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The first time I've seen this, I've seen this before.
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Hello, welcome back to the podcast.
How are you today?
I hope you're doing fine.
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Anyway, Sebastian, Sebastian, introduced his son, Lucio to the podcast recently.
So, hello Lucio.
Welcome to the podcast.
You have taken your first step into a much larger world.
I hope you enjoy the episodes and continue to listen to them.
Because obviously, if you keep listening, then your English is just...
It's just going to skyrocket.
OK?
So, keep listening.
And, you know, with a...
With a...
A supple young brain, like yours,
being exposed to this much English on a regular basis, then, you know,
that just the sky is the limit in terms of the benefits that this can have.
I also should say thank you to Sebastian for introducing his son to the podcast
and making sure that this podcast continues, right?
That we introduce the show to the new generation, the next generation of humans.
Right.
Good.
I'm glad I did that.
Hello.
And also, hello to anyone else who is brand new to this podcast.
Here's a new episode.
And there is...
It's not a PDF, but there's some notes that I'm going to read from at certain points during the episode.
And you can find those notes on the episode page on my website.
OK?
So, I'll be reading from some notes.
And also, I'm going to be reading from a website as well.
So, anyway, the link for all that stuff is in the description of this episode.
So, let's get started.
I'm going to...
I'm going to now read from those notes.
Here we go.
So, this episode is called Luke takes the MBTI personality test.
Hello.
There I am saying hello to you again.
In this much requested episode, I'm going to take the MBTI personality test
and use it to help you learn English.
I'll go through the test, answering all the questions, and I'll explain vocabulary that comes up along the way.
I expect there will be plenty of English here that we use to describe personality, behaviour, feelings, psychology and psychological testing.
So, there's probably going to be loads of stuff that you can pick up from this.
I also want to discuss this test, which despite its massive popularity is criticised
for not being reliable or accurate.
So, what's going on here?
Why is this test so popular?
Can it really identify our true personality?
What kind of personality type am I?
And what about you?
You can take the test yourself if you want.
It's free and you'll find a link in the description.
So, I said before this was a much requested episode.
I've had a number of comments or emails from people asking me to go through this test.
It's a popular test in lots of countries.
So, here's a comment that I got from a listener.
I received this comment ages ago in response to the Q&A I did for episode 800.
Do you remember that?
Episode 800, it was in three parts and I did a big listener Q&A.
And there was one question about the MBTI test.
So, this comment is from Jackie,
who some people might remember.
She has commented on episodes before.
I've read out her comments.
She was at a couple of leaps to meetups in London.
Anyway, Jackie said this.
These Q&A episodes are so fun.
Thanks, Luke.
I agree with one question.
It would be really interesting if you do the MBTI personality test
and talk us through your choices.
On 16personalities.com,
they have really good questions and good analysis of your result.
I have a feeling that you might be
ENFJ, aka the protagonist, Luke.
Extroverted, intuitive, feeling, judging.
That's what ENFJ means.
Now, if you don't know what these codes mean,
ENFJ, INFJ and stuff like that,
that will be explained in a minute.
But these are the different personality types
that you get from this MBTI personality test.
So, Jackie thinks that I would be ENFJ,
the protagonist, extroverted, intuitive, feeling, judging.
And Jackie continues.
She says, I'm INFJ, the introverted version.
Okay, then.
So, first of all, what's the MBTI personality test?
So, the MBTI personality test,
in case you don't know,
is a very popular personality test,
which promises to help you learn all about yourself.
So, here's some information from Wikipedia.
I would read it from the 16 personalities website,
but the information they give them out of the text is very rambling.
And I'm not entirely convinced by it.
I would rather go for something a bit more objective.
In this case, I'm going to go for Wikipedia.
So, here is what Wikipedia says about this test.
Here's a description.
So, the Myers-Briggs type indicator that's MBTI
is a pseudo-scientific self-reports questionnaire
that claims to indicate differing personality types.
Now, Wikipedia defines it as being pseudo-scientific.
So, pseudo-science or pseudo-scientific means
it's not real science.
It's not objectively correct science.
So, it's kind of like fake science, really.
And that's how Wikipedia defines this.
A pseudo-scientific self-report questionnaire
that claims to indicate differing personality types.
The test attempts to assign a binary value
to each of four categories,
introversion or extroversion, sensing or intuition,
thinking or feeling and judging or perceiving.
So, these are the different categories
with binary qualities on each side,
introversion, extroversion, sensing or intuition,
thinking or feeling and judging or perceiving.
And it gives you a binary score,
meaning you're basically one or the other.
Each question puts you in one of those categories more or less.
One letter from each category is taken
to produce a four letter test result,
representing one of 16 possible personalities,
such as INFP or ESTJ.
Okay, so you've got four sections
with two opposite categories,
two opposite traits on either side.
So, that's a total of eight possible traits.
But the combinations, the possible combinations result
of 16 different personality types.
The MBTI was constructed by two Americans,
Catherine Cook Briggs and her daughter,
Isabelle Briggs Myers,
who were inspired by the book Psychological Types,
written by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung.
You might be familiar with Jung,
he is a big figure in the world of psychology.
So, Carl Jung wrote psychological types, his book,
and this inspired Catherine and her daughter,
Isabelle, to construct this test.
The test was first published in the 1960s
and was based on work done by Catherine and Isabelle
in the 1940s.
The test claims to be backed up by research
and is used by millions of people around the world,
especially in the world of work,
where employers often use it to work out the competences
of their staff.
They use it to put employees into different personality categories,
in order to help place them into roles at work
that they are most suitable for.
So, if you take this test, you could take it in your free time,
but a lot of people do take this test as some parts,
some sort of human resources development system,
which is designed to try to categorise people
in order to put them in the right positions at work
that would make them as productive and useful as possible.
The test is divided into questions
and your answers put you somewhere
on a sliding scale between certain opposite personality traits.
At the end, the test gives you a personality profile,
putting you in one of 16 personality categories
or personality types.
I'll go through those types in a moment.
So, this test is extremely popular,
and actually, Jackie is not the first person to ask me
to take the test and talk about it.
So, the plan in the episode is to do three things.
First, I want to take the test
and talk you through my decision-making process
for each question.
I'm curious to see what personality type I'm going to get.
Will Jackie be right about me being an ENFJ,
the protagonist?
So, that's obviously the first thing I'm going to do,
and also, I want to explain different vocabulary
or possibly grammar that comes up in the test.
I'm sure there'll be loads of words and phrases
to describe things like personality traits,
feelings, ways of thinking, decision-making processes,
and so on.
So, we will hunt for some vocabulary.
Then, I also want to talk about the test itself.
I want to evaluate the test and consider
whether it really is a valid and reliable test
of someone's character.
So, 16 personalities.
Let's look at the 16 personality types
developed by Myers-Briggs.
As we go through these profiles, right?
As we go through all of these,
you can consider these things.
So, first of all, what category type are you?
So, which one do you identify with?
And also, which one do you think I am?
And you'll find out, apparently, when I take the test.
So, if you're a long-term listener to this podcast,
you'll probably know me to a certain extent,
and you've probably got certain ideas of what my personality is.
So, which personality type do you think I am?
Do you think I'm the protagonist or something else?
And also, you as well.
Before you take the test, consider which personality type
you think you might be.
