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Can You Ever Really Change?

2017-12-29 · letter vlog · Hank · 3:59 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Philosophy & meaning (also: Personal life) · mode: Personal essay · tags: civic or action cta, self promotion

Recalling that college Hank was pleased the Myers-Briggs test could not classify him, and that retaking it now shows he has become a planner and a strong extrovert, Hank argues that personality tests wrongly suggest we never change; people change constantly, so as 2018 goals approach he asks viewers to comment something they changed about themselves.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — How the Myers-Briggs test works; college Hank's unclassifiable XNXP result and his love of scary parties

  • ★★ Hank says about 15 years ago he took the Myers-Briggs test for the first time, begrudgingly, having decided to hate personality tests because he felt he could not be put in a box. — 00:00:00
  • ★ Hank explains that the Myers-Briggs test puts you into one of two groups in each of four categories: introvert/extrovert, sensing/intuition, thinking/feeling, judging/perceiving. — 00:00:07
  • ★★ Hank says he was extremely pleased when his result came back XNXP: the test could not classify him on introvert/extrovert or thinking/feeling, as he was right in the middle. (playful) — 00:00:42
  • ★ Hank admits he was pretty weird then: he loved parties, dancing and being looked at mostly because it was scary, the way a parachuter loves an extreme sport. (playful) — 00:01:02

00:01:17 — Why he dislikes personality tests now; retaking the test shows he has changed into a planner and an extrovert

  • ★★★ Hank says it is extremely valuable to take time for self-reflection, to assess and understand ourselves and see the right paths forward for who we are now. (hedged) — 00:01:20
  • ★★★ Hank's milder reason for disliking personality tests now: he worries the idea of such a test leads to the belief that we are what we are and will never be anything else. — 00:01:33
  • ★★ Hank says retaking a Myers-Briggs test online made it very clear he has changed a lot: five-years-ago Hank would have answered differently. — 00:01:41
  • ★★ Hank says he is now much more a planner than the improviser he was, partly from having a child and partly from a team of 15 people, and he likes working that way. — 00:01:52
  • ★★ Hank says he is no longer in the middle of introvert-extrovert but way over on the extrovert side, as anyone who knows him would say. — 00:02:15

00:02:21 — New Year goals, why behaviour change is hard, and why believing we are born one way does not help

  • ★★ Hank says the new-year time of setting goals for 2018 means changing behaviour, which is hard because the neural pathways of how we act grow more structured. — 00:02:21
  • ★★★ Hank argues it does not help to believe we were born to only ever be one way: we change hour to hour with situations and decade to decade. — 00:02:45
  • ★★ Hank says feeling you will never change and knowing who you are from a test is simple, but people are not that simple. — 00:02:53
  • ★★★ Hank advises finding ways to live that work for you and people who appreciate you as you are, but says if you want to change you can, and even if not you probably will. (hedged) — 00:03:03
  • ★★★ Hank asks viewers to write in the comments something they changed about themselves, simple or complex, and if they want, ways they hope to change in the future. — 00:03:13

00:03:15 — The comment exercise and the clay-not-stone image; sign-off

  • ★★★ Hank says you were not carved in stone at birth but are molding yourself out of clay, which hardens if you don't keep it moving. — 00:03:34

    “you were not carved in stone the day you were born. You are molding yourself out of clay.”

00:03:49 — Plug for SciShow Psych

  • ★★ Hank recommends his channel SciShow Psych, about the science of psychology, for this topic with far more rigor than this video. — 00:03:49 · SciShow Psych

In the description and comments

  • ★★ The description says, as John said in his last video, we don't give ourselves enough chances for self-reflection; tests can help but imply what they test is overly concrete, and no self is carved in stone. (hedged) — video description · John Green
  • ★ The description points to a SciShow Psych episode on recent understanding of the failures of personality tests. — video description · SciShow Psych

Threads in this video

Mentioned

Central: Myers–Briggs Type Indicator · personal identity · personality test

Also: Extraversion and introversion · Introspection · SciShow Psych

Also centred on personal identity: We're all Scared · The Space Time Continuum: Thoughts from Dublin · Becoming Someone Else · Who Am I?! - Some thoughts on Personal Identity · Are We The Same Person? · NOW I AM THE SCIENCE ONE…

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