Monday, December 17, 2012

Understanding life as an ENTP

If you've ever wondered what it's like to have an ENTP mind (that's my personality type), perhaps this old story with a new metaphor will help:

The family was gathered for Easter dinner. The youngest newly married daughter was preparing her first family dinner. As she was about to put the large ham in the oven to begin baking, her mother stopped her and said "You have to cut three inches off the ham before you bake it."

Puzzled, the daughter asked her mother why?

"Because that's the way my mother taught me to do it," said the mother.

Still puzzled, the daughter went to find her grandmother.

"Nana," she asked, "Mom says you have to cut 3 inches off of the ham before putting it in the oven to bake. Why?"

"Well, that's how my mother taught me to do it, and it's the way I've always done it," replied the grandmother.

Well, the daughter's husband had heard all of this and he wanted to get to the bottom of the mystery. He went into the living room where the family was gathered around great grandmother.

"Nona," he asked, "Grandma says you taught her to cut 3 inches off of the ham before putting it in the over. I'm puzzled. Why is that necessary?"

"Well, dear, when I was a new bride, just starting out, I baked my first ham for Easter dinner. The ham was 18 inches long. The largest roasting pan I had was 15 inches long, so I had to cut three inches off of the ham to make it fit the pan."

Life as an ENTP is a life of going hungry from cut-off hams while being looked down on for baking entire hams yourself.

Thought of the day: 12/17/12

Until a population gets a solid, working grasp of history, "progress" will often turn out to be regress. Under the naive assumption that one's new idea will save us, we are bound to repeat a mistake that someone else in some other place at some other time has already made. True progress doesn't begin with "new ideas" (of which there are truly none under the sun). If there is to be any true progress, it must begin with a sober look at history.

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it"
-Santayana