So, let's have a look at all of the different personality types then.
This is on 16personalities.com.
So, the first one is analysts, right?
So, there are sections.
I think there are maybe four different sections.
The first section is analysts.
People who analyze stuff.
And the first type there is the architect.
Right, we know what an architect is.
It's someone who designs buildings, right?
But in this case, an architect is an iron object.
It's an INTJ, A or INTJT, whatever that means.
So, architects are imaginative and strategic thinkers
with a plan for everything.
Okay.
Then, we have logicians.
A logician is described as being innovative inventors.
Surely, if you're an inventor, you're innovative.
You don't need to say in an innovative inventor.
That's unnecessary.
But anyway, innovative inventors with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge.
If you're a thirst, normally we have a thirst for water.
Right? If you're thirsty, you have a thirst for water.
But you can have a thirst for other things.
In this case, a thirst for knowledge.
That's THI, RST, a thirst for knowledge.
And to quench your thirst.
So, if you're thirsty, you want water.
You drink water.
Glug, glug, glug, glug, glug.
And then you quench your thirst, right?
You give yourself water and you're no longer thirsty.
So, that's to quench your thirst.
You can quench your thirst for knowledge
by reading lots of books or doing experiments or something.
And if you have an unquenchable thirst for something,
in this case, knowledge, it means this thirst can never be quenched.
So, it never stops. It never ends.
You'll always want more knowledge.
So, innovative inventors who always want more knowledge.
Then we have the commander.
Bold, imaginative and strong, wild leaders.
Always finding a way or making one.
Okay? Then you've got the debater.
Debaters are smart and curious thinkers
who cannot resist an intellectual challenge.
Okay, moving on.
So, next in the next set, we have diplomats.
Okay? And the first type of diplomat is the advocate.
An advocate. Now, normally the word advocate
is used to describe a person who talks on someone else's behalf.
They represent someone.
And we normally think of a lawyer as an advocate.
Someone who represents a client in a courtroom.
But in this case, the advocate's advocates in this test
are quiet and mystical, yet very inspiring and tireless idealists.
Quiet and mystical. Mystical.
It's an interesting word to use in a psychological test.
But anyway, quiet and mystical, yet very inspiring and tireless idealists.
So, an idealist is someone who sort of has a vision of the world
and ideal sort of vision of things.
And if you're a tireless idealist,
it means you never get tired.
You will never stop being idealistic.
Then you've got the mediator.
Poetic kind. An altruistic people.
Always eager to help a good cause.
Poetic, I think you understand, kind.
We know altruistic. That means just basically wanting to help other people.
Okay? Then we have the protagonist.
This is the one that Jackie associates with me.
The protagonist is charismatic and inspiring.
Charismatic and inspiring leaders able to mesmerise their listeners.
So I think I understand why Jackie associates this one with me
because apparently I'm able to mesmerise my listeners.
And I, a charismatic and inspiring leader.
Then we have the campaigner.
And campaigners are enthusiastic, creative and sociable free spirits.
Who can always find a reason to smile.
If you're a free spirit, it just means that
you've got a free mind and you kind of no one can stop you thinking about
all the things you want to think about and doing the things you want to do.
And you're sort of a very open-minded.
So enthusiastic, creative and sociable free spirits.
Who can always find a reason to smile.
Then we have sentinels,
including the logistician.
So logisticians are practical and fact-minded individuals
whose reliability cannot be doubted.
Practical, so they come down to earth,
fact-minded individuals.
So that's obviously different to these other ones like the mediator
or the campaigner who is kind of like a free spirit.
Sentinels appear to have their feet on the ground.
Practical people who deal in objective facts and things.
Practical fact-minded individuals whose reality cannot be doubted.
Reliability, their reliability cannot be doubted.
You can always trust their version of things.
Then you've got the defender,
very dedicated and warm protectors.
Always ready to defend their loved ones.
And the executives are excellent administrators,
unsuppast, at managing things or people.
Okay.
And then we have the console.
Extraordinary caring, social and popular people.
Always eager to help.
All right.
And then we have explorers.
The last category.
The first one being the virtuoso.
Bold and practical experimenters,
masters of all kinds of tools.
Bold and practical experimenters.
Okay.
They like to experiment and they're brave.
Masters of all kinds of tools.
So the picture suggests that virtuoso's would be like good with tools,
like practical, good with their hands, good at doing DIY and stuff like that.
Then you've got the adventurer.
So these are flexible and charming artists.
Always ready to explore and experience something new.
And then the entrepreneur.
Entrepreneurs are smart, energetic and very perceptive people
who truly enjoy living on the edge.
Smart, okay, clever, energetic, right, full of energy.
Very perceptive people.
Thriable to notice and perceive things like for example changes in society
or how people feel about things who truly enjoy living on the edge.
So they like to do extreme sports.
They take risks and things.
And then you've got the entertainer.
Spontaneous, energetic and enthusiastic people.
Life is never boring around them and they're certainly never irritating at all.
No.
Spontaneous, energetic and enthusiastic people.
Life is never boring around them.
Okay.
So which one?
Which one do you feel like?
Which one do you think is me?
I mean, I could go through these again.
I mean, which one do I think I am?
Maybe I can try and do that.
Analysts, imaginative, strategic thinkers with a plan for everything.
I don't feel like I'm...
I don't feel like I'm...
I'm great at strategy.
Although I have to say as an English teacher, I do a lot of planning.
And in podcasting, a lot of it is about planning.
So...
To an extent, the logician, innovative inventors with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge.
I'm not sure about inventing things.
I'm not really an inventor.
But I do like...
I'm curious about the world.
I certainly have a thirst for knowledge.
The commander, bold, imaginative and strong-willed leaders.
Always finding a way or making one.
If they can't find a way through, they'll just smash their way through.
That doesn't really feel like me.
That's more of a sort of...
I imagine a sort of Margaret Thatcher type person.
Debater, smart and curious thinkers.
I like to think that I'm...
I don't know if I'm smart, but I like to think I'm a curious thinker.
And I quite like an intellectual challenge.
The picture suggests someone who likes to debate.
You know, someone who likes to engage in intellectual debates and things.
Which is not really me.
Diplomats.
So the advocate, quiet and mystical, yet very inspiring and tireless idealists.
The diplomats seem like hippies to me.
I don't think I'm that quiet.
I don't know how you could be mystical, really.
Mysticism is like...
It's related to magic, doesn't it?
Very inspiring and tireless idealists.
I'm not sure I'm an idealist.
I'm a bit more practical than that.
A mediator, poetic kind, an altruistic people.
Always eager to help a good cause.
I think I'm fairly altruistic, but I'm not that poetic, really.
Protagonists.
Charismatic and inspiring leaders.
Yeah, of course I'm the host of a podcast, and I mesmerise my listeners apparently.
I suppose there's some charisma that's involved in that.
I don't know if I'm a leader though.
I don't really feel like a leader outside of being the host of a podcast.
Other than that, I don't know if I otherwise demonstrate leadership qualities in other aspects of my life.
The campaigner, enthusiastic, creative and sociable, free spirits who can always find a reason to smile.
Well, I'm enthusiastic, I'm fairly creative, I'm quite sociable.
I'm a bit of a free spirit in my heart, I suppose.
I like to do things my own way.
Always find a reason to smile.
