World Socionics

Ayn Rand (born Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum) was a Russian-American novelist, screenwriter, playwright, newspaper columnist, and philosopher, best known for her two bestselling novels, The Fountainhead (1943) and Atlas Shrugged (1957), and for the philosophical system she developed, called Objectivism . The Fountainhead gave her widespread "mainstream" success and even acclaim, but Atlas Shrugged and her non-fiction writings on Objectivism made her a polarising political and cultural figure, even after her death at 77 in 1982. To some extent that remains true to this day - at least in the United States, where she remains a household name. Her cultural impact in other countries seems to be negligible; on the other hand her two main novels remain in print in the UK and can be found even in smaller bookshops. Life and work : Born in St Petersburg in 1905 in a Jewish family of upper-middle-class means - her father owned a small business - Rand's worldview was, by her o...

Samuel Benjamin "Sam" Harris  is an author, philosopher and neuroscientist, known for being one of the 'Four Horsemen of New Atheism' alongside Christopher Hitchens ( ESI ), Richard Dawkins ( LSE ) and Daniel Dennett ( ILE ). Sam Harris is commonly known for his writings on Atheism, including the award-winning The End of Faith  (2004), where he criticised organised religion, and later responded to criticisms from Christians in America. In its place, he advocates a scientific approach to normative morality. More recently, Harris has turned his attention to Islam as a major focus of critique. He is also known for his irregular podcast Waking Up with Sam Harris , airing since 2013. To get a good view of Sam Harris' type, it is important to first get a good sense of his values, the things that are of import to him, and that which he finds most repugnant. Throughout his work, a consistent theme is valuing an approach to knowledge and our ideas of truth, based ...

John Ellis "Jeb" Bush  is an American businessman and politician who served as the Governor of Florida from 1999 to 2007. Most recently he was an unsuccessful candidate for the nomination as Republican presidential candidate in the 2016 elections. He is the younger brother of former president George W. Bush (ESI) and therefore a son of former president George H.W. Bush ( LSE ). Jeb Bush was, by any standards, a very successful governor of Florida: the first Republican ever to win reelection in that state, leaving office with 64% approval. His administration focused on cutting taxes and spending while seemingly maintaining a balanced budget (as required by the Florida constitution). As that inevitably included cuts in government spending, such as reducing the Florida state workforce by 11%, his approval rate must be considered a remarkable achievement. Jeb Bush's chosen self-image as a politician is that of a competent administrator who focuses on making governme...

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and scientist known for his carefully detailed observations about nature and the physical world, which laid the groundwork for the modern study of biology. He was born around 384 BCE in the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedonia where his father was the royal doctor. He arguably grew up to become the most influential philosopher ever, with modest nicknames like the 'the master' and 'the philosopher'. His first big job was tutoring Alexander the Great ( SLE ), who soon after conquered the known world. Aristotle then headed off to Athens, worked with Plato ( IEI ) for a bit, then branched out on his own. He founded a little school called the Lyceum. French secondary schools - 'the lycees' - are named in honor of this venture.  Aristotle was notably dry and practical, he sought to give advice on how to complete a specific task with efficiency. As such, he formulated a collection of helpful explanations on a variety of topics. Arist...

I have re-watched 'Westworld' recently, the 1973 film directed and written directly for the screen by Michael Crichton . I was struck by how the movie's basic assumptions, so to speak, as well as those of the main character, fit the psychology of LIEs . From other evidence, I think that Crichton was a LIE , so I'm not using the movie as a tool to type him - I intend to show how his type was reflected in the story and characters as he wrote them. As he was the writer as well as director, we can safely attribute the movie, as shot, mainly to him (although it seems that his original script was longer and more detailed). Obviously, as I discuss the movie, there will be *SPOILERS* for those who haven't watched it yet. Those who know the movie, or can't be bothered to read the plot summary, may skip the next 9 paragraphs to the Socionics analysis just below. Summary: "Westworld" describes a theme-based amusement park for wealth...

Hypatia  was a Greek mathematician, astronomer and philosopher who lived in Alexandria, Egypt, in the late 4th - early 5th century, when Egypt was a Roman province. The reliable facts about her life are limited, but they arguably suffice for an idea of her type. Hypatia was the head of the Platonist school of Alexandria; her father, Theon, was also a mathematician who edited and commented on Euclid's works. No works by Hypatia herself survive but besides some historical narratives we have the letters her former student Synesius, as bishop of a neighboring province, wrote to her. They include a request for her to build him a hydrometer, the earliest historical mention of that device, and a discussion on astrolabes. From his letters, and the accounts, it is clear that Hypatia was highly respected not just because of her academic standing but as a person of wisdom and integrity. It is also likely that many among the upper classes of Alexandria had been among her studen...

Yulia Volodymyrivna Tymoshenko is an Ukrainian politician, businesswoman, some would say 'oligarch', twice prime minister, and unsuccessful presidential candidate. She was born and raised in the communist era, when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, having had a modest childhood and upbringing. Having studied economics and married Oleksandr Tymoshenko, Yulia worked as an economics engineers as the Soviet regime started collapsing in 1989. Then, making use of her husband's government connections, they went into private enterprise, first in video rentals, then in oil-and-gas trading. She swiftly became a multimillionaire. Her career in that regard parallels those of the more famous Russian oligarchs: a combination of seizing opportunities, entrepreneurial spirit, and exploiting connections, all in a situation of legal confusion in the chaotic transition of a state-controlled economy to a largely privatized one as well as of the establishment of Ukraine as an i...

As a ge neral observation, I'd say that when typing people like Al-Waleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz al Saud , it's as important to take a step back and look at him from a distance, to get a broad-brush view of him, as it is to observe him closely in videos and interviews. The broad-brush view is this: this is a guy who, having been born in a very privileged social situat ion in a sort-of medieval society - you can hardly be more "privileged and medieval" than as a senior member of the House of Saud in Saudi Arabia - yet decided to build up his own wealth and career himself. He obviously sees creating wealth, and showing off some of it, as big parts of his focus and his life. He likes to see himself, and that is probably largely true (even in his context) as a man for whom work and being productive is core. All of that suggests F as quadra value, and so far nobody suggested anything but Gamma or Beta for him, which I think is right. There is the probl...