What experiences have you had as an ENFP with technology and science? Whether it's from school, work, hobbies or just interactions or relationships with technically inclined people.
Or any other technical folk ENFP or Other who might happen by - How does an ENFP fit with you and your environment?
Please don't limit yourself to these questions. Free association science, technology and personality discussion all welcome here.
I'll go first -
My first memories of loving science come from as early as I can remember in my lifetime. Taking walks on my grandmother's gravel road - rock hunting. She had a name for every kind of rock I'd pick up, the agates were the real gems though. We'd make the same walk at night and she'd point out all the constellations and planets, she knew them all. She came from a generation when women were not as prevalent in the science world as they are today and it's really a shame; she was a brilliant scientist. It's no coincidence that my brother, two cousins and myself all went on to technical/science related careers. She was our common inspiration. I'm tearing up as I write this, I miss her so dearly.
Growing up, I was pure geek. If it was electronic, computer related or could start on fire I was all over it! Science classes were tons of fun, I just couldn't soak up enough knowledge.
I went to college as a chemistry major, this is where things got interesting for me from a personality perspective...
Oh the details! I wonder just how I managed to survive as long as I did through this course load. I rocked the lab work but I really did get twisted up in some of the more detailed tedious calculations. Mixing up a fuming bath of something that would kill me if it weren't in the hood - FUN! Calculating the molarity of a solution after such and such reaction - BLAH! My grades in lab and lecture, of course, mirrored my motivations quite closely.
I did enough to get by for the first few years, but as the courses got more advanced I just couldn't hack it anymore in the lecture portions. It was at this point I did some soul searching. I tried to figure out what the students who were excelling were doing that I wasn't doing or couldn't do. And why was it I could work circles around them in a laboratory but couldn't hold a candle to them in the exams and homework. Some of the ones I would consider the most brilliant would ask me for help in lab. Why me? I'm the flunkie.
I came to four basic conclusions.
1.I'm just not as smart as them.
(Topic for another discussion, I suppose)
2.What knowledge I do have (or the admission of that which I don't) pours from my body.
The majority of the others seemed to keep it to themselves more, especially when it came to areas where they were more uncertain or less knowledgeable.
3.I am helpful, approachable and completely in awe of my more successful cohorts.
Even as they kicked my butt at every exam, I really loved these people and forged great relationships with them. The exception to this would be the rare occasion where I'd rock the boat by outscoring them in an exam. They had a secret code that your grades listed under, but by the 3rd and 4th year, you knew everybody's code. When mine got near the top it got noticed and made for some really grumpy scientist and medical school wannabe's and they'd take it as a personal attack.
4.No one else seemed to do #2 or #3 the way I did.
Now there may have been a few in my first year, but really the group that made it past the weedout classes was not of this personality type. I really was a round peg in a square hole in this program.
I left school and found work as a technician working with electronics. Eventually I worked my way into a research group where I worked with some ridiculously brilliant Ph.D. scientists. It wasn't long before I found myself getting invited to all sorts of meetings where it was flunky me and a room full of Ph.D's discussing some pretty hardcore research. Much of the stuff was over my head, I couldn't figure out why I kept getting invited to these.
Then I went on vacation for a week. The technicians were all complaining about the unclear directions they were getting from the scientists. One of the scientists came to me complaining how some other scientist wasn't going with his idea and was railroading the group into something that wasn't going to work out. Suddenly, it couldn't have been more obvious what my role was at those meetings.
What this group had in brilliant minds they lacked in communication skill. I knew just enough tech talk to get these guys oriented and talking to each other in a productive way. I'd take the content of these meetings and pass it along to the technician staff behind the scenes and translate the science jargon into something they could actually work with and make. And I did all of this without even realizing that this was a skill that gave even brilliant scientists fits.
I used to think that ENFP's just didn't make good technical folk and I was a complete freak for trying to make my way in that environment. Some stuff I've seen on these boards make me think that maybe it's more common than I thought. It's also possible that I've mistyped some of my more brilliant classmates and co-workers. I could totally see a hardcore brilliant ENFP stuffing his 'F' by the wayside to survive in a hardcore 'T' environment like that. ENFPs seem to be good chameleons to the point where it could have snuck by my radar.
I've spewed plenty here, thank you so much for reading this far. Please contribute large or small on your experiences. Heck, even if no one replies I'm happy to have gotten this essay off my chest as it's been weighing on me for a long time to summarize and express these thoughts and experiences.
