Personality Types

Without passing any judgement at all on the current, well known personality types such as the Myers-Briggs (Jungian) and Enneagrams (Riso and Hudson) - [I'm a n ENFP and by all accounts, a off-the-charts 6 (an accusation I dispute, by the way), if you're wondering].

I'd like to suggest a new personality type assigned specifically to work-product - what you produce as a result of what you do.

I'm normally one to shun categorization, but lately, I've begun to apply these personality types toward work-product. 

Type 1 attitude is when you just want to get by, or pretend to get by, or be able to claim to have gotten by - or at a minimum to avoid blame for not having gotten by.  I see this attitude in myself when doing things I dislike, like yard work.   The upside to this attitude is minimizing the time spent doing unpleasant things.  The downside is shoddy work-product and a lot of stress around fear of judgement or adverse repercussions.

Type 2 attitude is when you want what you do to be perfect and devote tremendous effort to getting it done absolutely flawlessly.  I see this attitude in myself when I do things I love that have a highly public nature about them, like preparing to give public talks, or writing things that will be permanently recorded or have future repurcussions.  The upside to this attitude is excellent work product and self-fulfillment through the work product.  The downside is something we all know well: perfectionism - wasting lots of time on minutely incremental improvements.

Type 3 is a blending of the two.

I don't know about you, but lately, I've been noticing more and more Type 1's.  I know everyone needs a job, but I wish the jobs were more interesting and would allow these poor, trodding souls to gallivant through their day from time to time and visit Type 2 every now and then.

I know radical Type 2's can be as damaging as Type 1's, but normally they're enthusiastic, if somewhat time-insensitive.