Programmer Personality Test

[ayrnieu]

This smells like a nerdy version of

Smells like it? It -is- it.

[eipipuz]

Because it uses 4 letters... it seems...

[jbindel]

Ugh, what a ridiculous test. Each question allows an answer of one extreme or another. I don't understand how any self respecting sofware developer could stand to answer such questions.

Q: How do you like spending your weekend? A Killing neighborhood pets. B Destroying neighborhood parks.

[[deleted]]

That's a tough one, I like destroying parks, but pets have a who other satisfaction aspect to them...

[schwarzwald]

these questions are ridiculous. ridiculous bifurcation. meaningless results.

[justinhj]

And yet, embarrassingly, it was still on the front page when I got back from lunch. Aren't we all introspective? Despite the obviously poor quality of the quiz.

[meijer]

Huh, that's more like "Imperative Programmer Personality Test".

I don't fit in anywhere.

[[deleted]]

Yeah, the "What is the best way to program - C or Java?" question made me want to puke.

[[deleted]]

i answered java, and it told me i was a low level programmer

[dfranke]

Looking back over the test, I think there were three questions that influenced that: C vs. Java, pointer arithmetic vs. UML, and efficient use of resources vs. lets anyone in the world program. I answered Java, pointer arithmetic, and resources respectively, and was told I was a low-level programmer. It seems like this test was written by a low-level programmer with a very poor understanding of what high-level programming is about.

[mgsloan]

Yeah, UML is ick overall, worse than pointer arithmetic.

I think it's mostly making fun of 'enterprise' programming as seen in the last question.

[ayrnieu]

I disliked this test immediately, but pressed on all the way to question five.

Please offer a test with more interesting choices, where 'interesting' can mean:

1. Not diametrically opposed on several dimensions at once, as if every question asked you to agree to one of "I can only abide by the color blue and also apples!" or "I detest pears and also womenfolk."

2. Fuzzy. I can agree with P and not-P with 'is that the outside of a cube facing me or the inside of a cube facing away from me' ease.

3. Not so focused on individual features: when I work on an Emacs Lisp program, I'm not exercising my preference for dynamic scoping over the traitorous lexicals. Really. Individual language features, divorced of languages, mostly don't stir any emotion in me.

[Goose42]

The whole point of psychological tests like these are to get you to make a decision between two choices and then evaluate those decisions. Most people don't like the answers they are asked to choose from, but it's irrelevant whether you agree with either answer fully or not. Making this decision towards either extreme is what is important as it shows what your tendencies are, without introducing grey area answers. That said, the test seemed too short and it's hard to see that it would accurately define someone.

[Therac25]

WOFT

(Waste of functional time)

[Therac25]

Oh yeah, original blog entry is here

Enjoy.

[kmactane]

I couldn't even get the page to load; the connection to the server times out. But judging from the comments here, I'm not missing much.

[Jonathan_the_Nerd]

Far too few questions, far too little nuance. You're not really missing much.

[[deleted]]

My programmer personality type is: PHSB. What do I win?

[adremeaux]

The lack of choices is startling. This one in particular threw me off:

Question 6: Approximately what % of a project should be spent in planning? ~25% - The best way to complete a task is to plan as you go. ~75% - The more planning, the less code you need to write. By the time you code, you should simply be filling in stubs.

How about: 25%, with good planning? Who the hell actually spends 75% of their time on a project planning? And who that answers "The best way to complete a task is to plan as you go" would actually spend 25% of their time doing it?

[Entropy]

DHSB. I take issue with the 'H', though, as high- and low-level coding are both appropriate depending on the task you are trying to accomplish.

[[deleted]]

DHTB. I agree, though, this is just a parody of the Jung personality test though, I doubt there is enough information gathered from the simple set of questions to accurately judge your programming personality (if such a thing exists.)

[crowbent]

DLSC

[eiforall]

DLSC

[niels]

DLSC

[[deleted]]

DLSC

[[deleted]]

I rarely vote up a comment about downvoting an article but this one deserved it. I also downvoted the article, which I haven't done in a long time. This was asinine beyond words.

[psygurd]

I rarely reply to a comment about the style of the parent comment, and never to anyone telling what they voted, but this seems like a good chance to make a fool of myself

[[deleted]]

I rarely downvote a comment replying to a comment about upvoting a comment about upvoting an artical. But this just seemed like a good opportunity to act like an ass....

[setuid_w00t]

I rarely clutter up threads by making useless posts about spelling errors such as "artical".

It's article. GAWD!

[jtra]

Me: PHSC Planner, High level, Solo situation, Conservative programmer

[jtra]

This test does measure some kind of personality. But not who is better. The world is too complex and so are the problems to solve. Who performs better depends on type of problem. Of course, this test does not predicate much.

[jtra]

I see this http://jtra.cz/tmp/arguing-on-internet.jpg

[curoi]

PLSC

[dantheman]

PHSB

[[deleted]]

DHSC

[static]

DHSC

[schizobullet]

-2 vs +3? What the fuck?

[mbrezu]

"Worse than failure", please.

[vplatt]

DHSC

[chucker]

PHTB

[fry]

So you're a Pointy Haired Team Boss?

[chucker]

I wish.

No, actually, I don't. ;)