And then there's that comment. I LOL'd. Jason, you should disable comments on your blog. Hide your email address somewhere so that people who really need to tell you something have to go look for it, invest some energy.

I have since sickened of corporate political culture and prefer to teach English instead of code. I wrote a program that analyzes executables and automatically reduces the code flow graph in a binary, and have an idea for a radical new compilation strategy.

Free electrons may be only 1.5% of the general population, but of the segment that reads programming blogs on the weekend, I bet they are a much more significant fraction.

Instead of telling me that my boss is an idiot for not keeping me entertained at work, tell me how I can effect the change and be recognized for my rare genius so they give me more interesting problems.

However, each personality type is inherently different and often has problems interacting with the others. You may not realize this, but the Myers-Briggs types include about four different types that are "maybe one percent" of the population, and eight types that collectively make up about ten percent of the population according to Keirsey. There's more than one type that thinks in a radically different way from the rest of the population, and each manner of thinking is just as valid.

Finally, these types merely explain the natural inclinations of that personality type. There is nothing that prevents the subject from learning to understand and interact with others. No type is so important and so crippled that it requires others to bend over backwards to accommodate them.

Do not expect people to change their ways to interact with you. The people who surround you may be just as rare, and even if they're not, they are just as essential. Having people understand you is important, but if you don't understand them, then there's an unhealthy imbalance in the relationship.

This is probably why the Nicholas called your post self-indulgent. You've merely talked about how managers can change to suit you. You briefly discuss how this class of people is rather bad at wrapping up projects and staying on task. And then you ask everyone to acknowledge this and change their business to make life easier for you. That's not a personality, so much as an attitude. I sincerely hope that this is a result of you attempting to focus your article rather than your sincere belief.

But let's add in a hypothetical situation. As a Healer (INFP) who works as a software architect and is very interested in the relationships between employees, if I was in charge of you I would attempt to use your strengths rather than force you to live in your weaknesses. But work requires that we sometimes shoulder tasks that are not our specialty. If you refused to bend on something like this just because you weren't good at it, I would indeed call you out on being "self-indulgent" and "full of crap" in the nicest way I could.

And if you, being the logical person that you are, refused to understand this and at least admit to a needing more effort, I'd probably kick you to the curb. Being bad at something is one thing, but refusing to get better is another.

But this is all hypothetical, and I assume you already know this. But I'll still post it so that some other person doesn't read your article and think it gives him free license to be an ass.

However, I half agree and half disagree with you. Should any one person make others bend over backwards for them? Of course not. However, it is definitely important for people to go out of their way to understand other peoples' motivations and desires. This is true whatever your personality.

Heck, if anyone were to post something similar about other personalities, I'd be happy to read it.

That is exactly the point I wished to make. As always, when working with other people, the onus of understanding is upon one's self. It seems like you are already aware of this. I merely wished to comment in the form of an addendum for your readers who may not be as balanced, more than anything.

It's important to know the optimum situations for each employee, and prepare the best possible environment. However, it's also important for the employee to realize that if he/she is not also attempting to integrate, then no effort to please will be sufficient. Finally, when the pressure is on, it's difficult for even the best managers to maintain the ideal environment. Anyone who can accept this should do rather well, regardless of personality difference or position. I guess managers just seem to get the short end of the stick in online discussions because bad managers are far worse than bad employees.

My own experience is one of spending a lot of time adapting to the will of the majority. Unless one has exceptional circumstances that enable one to maintain isolation from differing personality types, it is simply an unavoidable necessity. However, it's not always easy, and a dearth of reciprocity in this effort can be extremely wearing and, not infrequently, invalidating.

I was close friends with a strong INTP. She had chosen her own way from an early age, including eventually losing a number of relationships. As a result, she was working -- perhaps some might say belatedly -- on better understanding what was going on in the heads and hearts of people around her. I mean, seriously working at it. But it didn't change who she was, and what really motivated her, nor what really dismotivated her. She made genuine effort to meet other people halfway, but she still needed them to traverse the other half of that distance, so that she could keep at least one foot in her comfort zone.

If they didn't, she'd reach her breaking point and cut them off. At least in the short term and on an individual basis, she was very capable of going it on her own. I see this post as an attempt to avoid such circumstances.

P.S. I chose my user name long before this post came up. ;-)