Five years later. (PS. Getting Things Done FAST)

Five years ago (February 2004): Advanced Big 30 Personality Test Results Sociability ||||||||||||||| 50% Gregariousness |||||||||||||||||| 58% Assertiveness |||||||||||| 38% Activity Level |||||||||||||||||| 54% Excitement-Seeking |||||||||||||||||| 54% Enthusiasm ||||||||||||||||||||| 70% Extroversion |||||||||||||||||| 54% Trust ||||||||||||||||||||| 66% Morality |||||||||||||||||| 54% Altruism |||||||||||||||||| 58% Cooperation ||||||||||||||||||||| 62% Modesty ||||||||||||||||||||| 62% Sympathy ||||||||||||||||||||| 66% Friendliness ||||||||||||||||||||| 61% Competence |||||||||||||||||| 54% Neatness ||||||||||||||||||||| 62% Dutifulness |||||||||||||||||| 58% Achievement ||||||||||||||| 42% Self-Discipline ||||||||| 30% Cautiousness |||||||||||||||||| 54% Orderliness ||||||||||||||| 50% Anxiety ||||||||||||||||||||| 70% Anger ||||||||||||||| 42% Depression |||||||||||||||||| 54% Self-Consciousness |||||||||||||||||||||||| 74% Impulsiveness |||||||||||||||||| 54% Vulnerability ||||||||||||||||||||| 66% Emotional Stability |||||||||||| 40% Imagination |||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 82% Artistic Interests |||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 86% Emotionality |||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 86% Adventurousness ||||||||||||||||||||| 70% Intellect |||||||||||||||||||||||| 74% Liberalism ||||||||||||||||||||| 70% Openmindedness |||||||||||||||||||||||| 78%

Today (February 2009): Advanced Big 30 Personality Test Results Sociability ||| 9% Aggressiveness |||||||||||||||||||||||| 72% Assertiveness ||||||||| 27% Activity Level |||||||||||| 33% Excitement-Seeking ||| 5% Enthusiasm |||||||||||||||||| 60% Extroversion |||||||||||| 34% Trust |||||||||||| 40% Morality ||||||||||||||||||||| 67% Altruism ||| 4% Cooperation |||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 89% Modesty |||||||||||||||||| 57% Sympathy ||||||||| 22% Accommodation ||||||||||||||| 46% Confidence |||||| 14% Neatness |||||| 16% Dutifulness |||||||||||| 33% Achievement |||||| 16% Self-Discipline ||||||||| 21% Cautiousness ||||||||||||||||||||| 62% Orderliness ||||||||| 27% Anxiety |||||||||||||||||| 59% Volatility ||||||||||||||| 49% Depression |||||||||||||||||| 55% Self-Consciousness |||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 82% Impulsiveness ||||||||||||||| 47% Vulnerability |||||||||||||||||||||||| 78% Emotional Stability |||||||||||| 39% Imagination ||||||||||||||||||||| 62% Artistic Interests |||||||||||||||||||||||| 75% Introspection ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 95% Adventurousness |||||||||||| 39% Intellect |||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 84% Liberalism |||||||||||||||||||||||||||| 82% Openmindedness |||||||||||||||||||||||| 72% Take Free Advanced Big 30 Personality Test personality tests by similarminds.com

Summary:

Extroversion 54% -> 34%

Friendliness 61% -> 46%

Orderliness 50% -> 27%

Emotional Stability 40% -> 39%

Openmindedness 78% -> 72%

Hum. I can't say that it's particularly accurate in reflecting the changes that college has wrought in me. If you'll notice, the first three percentages above moved away from near the middle, 50%, to lower values. When in fact I would say that these three should have increased a little over the past five years.

Perhaps this just reflects a greater self-awareness; back then, I might have been just reluctant to admit that I wasn't as extroverted, friendly, or orderly as I thought I ought to be! Maybe they seemed rather more desirable to my younger self than they do now, to me.

Other weird details:

Sociability 50% -> 9%

Gregariousness 58% -> Aggressiveness 72%

Excitement-seeking 54% -> 5%

Neatness 62% -> 16%

Altruism 58% -> 4%

Adventurousness 70% -> 39%

So, yeah, closer inspection seems to indicate that this latest set of results is rather more inaccurate than I was expecting it to be. Maybe I'm not in a typical frame of mind right now, etc, etc.

In other news, although I was listening to Getting Things Done Fast almost the whole day, I didn't really get anything done except for some raket work. To be fair, though, what David Allen is saying makes a lot of sense, but right now I realize that I may have just been procrastinating with some "productivity porn". We'll see, we'll see, maybe I'll get around to implementing his Getting Things Done system in some form or other eventually (ZTD or Zen to Done is a rather appealing simplification, for example).