I'll provide a simple application of personality types that is probably relevant to a lot of people on this board.

Most of us are on this board are N's - which is an iNtuitive as opposed to a Senser. This axis has a lot to do with how you absorb information about the world and how you learn. How many of you have had this situation:

Someone asks you how to do something on the computer. This same person has asked you how to do something similar in the past. You don't understand why you have to give them step by step directions for every little task. Don't they understand that it's like the other programs and this thing they want to do is in the File menu or is a right click or whatever. On the other hand, this person asking you the question is annoyed that you can't just give them easy step by step directions. Why do you have to give them a dissertation on how something works just to answer a question?

This is an illustration of N vs. S. The iNtuitive tends to learn by understanding how something how something works. Then, from that understanding, the iNtuitive can figure out how to do a specific task. The Senser tends to be proceduraly oriented and learns from sensory input and repetition.

I used to have tremendous difficulty in teaching my mom how to use her computer. The scenerio above is lifted out of my dealings with her. Then I realized the failing was that I was trying to teach her the way I learn. But my mom is a strong S and it only frustrated her. Now I walk through things with my mom giving her step by step directions. We're both a lot less frustrated now and she's much more adept at using the computer. She's not stupid and now she is capable of seeing how a procedure in one app relates to another. But she had to get to that point in her way - not mine. It was an understanding of personality types that led me to this realization.

What I wrote above isn't rocket science and many of you have probalby encountered similiar situations and resolved it with common sense. My point is to show the application goes beyond putting people into sixteen buckets. Recognizing archetypes and recognizing behavior patterns can allow you to quickly resolve situations such as above without months of frustration as my mom and I endured.

-Dylan