Taxonomy of Personality Types

Resistance is futile.
- The Borg

One evening in grad school I was dining at a sidewalk cafe with my friends Laureen and Mike. We were discussing some of the people that we worked with, and came up with a taxonomy of personality types that I have found useful ever since.

The first characteristic is intelligence: smart or dumb. Smart people are well, smart, and dumb people less so. As Forrest Gump's mama would say, "stupid is as stupid does."

The second characteristic is motivation: good or evil. Good people are motivated to do the right thing, to help others, and practice the Golden Rule. Evil people are selfish and motivated to do things in their own interest.

This makes a great two-by-two matrix, which one of my professors said is always a good thing in the social sciences:




I have inserted characters from Kim Possible as examples.

I find this matrix is useful when assessing the actions of someone. Are they doing what they do because they are dumb and do not know any better or do they have evil intent?

When trying to bring about change, opposition is inevitable. By understanding who you are dealing with, you are better able to devise the appropriate strategy to overcome the resistance.

Smart-Goods should can be appealed to on the basis of the positive results of the change. You will want o challenge their higher purpose. Of course it helps if you have a higher purpose! Smart-Goods are key to any change process as they have the capacity to pull it off.

Dumb-Goods are motivated by the same higher purpose of the Smart-Goods, but you have to be careful in trusting the Dumb-Goods to do the right thing or to do the right thing capably. If you ever find yourself saying about someone that "at least their heart is in the right place," you are dealing with a Dumb-Good.

Smart-Evils can be negotiated with. You will have to appeal to their self-interest. If nothing else, flattery will usually buy a lot with these egotists. Just remember to watch your back.

Dumb-Evils may occasionally do the right thing, but always by accident. You can try to negotiate with them, but even if they understand the terms of what you are offering them, they may still not do what you think they agreed to. Dumb-Evils are kind of like hungry tigers...your best bet is to avoid them.

I know that this is an unproven taxonomy and a gross oversimplification, but if nothing else I have found it amusing to apply when frustrated with the behavior of others.

I wonder whatever happened to the people that we derived it from in the first place...time to head to google!