This Morning, the Very Short List (best newsletter going, IMO) linked to something called the “Pierley/Redford Personality Test“. Which is possibly the most bizarre, and in some ways, troubling test I’ve ever taken. And I love personality-typing tests, so I’ve taken lots of them. This one involves a series of pairs of shapes, along with a text. So you always choose shape A or shape B as being correct. The questions are bizarre, like “Where is the sin?” or “Am I You?”. I’m not sure if there’s anything to it, or if it’s no different than the million Facebook “which ${Movie Character} from ${Movie} are you?” quizzes. After taking the test, this was my result, which is more or less right:
You are in a perpetual quest to find the new, the exciting. Emotionally volatile, you are known for sudden changes of opinion, of appreciation, and behavior. Following rules and established methods is difficult for you and the difficulties of higher education are usually quite daunting. Knowledge is best gained through an intimate association with the matter at hand. Usually driven by attitudes and desires of the group, you are talented in an established field of endeavor. Emotions come and go without a strong understanding of their causes. They are unexpected guests in an otherwise placid landscape. You live by your own codes of conduct, which can be noble or terrible depending on the individual. Authority is meaningless to you. You hate to be predictable, at all costs. Rarely verbally effusive, you can at times feel as if your feelings are too deep for words. You are very observant, but rarely express these observations to others.
Check it out, let me know what you think of it.
Thoughtful to the extreme, you are often obsessed with perfection and the rules governing your own personal interests. Your world is black and white. You love to work within a logical system, such as language, computer programming, or mathematics. Manipulating a system that can be completely understood is a distinct pleasure to you, because of your confidence in the underlying veracity of your belief system. Because of your appreciation for logic and order, those who speak or think in a sloppy manner are apt to generate more than their share of wrath. Although very amiable, you are not drawn to friendships out of a sense of personal need. You are just as happy by yourself with a good book or puzzle. Because you are so involved with thought, you will on occasion have difficulty dealing with the day-to-day problems of a normal life. Taking out the trash, doing the dishes, these are often left until the last possible moment, if at all. – lav
Weird as hell. My diagnosis:
“Quiet and very self-assured, you tend to keep your own council. Pragmatic and practical to a fault, you are not one to worry about the finer points of philosophical discourse. In fact, because you are very much an individualist, you often finds yourself at odds with the established truth or the wishes of the majority. You will often earn the wrath of an employer by taking upon yourself decisions which are rightly those of your manager. You are not one to take credit unless it is deserved. Similarly however, you will also not happily give credit where it is not due. In a romantic relationship you can be very frustrating. While you do care deeply and sincerely, and are willing to work at a relationship, your confidence in your own abilities can on occasion make it difficult to see the world from a partner’s point of view. Quiet and stoic at times, you can drive a more emotional individual completely up the wall. You can become overstressed and fatigued without knowing it. Taking time to rest between bouts of hard work can help to prevent a breakdown later on.”
I can see some truths there but also some stuff that I’d take issue with. Given the vagueness of the questions and my inability to see a clear answer to many of them, I’d treat this with as much respect as I’d treat a horoscope. Although they would probably point out that my diagnosis predicts that 🙂
Don’t get too concerned about it. I believe it’s just a piece of random fun: http://www.topdownview.com/2011/04/the-pierley-redford-personality-test/
I was actually looking for this test, because I love it and it was SO weird and cool to me! Â I think that if anyone takes the test as quickly as they can, it’ll be more accurate. Â Taking it slowly just means you ponder the bizarreness of the questions and don’t answer them the way you should.