I feel like I'm quite optimistic and I like to be positive.
So that could be me.
Sentinels.
The logistician, practical, fact-minded individuals whose reliability cannot be doubted.
I don't feel like I do, that sounds like a mathematician or something.
It doesn't feel like me.
Defender.
Very dedicated and warm protectors.
Always ready to defend their loved ones.
Well, that sounds like me in respect to my family.
If you think about my kids, I'm definitely dedicated and warm protector.
And I'm always ready to defend my loved ones.
I mean, I can't think of a situation where my loved ones are being attacked.
And I'm like, yeah, that's fine.
I think I'm always ready to defend them.
Executive, excellent administrators, unsurpassed at managing things or people.
This sort of person who likes to manage other people, they like to keep a diary in a schedule.
Maybe they like to tell other people what to do, when to do it, where to do it.
That's not really me.
I've never wanted to be a manager.
I've never wanted to work in admin in any way.
And I always avoided that kind of job.
So that's definitely not me.
I'm not the consul, extraordinarily caring social and popular people, always eager to help.
I think I'm social and hopefully popular.
I like to help.
I don't know if I'm extraordinarily caring, social and popular though.
Explore as the virtue of so, the bold and practical experimenter.
I'm not that practical.
I mean, I do DIY.
I put up shelves in my room and stuff, but I'm not that hands on.
Not that handy.
The adventurer, flexible and charming artists, always ready to explore and experience something new.
I kind of associate with that a bit.
I feel like I'm fairly flexible.
I like to be able to do different things.
I like to experience new things.
Maybe.
And the entrepreneur, smart, energetic, perceptive, enjoy living on the edge.
I'm not sure I'm that kind of risk-taking, extreme sports, entrepreneur type guy.
And then the entertainer, spontaneous, energetic and enthusiastic.
I like to entertain, you know, as a podcaster and as a stand-up comedian, obviously entertaining is a large part of what I do.
So that, who knows, that could be me.
All right, so those are the types.
Now, interestingly, I don't if you noticed this, but there are no negative categories.
All the categories are positive.
Now, surely there must be some negative personality traits in people, right?
There must be, I mean, there are negative people.
There are toxic people in the world.
So why don't they, why don't any negative traits come up in this evaluation?
For example, there are no categories like these.
And these are some categories that I've come up with myself.
These are seven.
Is it seven?
I don't know.
So here are seven negative personality types, which are not included in the MBTI test.
So you got couch potatoes.
These are lazy time-wasters who avoid all sense of responsibility or personal challenge by spending the day lying in bed, scrolling through TikTok and maybe ordering a pizza.
So that's couch potatoes.
Then you've got internet trolls, hate-filled nerds who use the anonymity and lack of accountability of the internet.
To provoke negative emotional responses from other users, probably because they have trouble establishing genuine loving relationships in the real world.
Okay, also we have selfish scumbags.
The type of person who would push your elderly grandmother out of the way while getting off a bus.
These are completely self-interested psychopaths whose only motivations are to gain wealth, power and influence over others, all for their own reasons.
All for their own benefit.
So that's selfish scumbags.
Then you have scroungers.
Never willing to pay their own way, scroungers are always looking for opportunities to get things for free or to benefit from the hard work of others, while making the least amount of effort possible and spending none of their own money.
And then we have cowards.
Cowards are weak-willed losers who run away from any challenge due to a fear of failure, which is actually caused by an underlying narcissistic tendency, with an overriding sense of self-preservation combined with the feeling that they've been wronged somewhere down the line and therefore deserve to be given everything they want without taking any risk themselves.
And we've got more.
Finally, we have bullies. Bullies make themselves feel better by making other people feel worse.
They belittle, abuse and pick on people in weaker, lower status positions in order to cover up for a deep-seated sense of inadequacy, probably stemming from a problematic, loveless relationship with one or both of their parents who probably bullied them to sending them into a vicious cycle of abuse.
So, those are, I think it was about seven categories of people you will not find in this test.
There are other possible categories as well. For example, creepy weirdos, manipulative gas lighters, compulsive liars, sociopaths and politicians.
So, we all know people like that, but interestingly the test contains no descriptions like that, or in fact any negative descriptions whatsoever.
Anyway, we're going to start the test in a moment. Just some more comments before I begin.
Now, this will probably take a lot of time. In fact, it already is.
Because I think there are lots of sentences in this test, but that's fine, isn't it? Right? Taking time is fine.
By the way, I'm very glad so many people agree with my thoughts from episode 871 about longer episodes. So longer episodes are fine.
As I discuss these questions, right, which I'm going to start doing in a moment, you might think that I'm overanalyzing or thinking about each question too much, but I'm not.
I'm going to answer the questions in the most honest way I can, but I also want to use my critical thinking to analyse the thinking or assumptions behind each one.
Full disclosure, I am skeptical about this test, which you've probably picked up on. I'll discuss why I'm skeptical as we go through the questions.
I don't know if the fact that I'm skeptical about the questions will affect the result. Right? If I'm skeptical about the test, that, to be honest, that shouldn't affect the result.
If this is a good test, then it should be able to deal with those sorts of things. Right? Believing in the test shouldn't affect the result.
I mean, it might affect the way that I understand the results of it, the way that I interpret the results, but in terms of the way I answer the questions, as long as I'm genuinely, honestly answering them, I think it shouldn't have an effect on the results.
If this is a valid test, by the way, I did an A level in psychology when I was 19 years old, and I got a B. I got a B in psychology at A level. Check me out, yeah.
So I'm vaguely familiar with some of the science behind this kind of thing.
So I've got to mention test reliability and test validity, talking of psychology and psychological concepts. Here are two essential concepts in psychology and psychological testing.
You have test reliability and test validity. Okay? So for a test like this to be objectively, measurably accurate, it should be both reliable and valid.
These are standard concepts in scientific testing, which any good test should comply with in order to produce results, which we can reasonably accept to be accurate.
So let's start with test reliability.
Tests should be reliable, right?
So test reliability refers to the consistency of a test.
How the test consistently produces the same results each time. If the MBTI test is reliable, then it should produce the same result every time someone takes it.
Because as the makers claim, we have fixed personalities, right? We have certain personality types. So it should always put us in the same category each time.
Right? So every time you take it, you should get the same result, right? Regardless of, for example, your mood that day or the weather, or whether you had a bad, bad, a bad breakfast or something.
Also, if a test is unaffected by measurement errors or random effects, like the person's mood, environmental factors, the weather on that particular day, if the test is unaffected by those things, it makes the test stronger and more reliable.
So reliability, the test should produce the same results every single time. And if it does so, that's important. Because if it's getting different results each time, that suggests that maybe the test is not accurate.
And the second thing, and this is in fact the most important thing, is test validity. Tests should be valid.
This means that the test actually tests what it says it tests and nothing else. So the test does exactly what it says on the tin. Now this is different from reliability, because even if a test gets the same results each time, it might not be valid, meaning that the results still might not be accurate.
So if the MBTI test is valid, it means that for example, it's accurately labeling people, it's putting people in the right categories. For example, when it says that someone has a certain personality type and would be well suited for a particular job, that this is actually true, that the that the test is able to predict someone's performance in a certain way.