Or any other technical folk ENFP or Other who might happen by - How does an ENFP fit with you and your environment?
Please don't limit yourself to these questions. Free association science, technology and personality discussion all welcome here.
I'll go first -
My first memories of loving science come from as early as I can remember in my lifetime. Taking walks on my grandmother's gravel road - rock hunting. She had a name for every kind of rock I'd pick up, the agates were the real gems though. We'd make the same walk at night and she'd point out all the constellations and planets, she knew them all. She came from a generation when women were not as prevalent in the science world as they are today and it's really a shame; she was a brilliant scientist. It's no coincidence that my brother, two cousins and myself all went on to technical/science related careers. She was our common inspiration. I'm tearing up as I write this, I miss her so dearly.
Growing up, I was pure geek. If it was electronic, computer related or could start on fire I was all over it! Science classes were tons of fun, I just couldn't soak up enough knowledge.
I went to college as a chemistry major, this is where things got interesting for me from a personality perspective...
Oh the details! I wonder just how I managed to survive as long as I did through this course load. I rocked the lab work but I really did get twisted up in some of the more detailed tedious calculations. Mixing up a fuming bath of something that would kill me if it weren't in the hood - FUN! Calculating the molarity of a solution after such and such reaction - BLAH! My grades in lab and lecture, of course, mirrored my motivations quite closely.
I did enough to get by for the first few years, but as the courses got more advanced I just couldn't hack it anymore in the lecture portions. It was at this point I did some soul searching. I tried to figure out what the students who were excelling were doing that I wasn't doing or couldn't do. And why was it I could work circles around them in a laboratory but couldn't hold a candle to them in the exams and homework. Some of the ones I would consider the most brilliant would ask me for help in lab. Why me? I'm the flunkie.
I came to four basic conclusions.
1.I'm just not as smart as them.
(Topic for another discussion, I suppose)
2.What knowledge I do have (or the admission of that which I don't) pours from my body.
The majority of the others seemed to keep it to themselves more, especially when it came to areas where they were more uncertain or less knowledgeable.
3.I am helpful, approachable and completely in awe of my more successful cohorts.
Even as they kicked my butt at every exam, I really loved these people and forged great relationships with them. The exception to this would be the rare occasion where I'd rock the boat by outscoring them in an exam. They had a secret code that your grades listed under, but by the 3rd and 4th year, you knew everybody's code. When mine got near the top it got noticed and made for some really grumpy scientist and medical school wannabe's and they'd take it as a personal attack.
4.No one else seemed to do #2 or #3 the way I did.
Now there may have been a few in my first year, but really the group that made it past the weedout classes was not of this personality type. I really was a round peg in a square hole in this program.
I left school and found work as a technician working with electronics. Eventually I worked my way into a research group where I worked with some ridiculously brilliant Ph.D. scientists. It wasn't long before I found myself getting invited to all sorts of meetings where it was flunky me and a room full of Ph.D's discussing some pretty hardcore research. Much of the stuff was over my head, I couldn't figure out why I kept getting invited to these.
Then I went on vacation for a week. The technicians were all complaining about the unclear directions they were getting from the scientists. One of the scientists came to me complaining how some other scientist wasn't going with his idea and was railroading the group into something that wasn't going to work out. Suddenly, it couldn't have been more obvious what my role was at those meetings.
What this group had in brilliant minds they lacked in communication skill. I knew just enough tech talk to get these guys oriented and talking to each other in a productive way. I'd take the content of these meetings and pass it along to the technician staff behind the scenes and translate the science jargon into something they could actually work with and make. And I did all of this without even realizing that this was a skill that gave even brilliant scientists fits.
I used to think that ENFP's just didn't make good technical folk and I was a complete freak for trying to make my way in that environment. Some stuff I've seen on these boards make me think that maybe it's more common than I thought. It's also possible that I've mistyped some of my more brilliant classmates and co-workers. I could totally see a hardcore brilliant ENFP stuffing his 'F' by the wayside to survive in a hardcore 'T' environment like that. ENFPs seem to be good chameleons to the point where it could have snuck by my radar.
I've spewed plenty here, thank you so much for reading this far. Please contribute large or small on your experiences. Heck, even if no one replies I'm happy to have gotten this essay off my chest as it's been weighing on me for a long time to summarize and express these thoughts and experiences.
!!!
