Mariner often cites his father as a treasure trove of shorthand descriptions of personality, tendencies and interpersonal behavior. Most frequently mariner borrows one his father’s favorites: the difference between why, how and what people. In short, why people must know why something exists before any further comprehension can be learned and often may not need any further detail; how people are great problem solvers but need information from why and what people in order to have a problem to solve in the first place; what people don’t care why or how and see no problems if a step-by-step procedure works.
When mariner was a preacher, he had a story about how we can be blinded by our own tendencies. He told the story of a woman preparing a ham for dinner. She cut off one end of the ham as she always did. Her daughter, watching, asked why her mother cut off the end of the ham. The mother replied that she simply cooks the ham the same way her mother did it.
Later, the daughter asked grandma why she cut the ham. “Because it wouldn’t fit in the pot”, she said.
Many confrontations occur for no other reason than the different priorities of these three thought processes.
Another set of descriptors is the difference between extroverts and introverts. Extroverts need human interaction as an element of progress; introverts make progress without any need for dialogue. Mariner once had the experience of wanting to talk with a coworker about an issue. “Leave me alone,” the coworker said; “I have work to do.”
Here is a pop psych test that’s been around for a long time: Without skipping below the figures, which of these objects seems most comfortable to you:
If you prefer the circle, you may enjoy moments of harmony and stability.
If you prefer the square, you tend to organize things and dislike loose ends.
If you prefer the triangle, you may enjoy challenges and like to achieve.
If you prefer the squiggly, you may enjoy being creative and free spirited.
Pop psychology tests are enjoyable and vague enough to toy with as long as it remembered that no one is a purebred; most of us are a mix of two with perhaps one type a tiny bit stronger than the other.
Pop psych was overrun by the Meyers-Briggs test – a compilation of 16 different personalities with variations within each one. Myers-Briggs became popular to the point that everyone walked around bragging they were an INTJ or an ESTP. Still, because no one is a purebred, these four-character IDs must be taken with a grain of salt and a conscious restraint to avoid condescension.
Another personality test used frequently is the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). It is used most often to determine a person’s criminal tendencies.
If you want to have a finer understanding of yourself, type ‘pop psychology tests’ in your search engine. There’s a test for everything – even how fast and accurate your fingers are.
Ancient Mariner
That the Republican Party continues their irrational support of Trumpian autocracy should warn the electorate about attacks on the way the United States operates. The Republican Party has not dropped Donald but has embraced him for the 2024 election. Ten states have shifted power over elections to partisan agencies. Gerrymandering continues to rob citizens of the principle ‘one person, one vote’. The IRS has been stripped of employees to the extent the agency can’t afford to investigate the complex returns of the oligarchy. Under the guise of budget, the US Post Office pulled hundreds of mailboxes off the street during the 2020 election. During this century both political parties have failed to protect the average citizen from venture capitalists who have destroyed thousands of low income homes so that expensive apartments and businesses have space to build. Children are open targets for murder because gun laws have been quashed. For the past fifty years the culture of police departments has shifted from a peacekeeping force to a military force.
human recruiter even meets them. Some automated programs evaluate not just on answers to questions, but sometimes on facial expressions, intonation and word choice.
Christianity is the most spiritual. To be a Christian requires an eagerness to put aside one’s own sense of accomplishment and replace it with enabling success in others. The theological basis is a spiritual relationship – a partnership – with God, Jesus and the human Christian; scripturally called the Trinity. In 2014 Paul Harvey, a conservative talk show host on radio, said “Too many Christians are no longer fishers of men, but the keepers of the aquarium.” – clearly a recognition of an evaporating spiritual element in Christianity.
world. There was always another natural resource to leverage, always a new way to profit as a species, always a new intellectual device to increase production beyond human capability.