Right, so having said all that stuff, let's now take the test. So here we go. So we now go onto the website of 16personalities.com again. It's so incredible to be to finally be understood. It says in 10 minutes, in only 10 minutes, get a freakishly accurate description of who you are and why you do the things you do. Let's get started.
So little instructions before we begin, it says, be yourself and answer honestly to find out your personality type. Okay, I will do my best to be myself.
Secondly, learn how your personality type influences many areas of your life. All right. And then grow into the person you want to be with your optional premium suite.
I don't know how a psychological test which tells you who you are. And how does that then allow you to grow and change into someone else? I don't know.
But interesting that they are presenting us with the option to go premium here. Anyway, right. So let's get started. The first thing, first statement is this. So there are statements. They're not questions actually. They're statements.
And I have to agree or disagree. We've all done these sorts of tests before. Like strongly agree, agree, slightly agree or neutral in the middle.
So the first one, you regularly make new friends. You regularly make new friends.
Well, this already I've got an issue with this because this depends, doesn't it? I'm probably going to say that a lot that it depends. But this I feel depends on which period of my life I'm in these days.
I have to say that I don't make that many new friends at the moment. It's not that regular now. But like a year ago, when my daughter joined a new school.
And we met loads of the parents from the school whose kids are in the same situation as them. A lot of the parents are from English speaking countries.
I made loads of new friends around this time last year. But since then, I haven't really made that many friends.
Also, when I moved to France first, the first time I moved to Paris and I went out and started doing stand up, I met loads of people. I met Amber and Paul, I met Sebastian, I met Sarah. I met all these different people. And I made a bunch of new friends at that time.
Fred and all these other people. But then since then, I haven't really. So I don't know if I regularly make new friends. It depends on the time of my life really.
So I don't know if I regularly make new friends. I have to just go neutral on that one.
The next statement, you spend a lot of your free time exploring various topics that catch your interest.
So my free time, when I'm not at work, like in the evening or something, I've got my computer or whatever. Do I spend a lot of time exploring various topics that catch my interest?
So all that's interesting. Who that's interesting? I think so. I think so. Quite a lot. Yes. I often find myself being trapped in a YouTube hole where I'm just on YouTube looking at the videos that suggests to me and my brain isn't really engaged fully.
Or I'm reading books I like to read or I'm listening to podcasts about the Beatles or something. But, you know, I do like to explore new topics to an extent. I mean, I'm not constantly on the hunt for new subjects and new topics.
But to an extent, yes, I'm going to agree a little bit.
Seeing other people cry can easily make you feel like you want to cry too.
You kind of get a sense of what the question is attempting to measure here. You get the feeling that the test with a question like this or a statement like this is trying to work out how much empathy I have. How much I feel, right?
How much I judge people by feelings and how intuitive and emotion driven I am. It's quite transparent really. And if I disagree with that is going to suggest that I'm more of a logical sort of fact driven person rather than an emotion driven person, right?
That's what it's trying to do here. But I think there is a nut there's going to be other factors involved in my answering of this question.
Like the test here is assuming that I am the best judge of my own character. Right? It's assuming that I am objectively going to be able to define myself.
I don't know if people really are that objective in defining themselves. Like for example, people might say, yeah, I think I think I make friends quite regularly.
But they might not actually, I mean, what does regularly even mean? I mean, there's no actual objective sense of what regularly means. Right? I mean, how often does is regularly?
Once a year is that regularly? Every day, I mean, what does that even mean? There's no objective sense of what regularly means in that sense. And also people might think, yeah, I think I think I make friends quite regularly.
But they might be completely misguided and delusional about themselves. They might have no sense of who they are really or what it is that's driving them. A lot of people don't know themselves that well.
And what's interesting is that this test promises to tell you who you are. But really, in order to take the test effectively, you already need to know who you are.
And actually, all the test is doing is telling you what you already think about yourself. Right? That's all it's doing.
So you don't even need to take the test. You just need to sit and think about yourself. You already know who you are. If indeed you do. And if you're going into this test, thinking that you don't know yourself, like, I don't really know, I wonder what kind of person I am really.
Like, if you've got a sense that you don't really know yourself, then this test surely is not going to work because the only thing the test is doing is asking you to evaluate yourself. And if you don't really know who you are, then this test is not going to be effective surely.
Anyway, seeing other people cry can easily make you feel like you want to cry too.
A bit, a bit, a bit. I mean, who, to be honest, who is going to say no to that? Maybe some people would. Maybe some people are like, no, I do not cry.
I am, you know, maybe Arnold Schwarzenegger from the Terminator. It is a human emotion to cry. I am a T1000 or whatever it is he is crying as a human response to having emotional feelings.
Disagree.
I think I agree with that a little bit. I mean, I'm not like every time I see someone cry, not every time, but a little bit, you know, it can make me feel a bit like I want to have a little bit of a cry.
If I see someone else cry, if I see my children crying, then it's just like, oh my God, definitely. I'm going to go slightly agree.
Okay, next, you often make a backup plan for a backup plan. Oh my God, often you often make a backup plan for a backup plan. So let's say you make a plan and then you make a backup plan in case that plan fails and then you make another backup plan in case the backup plan fails.
No, I never do that. I mean, what, what kind of person does that? Honestly, who does that? Who makes three plans? And for what? Anyway, a plan for what?
Like for my English lessons, I'll have a plan and I'll have a few backup ideas, but I don't have another one. I, you know, so for an English lesson, maybe for a weekend, for dinner. I mean, no, no, disagree.
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do I then go, oh my god, oh god, oh god, I'm a terrible teacher, I've got no idea what I'm doing. I'm doing. Does it make me doubt my overall ability to knowledge? Oh my god, I know nothing. I'm terrible teacher. Oh shit. No, that's not true. I disagree, but you know, if I make some mistakes, it can cause me to doubt my abilities, but not that much. So I'm going to disagree. You feel comfortable just walking up to someone you find interesting and
striking up a conversation. I'm not sure I feel comfortable doing that. There's a certain amount of, uh, awkwardness that comes into that. For example, I know someone, one of the parents at school, and he's very interesting. I'd like to get him onto this podcast, actually. He's a very interesting guy. He's quite an exuberant person. He's quite visually striking. And, um,
I have gone up to him and talked to him and suggested that he, he come on the podcast, but I had to kind of get myself, I had to build myself up to it. It was a bit embarrassing.
Um, you know, so I don't know if I feel completely comfortable just walking up to someone to an extent, I agree. Yeah, not that much though. You're not too interested in discussions about various interpretations of creative works. Now, I strongly disagree with that, because I'm really interested in discussions about, for example, films, interpretations of films and books and things. So I've strongly disagree with that. That's one of my favorite things to do. In fact,
okay, let's move on. 20% through. You find it challenging to relate to people who are primarily guided by their emotions. You what?
You find it challenging to relate to people who are primarily guided by their emotions. How do I know if someone is primarily guided by their emotions? How do I know that?
So if you got someone who's like, you know, what I really felt about this was that I felt very sad about it. I was very moved by this and this really filled me with joy, Luke. Do I find that challenging? Like, God, I really have to speak to her. Oh, God, she's the way she's driven by her emotions is just so annoying.
So annoying. Not really. I think I'm fine talking to people who are guided by their emotions, but I think it's fine. I disagree with that.
