probably fit each of these categories at different times of life and with respect to different issues. 

I mean yes people have tendencies, some more than others, but most people cannot be over simplified in this fashion. I certainly cannot.

I think leaving it at "tendencies" is fair. Of course it's not very scientific or conclusive but you don't need 200 questions asking basically the same thing in a different way to determine where someone leans. But I knew what I'd get before going in too.

I think inventing some sort of scientifically worthless pop-psychology quiz is a GREAT way to get your name in a bunch of sound-byte type articles and TV shows and sell a bunch of repetitive books that are either common sense or dumb down real psychological research.  So it's useful for Gretchen Rubin to come up with these categories but a waste of time for me to think about them.

I agree.

I think the main problem with these types quizzes/questionnaires isn't so much the validity of the result but what exactly in the hell do you do with the result.

[Dee]

I got upholder. I have the book, borrowed from the library. I'm unlikely to get to it. So far, the 4 tendencies are not really speaking to me at all. I see how I got upholder - I am very interested in complying with formal rules and I honour commitments I make to myself when I do make them (which is rare because it's hard to honour those commitments) but, well, that's it. Obeying rules and people-pleasing are not the same. I may be closest to that tendency but I don't strongly identify with it.

[the_fixer]

According to your answers, your dominant Tendency is Questioner.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[DS]

Sith Lord

[HenryDavid]

Questioner.
Gave AN email address, but not a real one. Anything in the format of an address will work. Like with airport wifi.
Ya don’t share yer real info with strangers.

[StarBright]

Obliger here (but I feel that it is strongly because I was socialized that way in childhood). I am specifically into the idea of Mustachianism so that I won't have to oblige anyone for much longer!

INFJ, Aries, and Type A as well.

None of which really fits together very well so - it's all bunk!

[UnleashHell]

Does anyone else think of these sorts of quizzes as gimmicky? 

I don't think it's possible to distill a complex human personality into one of four boxes.  I think most people probably fit each of these categories at different times of life and with respect to different issues. 

I mean yes people have tendencies, some more than others, but most people cannot be over simplified in this fashion. I certainly cannot.

I think inventing some sort of scientifically worthless pop-psychology quiz is a GREAT way to get your name in a bunch of sound-byte type articles and TV shows and sell a bunch of repetitive books that are either common sense or dumb down real psychological research.  So it's useful for Gretchen Rubin to come up with these categories but a waste of time for me to think about them.

As an example, I am definitely not a rebel but I am also not taking her dumb quiz.

Omg you’re such an INTJ

hahah.

and blood type?

[use2betrix]

Upholder- probably part of what makes me successful, and stressed in my career. I hold myself to a high standard, and I am diligent about completing all (reasonable) tasks required of me. The stressful part is being a position of managing and overseeing others, and having a hard time comprehending how so many others can just blatantly not perform important, and required tasks within their job scope. My diet and workout routine has been structured nearly flawlessly for a decade. Go months and months without missing a scheduled gym day (I’ve worked 70-80 hrs a week the last 5 months, making all planned workouts). I have no problem doing new or different things, but on average, I stick to my very clear routine.

[wageslave23]

Does anyone else think of these sorts of quizzes as gimmicky? 

I don't think it's possible to distill a complex human personality into one of four boxes.  I think most people probably fit each of these categories at different times of life and with respect to different issues. 

I mean yes people have tendencies, some more than others, but most people cannot be over simplified in this fashion. I certainly cannot.

I think inventing some sort of scientifically worthless pop-psychology quiz is a GREAT way to get your name in a bunch of sound-byte type articles and TV shows and sell a bunch of repetitive books that are either common sense or dumb down real psychological research.  So it's useful for Gretchen Rubin to come up with these categories but a waste of time for me to think about them.

As an example, I am definitely not a rebel but I am also not taking her dumb quiz.

Yep all these "personality quizzes" are of almost zero predictive/applicable value.  They might as well ask "are you inquisitive?" If you answered yes, you are an inquisitor.  But people and companies like this b.s. because everyone wants to learn more about themselves and to be given a label so that they have an identity. 

[mtnrider]

To continue on this old thread with a relevant post - the four tendencies were just brought up in the pre-FIRE checklist thread.

First - I test as a Questioner.

I have a slightly different take on the above post.  Sure, these tests like Myers Briggs, the Four Tendencies, 16 Personalities are not scientific.  And yeah, they have limited predictive power, although I'd be curious to see lab testing done for the Four Tendencies, like had been done for Myers Briggs.  But, I find the responses useful as cultural phenomenon.  They get people talking.  They might even get people introspecting a little.  And if one believes in the ability to change*, it can help give people a target.

* I do think people can change, although I vaguely remember that Rubin said she thinks people don't change types

That said, many people who know me guess I'd be an Upholder.  I must must radiate that.  I do love me some plans and schedules.  It's not love for the act of planning though, but because over the years I've come to find the future mtnrider will be disappointed with current mtnrider if he hasn't completed that thing he really wants to do, and binge-watched Jessica Jones instead.  Or went too deep into the rabbit hole of personality types. :0  The plans and schedules are great tools for future mtnrider to feel that satisfaction.

When I was 18, I'd bet I would have tested as a rebel.  Maybe most teens would?  I had an awaking moment just before I turned 21 - maybe because my mind was becoming more fully formed (?) - and gradually morphed into my current set of behaviors. 

[mistymoney]

I stopped before completing this.

1 - the answer choices were so obvious it was hard to think about what I might do vs what she was trying to do

2 - my likely actions were of the very none of the above. or maybe some combo of two, minus this and that, plus some exta nuances.

[Focus_on_the_fire]

The first time I took it, I came up with obliger. The second time I was a rebel. Makes complete sense. I typically can go along for a while until I get fed up and then I’m done.

[jnw]

I am definitely a mix of both upholder and questioner.. all the best aspects of each of course :)

I started questioning my doctor and dietary nutritionist when they recommended plenty of "whole grains", being a diabetic.  Good thing I did, I reversed my diabetes and got off all diabetes medications with dietary change alone: grain elimination. 

[GreenSheep]

The first time I took it, I came up with obliger. The second time I was a rebel. Makes complete sense. I typically can go along for a while until I get fed up and then I’m done.

She has talked about exactly that on her podcast. She calls it "obliger rebellion."

[mtnrider]

"obliger rebellion."

I really like Gretchen Rubin, and I listened to her podcast for a few years when it first started.

I totally could be wrong, but it seemed to me that she created a relatively straightforward model of behavior through careful thought and examination.  I find that model useful and interesting.  But when holes were discovered in the model, she started complicating the model, accreting stuff to it.  It's not quite a Ptolemaic system yet, but it seems to be edging in that direction.

BTW: Rubin has a bunch of good practical advice on her podcast, two come to mind right now 1) the 2 minute rule - if you notice something needs to be done and it can be done in 2 minutes, just do it now; and 2) when trying to avoid sugary foods - some people need to know they can access them but won't pig out, others will eat the whole pie in one sitting (me!) and just can't have it around.