Oh, the dichotomy...

Apparently the Myers-Briggs test is now all the rage on Facebook, reducing the once esteemed psychological survey to a time waster for people to post on their profile pages.

Okay, so naturally I just had to take it and post it on my wall. Hey, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Anyway, some of the questions are just so frustrating, because they just separate things that should remain together. For instance, the classic example: "Mercy, or Justice?"

Oh, for crying out loud! We all want both, don't we? At least Jesus did. In a sense, don't you think it's unhealthy to ask someone to choose?

But there was another question that kind of bothered me, and it was, "Do you prefer practical solutions or creative ideas?" As a mathematician, I have to say, that's a complete toss-up.

I'd say creativity and practicality are impossible to separate in mathematics. A creative idea often is the most practical solution to a problem. A professor once said to me, "Five minutes of contemplation can save an hour of computation."

That sounds pretty practical, no? But it also means you have to let yourself be creative before you start plowing through pages of calculations.

Anyway, yeah, sure, the Myers-Briggs personality test is really useful. All I'm saying is that sometimes we put too fine a line where there shouldn't be one.