You usually prefer just doing what you feel like at any given moment instead of planning a particular daily routine. Oh, God, I think it's a bit of both. Honestly, it's a bit of both. I like to prepare myself. I like to plan my day in advance.
You know, for example, if I'm walking to my podcast, I'll think about what I'm going to do that, you know, I'm going to what I'm going to do that day. Or if I'm, you know, at various moments, I will kind of make a vague plan of what I'm going to do.
But then at the same time, I'm quite willing to throw that plan out of the window, not literally because that could fall on someone's head and could hurt them. I mean, if you ever had a plan fall on your head, it's not fun. Let me tell you.
People constantly going to a hospital, like what's the matter? Terrible cranial injury. Why a plan fell on his head because someone threw it out the window. Well, people stop throwing plans out the window.
So I prefer doing just what I feel like I do like to do what I feel like doing. But at the same time, I also like to prepare myself a bit. I like to sort of do both. I'm going to go in the middle.
You rarely worry about whether you make a good impression on people you meet. So basically, this means I never really worry about making a good impression.
For example, you know, for example, I met some people. I wonder what they thought of me. Who cares?
Right. Or I'm going to meet some new people tomorrow. I wonder what they're going to think of me. You know what? Don't care. No, that's not me.
I do worry, like, oh, go on. I wonder what they thought of me. If I'm going to teach a class, if I've got a new class of students on Monday morning, yeah, I might worry about making a good impression on them.
Again, it depends on the situation, doesn't it? In a professional context. Yeah, I'm going to worry about it. If I've got a job interview, yeah, I'm definitely going to worry about whether I'm making a good impression.
If I'm just meeting some of my brothers' friends in the pub, I'm not going to worry about it so much. Really worry about my new people.
I worry about it a bit. I worry about it a reasonable amount. So I think it's probably normal to worry about things a little bit, isn't it?
Here's another thing, though, that I think when I'm doing this test, which is that, again, going back to that idea that people might not be the most objective judge of themselves.
I think people might respond to these questions not in the most truthful way, but they might even subconsciously respond to the questions in the most positive way.
Like, for example, who is going to... I don't know, you know, in some of the sentences, there's definitely a sense that one of the responses is a bit more negative than another one.
Like, maybe people are going to be trying to promote themselves in a way that they project themselves in a slightly more positive way than they actually are.
Or at least they perceive one direction to be a bit more positive than the other. And so they tend to push themselves in that direction a little bit.
Like, maybe people are unwilling to assess themselves in a way that they think is negative, or they might be unwilling to assess themselves in a way that other people will think is negative.
For example, if they're doing this in a work environment and they know that their human resources manager is going to read the results, maybe they're going to present themselves in a way that they think their boss or their company will appreciate, you know.
So you rarely worry about whether you make a good impression on people you meet. I think you probably... A lot of people would disagree with that.
And they would say, no, I think it's important to think about the impression you're giving.
I, honestly, in my heart of hearts, I think I do worry about that a little bit. I think it's important to make a good impression on people.
So I'm going to disagree with that a bit.
You enjoy participating in team-based activities.
Yes, to an extent. You know, in those kind of team-building activities you do at work, they're quite good fun.
But you know what? I think I enjoy team-based activities when there isn't a really big important outcome.
If it's just a bit of fun, then definitely.
But if it's in order to produce really important work, a lot of the time I'd prefer to work on my own, to be honest.
So if it's kind of like fairly trivial stuff, then I'm really happy to work in a team and I like to have fun with the team members.
But if it's more serious, then I pretend to prefer to work on my own because I can probably get a bit more control over the outcome of the work that we're doing.
So I don't know, I'm right in the middle. You see yourself as more of a visionary than a realist.
No, I see myself as a realist. I think I'm more of a realist. I think I tend to see the world as it really is, rather than projecting some idealized vision on the world.
So I disagree with that. Helping others succeed brings you more happiness than your own achievements.
Now that's a statement that is confusing for an English language teacher to respond to because my own achievements in my work are to help other people succeed.
Right? If I help other people succeed, that is an achievement for me.
You see what I mean? So it's the same thing. Helping other people at the same time is a good thing.
Helping others succeed brings you more happiness than your own achievements.
Like it's very satisfying when I know that I've helped other people improve their English, that my work has helped them succeed. That's extremely satisfying.
But my own achievements are, I suppose, you know, podcasting stuff, getting a certain amount of experience.
I don't know really. It's a bit of both. I'm going to go in the middle again. How boring of me. Moving on.
So we're a third of the way through. I'm going to try and do this fairly quickly now. You often find beauty in chaos. You what? What? You often find beauty in chaos.
Chaos means a situation that is not going to be a good thing to do.
What? You often find beauty in chaos. Chaos means a situation that's totally disorganized.
Like a big storm where wind is flying in all different directions and everything's falling all over the place.
Chaos where there's no order at all. I don't find beauty in chaos. I find chaos to be stressful.
Like, for example, if you work at a school and the director of studies, the academic manager is a total disaster and it's really disorganized and no one knows what they're doing or what's happening or where the books are or how many students have I got in my class or what's going on.
This is total chaos. I don't think, oh god, isn't this chaotic, isn't it? Oh, but isn't it beautiful? Just look at the madness. No, I don't. I disagree with that.
But I'm not, but at the same time, I don't like order. There must be order. Everything must be categorized and ordered. No, everything has to be a straight line. You know, not exactly.
So I just disagree, not strongly disagree.
You're prone to worrying that things will take a turn for the worse. You're prone to something. If you're prone to something, it means
you tend, this tends to happen to you and it's normally a negative thing. You're prone to worrying about things, you're prone to having headaches, right?
You're prone to being a bit depressed. This means that this is something that tends to happen to you, something negative. You're prone to worrying that things will take a turn for the worse.
I don't know if I worry that things will take a turn for the worse. I think I sort of know that things will take a turn for the worse. Right?
I mean, you know, you think about the environment and the climate, but also you think about your life. I mean, let's be honest. Everyone knows that eventually you're going to die, right? And before you die, sorry to get all depressing everyone. But everyone's going to die.
And probably before you die, you'll probably get sick or at least you'll get old and weak. And if you don't die when you're old and weak, that means you're going to die before your time, which means you might have an accident or some horrible illness.
And you know, to be frank, it's probably going to get worse before the end. I don't know anyone whose lives just get better and better and better and then shhh, off they go.
That's not the way it works. So I don't worry that things will take a turn for the worse. I sort of know that they will. So does that make up? Does that mean I'm worrying about it or just that I know it, then I know it.
I suppose I probably do worry about that a bit, like I worry about the climate. I think what's going to happen? What temperature will it be in July in 10 to 15 years time? I mean, really? What is going to happen to us?
To us and our way of life. Yeah, I worry about those things, but I think it's just that I know them rather than just like worry about them or come up with them out of nowhere.
Okay. You need time to recharge after being around people. This is a good one. And obviously this refers to being introverted or extroverted, right?
I think a lot of my listeners like Jackie assume that I'm an extrovert because of the way that I am on the podcast and the way I do comedy and stuff like that on stage and front of people.
But actually, I don't know if I am funnily enough. And I've talked about this before, but I think the definition of an introvert or an extrovert, one of the definitions is that extroverts get their energy from being with other people.
And introverts get their energy from time they spend alone. And I definitely identify with the second definition there that I do what I'm with other people. It's good, but it does exhaust me.
Spending time with others does drain my energy and I need time to recharge, which is why I do like to spend time on my own.
It helps me to recharge my batteries. So I do need time to recharge after being around people. I strongly agree with that.
You do not consider yourself an artistic type. No, I do consider myself an artistic type actually. I know that seems a bit pretentious.
But I sort of feel a bit artistic. I do music and stuff and sometimes the way that I do the podcast, I sort of see it more like an artistic endeavor rather than a sort of a business thing.
So I don't consider myself artistic. I disagree with that.
When making decisions, you focus more on logic than how others might feel about your actions.
When making decisions, you focus more on logic than how others might feel about your actions. How is other people's feelings nothing to do with logic?
How are those things exclusive to each other? Surely it's quite logical to incorporate people's feelings in your actions.
For example, if I smash this person on the head and take all their money, or I don't know what, like for example, if I play my mobile phone really loud in the evening while my wife and I are sitting on the sofa, she'll get upset with me.
So I shouldn't do it because that's just logic. That's plain logic. If I do X, Y will happen and therefore it will be bad. So don't do X.
I mean, that's just logic, basic logic and it also incorporates how other people might feel. I don't understand the question. I'm going to go neutral.
You prefer to do your chores before allowing yourself to relax. You prefer to do your chores, things like housework, doing the washing up, tidying up, clearing up, you know, just the household chores.
You prefer to do your chores before allowing yourself to relax. I agree with that a bit. I do find that in the evening dinner, cook dinner, get the kids ready for bed, put the kids in bed, they're asleep. Then I will clean up the kitchen before I sit down. So I think I agree with that.
Next, you find solving problems more important than avoiding hurt feelings. Again, I don't understand this because a problem could be hurt someone's hurt feelings. In fact, often that is the biggest problem.
You find solving problems more important than avoiding hurt feelings. What kind of problem? Like, for example, I'm going to fix this window even if it makes my daughter really upset because I'm going to fix it at 9pm when she's trying to sleep and I'm going bang, bang, bang, bang, bang.
My daughter's like, can you stop doing that? I'm trying to sleep. Well, I'm trying to solve a problem here. I don't care about your feelings.
I don't understand that. Neutral. You tend to avoid drawing attention to yourself. No, no, not well. I don't know. To draw attention to yourself is to get people's attention.
If you like drawing attention to yourself, the other person who dresses very loudly does things that obviously make people want to look at you, like you perform in the street or something and people are like, wow, look at him. Or you wear very bright clothing or something like that to make everyone look at you to draw attention to yourself.
You tend to avoid drawing attention to yourself. Well, you might think this is not true because here I am on YouTube and on a podcast and then on stage in the evening, getting people's attention. That's right. And that is definitely true. So obviously I do to an extent seek people's attention.
But then in other situations, like when I'm just walking down the street in my normal life, I don't want to draw attention to myself. When I go to a restaurant or a cafe for lunch, I like to sit at the table in an anonymity.
I don't want everyone's attention. I'm quite happy to just sit there completely anonymous reading a book. It's nice, in fact, to be in public.
I like the anonymity of a public place, you know, like when you're in a cafe and there's other people around you and you're just one of those people, you're not standing out, you're not trying to get everyone's attention.
You're just in this anonymous public space. And that's wonderful. I love that feeling. And sometimes I like working in public places and just being anonymous.
So in those situations, I definitely avoid drawing attention to myself. But then in other situations, I really try to get people's attention. For example, I'm designing YouTube thumbnails that will hopefully attract your attention.
So, you know, I do both of those things. I'm going in the middle. Your mood can change very quickly.
Yes, it can. For example, if I'm happy, if I'm happily hammering a nail in the wall, if I'm going, oh, I got my YouTube shiny thing, I'm going to hammer a nail in the wall and hang it up on the wall. Isn't this wonderful? And then whack. I hit my thumb with the hammer.
Fucking, my mood changed very quickly, right? Is that what they mean? Because that's true. Definitely my mood can change very quickly. It's unlikely that I would be hammering the nail in and then whack my thumb and go, oh, I've, I've waxed my thumb with the hammer.
But I'm in such a good mood that I'm just going to wait a couple of minutes before I get really angry about that. Just hold on. Yep, here it comes. See, my mood doesn't change very quickly. It takes time for the mood to change.
I mean, I think I get what they mean that you can be sort of in a good mood one moment and then suddenly you're angry. I think I'm probably a bit more stable than that.
I don't tend to shift from one mood to the other fairly quickly, but who knows you'd probably have to ask my wife. That would be interesting actually to get my wife to take this test for me.
And see if her perception of me is different from my perception of myself. Anyway, your mood can change very quickly. No, I'm fairly stable. I'm going to disagree with that slightly.
In a conflict, you prioritize objective solutions over personal needs or emotions. Again, this is another one of those questions that actually doesn't make sense when you think about it.
In a conflict, you prioritize objective solutions over personal needs or emotions. So what kind of conflict are we talking about?
Let's say my daughter and my son are having an argument because they both want to play with the same toy.
If you want, you could think of this in adult terms. For example, you could have adults who are upset with each other because they both want what would it be? The last biscuit.
Let's go for that. Although the biscuit could be anything. Could be the contract.
Two parties are upset because there's only one contract. I'm offering the contract to one party, but the other parties all upset because they feel like they should have been given the contract.
Oh, God, everyone's upset and everyone's angry. What do I do? Prioritize objective solutions over personal needs or emotions. What if the conflict is the fact that people's personal needs or emotions have been upset?
In that sense, the objective solution is to find a way to make sure everyone's personal needs and emotions are dealt with. So those things, objective solutions and personal needs or emotions are not mutually exclusive at all.
In fact, often they are exactly the same thing that an objective solution will solve personal needs and emotional problems. Sorry, I'm going to go in the middle again.
You often end up doing things at the last possible moment. Well, yeah, of course, who doesn't do that? I would agree with that. Not strongly because I don't do it all the time, but yeah, of course, especially at work, I get to work and the time I will always use every single second of time that I have in preparing my lesson.
But I'm not going to arrive at work two hours in advance because I'm not being paid for that time. So I go in with 40 minutes or something and every second is used, preparing photocopying, preparing student lists, doing this that and the other, right?
And often it'll be right up until the moment when the class starts. So yeah, I do end up doing things at the last possible moment, just like most people, I think. You've always been fascinated by the question of what, if anything happens after death.
Yeah, I agree with that. Right. Wouldn't everyone agree with that? What kind of person is just like, hey, do you ever think about bit more bit this. Sorry, but do you ever think about like what happens after we die?
Like after we die, no, who cares? Not interested really. No, I don't know. Maybe that maybe what they're thinking with this is that the people who are not fascinated by what happens after we die, those people just live in the moment. They're just free spirits who live in the moment.
I don't care about what happens after I die. I just want to live every day as if it's my last day. Maybe. But yeah, of course I'm fascinated by what happens after we die. I mean, that's obviously fascinating, isn't it?
I wonder how very religious people would feel about this question because they, very religious people would be like, well, I know what's going to happen. I'm going to go to heaven as well. I'm going to go to heaven or maybe hell, hopefully heaven.
Right? But that also is fascinating, isn't it? Are you going to go to heaven or hell? Are you sure you're sure you're going to go to heaven? I don't know. I think I'm interested by that. Of course. Next.
You usually prefer to be around others rather than on your own. You prefer to be around others rather than on your own. This is that extrovert, introvert thing again.
I don't know. I quite like being on my own, but not all the time. Sometimes I get lonely. You know, and then I crave the attention of others. The company of others. You usually prefer to be around others than on your own. It's 50, 50. Maybe a little bit more. Maybe. Yeah.
You become bored or lose interest when the discussion gets highly theoretical. It's a difficult one to answer, isn't it? That when a discussion gets highly theoretical, what does that mean?
So if you're discussing, what are we discussing? What would we be discussing? Like, oh, so your cabbries have brought out some new biscuits. Really? What ones?
They're orange chocolate digestives with orange flavour. That's good, isn't it? Oh, yeah. Should we get some? Yeah, I think we should get some. What's your favourite kind of biscuit? I don't know. I suppose I like the chocolate dark chocolate digestives.
When would this conversation get theoretical? What about the idea of... I don't know, what vegan biscuits? If you thought about, well, they don't exist. So I suppose that in theory, vegan biscuits could be good. But as long as the flavour is retained and they don't use any kind of animal fats or any other derived products like milk or anything, sorry, this is conversations got too boring.
As soon as it got theoretical, I'm out. You become bored or lose interest when the discussion gets highly theoretical. No, I don't. I'm quite happy having theoretical discussions.
You find it easy to empathise with a person whose experiences are very different from yours. I can empathise with a person whose experiences are very different from yours. Yeah? I think so. Yeah.
I think I do. For example, there's a YouTube channel called... Is it called Soft White Underbelly? Soft White Underbelly? I think it is. And it's a series of fascinating interviews with homeless people and alcoholic people and people addicted to substances in America, in Los Angeles.
There's an interviewer. He takes people from Skid Row, these people who are just in terrible situations living on the street. And he puts them in front of a really good camera with a nice background and he interviews them about their life and lets them talk about their life. It's absolutely fascinating.
Some of those stories that those people have told are absolutely heartbreaking. And of course, you empathise with them when they talk about the abuse that they suffered and how that caused them to adopt lifestyles which are very damaging and how they can't escape from these addictive behaviour because they've got core problems with their personal life.
Of course, you empathise with them. You kind of feel what they feel as they tell you about their story. But these people have got very different experiences to mine. I've never lived on the street.
So I find it easy to empathise with a person. Yeah, I agree with that. You usually postpone finalising decisions for as long as possible.
I mean, I try to leave a decision until the last possible moment. No, not really. I don't like to do that. I try to make a decision. I like to get to a decision. Sometimes I can't. Sometimes it's difficult.
I usually postpone finalising decisions for as long as possible. I'm neither nor am in the middle. You rarely second guess the choices that you've made.
To second guess something is basically to kind of think about something again. Right? So you make a decision and then afterwards you like, wait a minute, was that the right decision? Should I have done that? Maybe I should have done it differently.
Hmm, you can also second guess someone. That's where someone has done something, made a decision. And you kind of think about that decision again after they've already done it.
That's second guessing someone or second guessing a choice that you've made. You rarely second guess the choices you've made. No, I think I'm fairly reflective.
And I often will think again about decisions or choices. I often look back and think about things. You rarely second guess the choices that you've made. Not true.
After a long and exhausting week, a lively social event is just what you need. There's another question about being introverted or extroverted. It depends on the social event, doesn't it?
Sometimes if it's a party with all my best friends, then that is often just what I need. But if it's a long and exhausting week yet to be fair, I think some time on my own just to just to relax is is is what I like.
So I think I disagree with that.
You enjoy going to art museums. Yes, I do. Yeah, I'm not one of these people who's like, oh, it's a load of old pretentious nonsense, isn't it art?
It's just a big scam. The whole art industry, not really. I quite like going around drinking a nice coffee and looking at some pictures and kind of going, wow, what's all this about then?
And if it's old pictures, marveling at the artistry and the history, if it's new contemporary art, just being open-minded and having a good look at the work, not just judging it based on how difficult it was or child could have done that. That's not the point.
It's more about what feelings it evokes or what kind of imagery it evokes. I do. I love going to art museums. Agree.
You often have a hard time understanding others feelings. I don't think so. I think I'm fairly good at understanding how other people feel.
So disagree. You like to have a to do list for each day. So a to do list is a list of things to do. Right? So I'm going to do this. This here are my things to do.
I do like to have a to do list for each day. Yes. I don't always have one, but when it's necessary. Yes. So yeah, I like having a to do list.
You rarely feel insecure. Insecure is where you feel anxious. You feel you don't feel totally secure. You don't feel totally safe. Normally in an emotional way.
If you feel insecure, I used to feel a lot more insecure than I do now. These days, I'm a bit more sure of myself. I'm a bit in a bit more of an emotional, emotionally safe and strong situation with a family and I'm married and stuff like that.
There were times in my past where I felt insecure like I didn't feel like I was emotionally grounded or that I was emotionally safe. I felt unconfident and a bit unhappy. But these days, I'm okay.
So what does that mean? That mean I've changed. I mean, if we have a universal personality type, then surely I would always feel the same all the way through my life.
I think we changed. Don't we as our lives change? I don't know how to answer that. I'm going in the middle. You prefer texting or emailing to calling or meeting in person.
I am more of a texture than a caller. If someone calls me on my phone, if I look at my phone and someone's calling, I'd often will kind of go,
someone's calling me. That is my first reaction quite a lot. I prefer to use text messages. So I think I agree with that. You enjoyed debating ethical dilemmas.
Oh God, I'm not sure I do really enjoyed debating ethical situations. I mean, I know that ethics are important. But to be honest, it's one of my least favorite topics to debate.
I like debating things, but ethical dilemmas. Sometimes it's just very unsatisfying to debate those things. Like for example, you know, you've got this situation.
There's a train coming down the train tracks and you've got the lever to control the junction. And the train can go either one way or the other depending on how you pull the lever.
Pull it to the right. The train will crash into a group of people. But if you pull it to the left, the train will crash into a member of your family. Which way do you make the train go?
That's what ethical dilemmas are horrible. Or when you've got, so there's 10 children and they could be killed by the train. Or you kill this scientist who's going to develop a vaccine for malaria.
Which one do you do? Oh God, I can't stand debating things like that because obviously it all depends on how you define ethics.
One person dying versus some other group of people dying. Or the potential for what this one person versus the potential.
Ah, no, I don't really enjoy debating ethical dilemmas. I'm going to strongly disagree with that.
You're excited by the prospect of exploring new social environments and dynamics. What? Excited by the prospect of exploring new social environments and dynamics.
I suppose this means, like, if I move to a different country, there'll be like all these different social environments, like different people to meet in different situations, different kinds of...
I don't know, that sounds a bit exhausting. I mean, it can be exciting these days. I mean, you know, ask me that 20 years ago and I would have agreed with it a lot more.
These days, I'm a little bit less enthusiastic about that sort of thing. Maybe I'm getting older.
Excited by the prospect of exploring new. It's fairly exciting, but also sounds fairly horrible, doesn't it? I'm going to go in the middle.
If your plans are interrupted, your top priority is to get back on track as soon as possible. If my plans are interrupted, my top priority is to get back on track as soon as possible.
It's difficult to answer. Depends on the plans, doesn't it? So, for example, if I've got a plan to go to the cinema, I'm going to go to the cinema.
Right, so tonight, I'm going to the cinema and I'm walking to the cinema. I'm going to watch the new Quentin Tarantino film. Fantastic.
And then I bump into an old friend. I haven't seen for ages. And he says, hey, Luke, I haven't seen you for ages. How are you? Let's go for a drink.
What's is my top priority to just go back to my original plan? It's great to see you. I haven't seen you for 20 years. I might never seen you again, but I'm sorry.
I've already got a plan in place. I'm going to go and see the Quentin Tarantino film. So sorry.
Goodbye. No. If I'm teaching an English lesson, I've got a plan. Like today, we're going to do second conditional structures and discussing the past or discussing the present if it's second conditional, discussing the present and the future with second conditional.
That's what we're going to do in this lesson. And then my students all together, they all say, you know what? We've done too much grammar recently. Can we have a discussion about the Olympics in Paris?
Would I say, no, I'm sorry, my top priority is to just get back on track as soon as possible. No, I wouldn't. So it looks like I disagree with this. Yeah.
You're still bothered by mistakes you made a long time ago. Yeah. Yeah. I think isn't everyone or is it just me? Maybe a lot of people are like, I never look back. Never look back at the past.
Just move forwards all the time and just keep making the same mistakes again and again and again.
Now I do often find myself looking back at failing my A levels or doing this or that. So I'm, yeah, I agree with that.
You prefer not to take risks even when they might lead to new experiences.
I don't know. I think I've, again, it depends on the time of life. But I tend to disagree with this. Like a couple of times I've done a bungee jump.
You know, that's where you jump off a bridge with a rope attached. And then you swing at the bottom or bounce at, I've done those a couple of times. They were good fun.
And I did them precisely because they were new experiences. I'd love to do a skydive. What other kinds of risks are we talking about though?
Just going off to a new place without really planning. What kind of risks do we mean? Like doing a new type of podcast episode I've never done before.
It might not work. What will people think? I don't know. I've got to go in the middle. Your emotions control you more than you control them.
Who knows? Sometimes my emotions control me. For example, if I'm feeling enthusiastic about something or if I feel happy about something, if I feel sad, if I feel very depressed, I might take the day off because I just can't work today.
Just don't feel a bit too depressed. Depressed. I feel a bit too depressed. I can't speak. Sometimes I do that. If I'm feeling a bit depressed for whatever reason, I don't have the enthusiasm. I will take the day off.
Does that mean my emotions are controlling me? Or is that me making the decision because of impossible to answer that?
You take great care not to embarrass others even when it's their fault.
A bit. I mean, as an English person, I fit that stereotype fairly well where someone steps on my foot. I say sorry.
If someone does something, I will say sorry because I don't want everyone to feel bad.
But I don't know if I take great care not to embarrass others. For example, if someone crashed into my car and completely destroyed it, so I had to buy a new one, I think I would probably, in that situation, I would say, look, I'm sorry, that was your fault. I want your insurance details.
If I got poisoned at a restaurant and it was clearly the fault of the chef who prepared the food wrong, I think I would probably ask for compensation or whatever.
I wouldn't be like, you know what? I nearly died from gastric disease, whatever that is.
Don't worry about it. It's okay. It's okay. No, you're a great chef. No, everything's fine. No, I disagree.
But then again, you know, I do like to take other people's feelings into account and I don't want people to feel embarrassed or awkward.
So often I will, for example, say sorry, even if it wasn't really my fault, just because I don't want everything to be a problem.
So it's a bit of both 50-50. I'm going in the middle. When we've got 80%, that 80% done, we've got 20% left.
Your personal work style is closer to spontaneous bursts of energy than organized and consistent efforts.
I'm sorry, everyone. I'm going to have to go 50-50 on this one because often I'll be doing organized and consistent work where it's like, for example, preparing for premium episodes, where it's like, you know, organized work, creating word lists and then kind of finding example sentences and thinking of clever ways to achieve a good deal.
So that's fairly organized and consistent work. But then sometimes you get like a flash of inspiration. And that's suddenly like, whoa, whoa, and I open up a new Google document and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, start writing out some other thing because I just get an idea that could be another episode.
So it's really a mix of things.
I think my personal work style is to do both of those things. I mean, no one is just doing spontaneous bursts of energy only or just organized and consistent things. Are they? Certainly for me, I mean, in a fairly critical way, I think it's just a bit of a problem.
So I think that's a problem. I think that's a problem. I think that's a problem. I think that's a problem. I think that's a problem. I think that's a problem. I think that's a problem. I think that's a problem. I think that's a problem. I think that's a problem. I think that's a problem. I think that's a problem. I think that's a problem. I think that's a problem. I think that's a problem. I think that's a problem. I think that's a problem. I think that's a problem. I think that's a problem. I think that's a problem. I think that's a problem. I think that's a problem. I think that's a problem. I think that's a problem. I think that's a problem. I think that's a problem. I think that's a problem. I think that's a problem. I think that's a problem. I think that's a problem. I think that's a problem. I think that
you wonder how long it will take them to feel disappointed in you. A bit, a bit, a bit. So if someone I find out that someone thinks I'm fantastic. Yeah, there's a little bit inside me that's kind of like, ah, alright. Yeah, there's a realistic feeling in there, which is like, ah, well, maybe when they get to know me, they won't think I'm that fantastic. Who knows? Even my wife, you know, I'm still convinced that any day now she's just going to realize,
wait a minute, you're rubbish. Why am I with you? There's still that feeling that one day she will kind of realize. So yeah, I agree with that to an extent. You would love a job that requires you to work alone most of the time. Yeah, I can't
I agree with that because obviously I love the job I do and I do work alone a lot of the time. Even though I'm sort of working with a lot of people, I do have guests sometimes as a teacher. I'm in front of students in class.
But the work that I really love is to do stuff like this and a lot of the time this involves working alone. So I'm going to have to agree with that.
You believe that pondering abstract philosophical questions is a waste of time. Now I love pondering abstract philosophical questions.
It's one of my favorite things to do. So disagree.
Engaging with new people invigorates you, sparkling, sparking your curiosity and enthusiasm. To an extent, engaging with new people, meeting new people and talking to them, this invigorates me, sparking my curiosity and enthusiasm.
I think when I have interesting guests on this podcast, I think that's fairly invigorating. And what happens often is that.
I'll spend a lot of time making episodes on my own for a while. I could do solo episodes for a while. And then I'll have a guest and it's like really refreshing and sort of nice pleasant and refreshing to have a new person to talk to.
But not all the time. You know, a lot of the time I'll have guests and then I'll think I can't wait to get back to doing solo stuff again.
And I just sort of like feel like no, I just want to work on my own for a bit.
I'm going to go in the middle. You believe that showing empathy during disagreements leads to better resolutions.
Yeah, I think it's probably true. So if I'm having an argument with someone, I will probably often show that I understand how they feel.
Sometimes it doesn't help me win the argument, but I can't help it. I agree.
Okay, I think it's the last section, surely. You often feel overwhelmed. If you feel overwhelmed, you feel like everything's too much.
Too much stuff, too many things to think about, like your mental load is too much. If you're overwhelmed too much, I'll go.
