Like many of you, over time I have been tested for the Myers-Briggs personality profile. I keep coming up ISTJ that stands for Introvert, Sensing, Thinking and Judging.

I find this test to be fascinating, and I guess get some small comfort from being pegged as an ISTJ. Several years ago, I was even so enthralled with the test that I wrote a piece for ServerWatch about how you can use the test and personas to manage your networks, based on the type of personalities you have working for you.

This week when I was at the Ford Trends event in Dearborn I got tested again, and again I came up as an ISTJ.  Ford was showing us how they apply personality types to their own research on who is more likely to buy what kind of car, and in the briefing that we had about the results were several different personas where we would find our matching profile. You can see the picture below:

My matching persona was named Cal, who was the owner of a F-250 Super Duty pickup. For those of you that don’t know this is a big truck. Cal’s 6.7 liter V8 turbo engine “makes him feel unstoppable” and he also owns a lot of tools. Now while there is no doubt that the profile of Cal by Ford is totally ISTJ, Cal isn’t anywhere near me. If you know me, you know that power tools and I don’t occupy the same space, unless they are someone else’s and even then I try to stay away from them as much as possible. But Cal is “the go-to guy who gets things done” and I would have to agree that is me to a (Model) T. And I liked the picture of Cal and his rugged good looks that they had included next to the profile.

Speaking of pickups, also at the Ford event was their concept Atlas truck that combined the best of LED-lit limo-style interior with other fancy features, such as auto-closing louvers on the wheels and front grill to give you a few extra MPG when you are going at fast MPH.

Whether or not I will buy a pickup truck in my future isn’t really the point. The packet of information that I got at the event was interesting: included were suggestions on how to enhance my decision-making based on my ISTJ’edness. Such as:

• Realize that planning for success is as important as preparing for failure
• Remember to evaluate a decision on its merits, rather than reject it based on fear of the unknown
• Realize that conformity and agreement are better won than imposed

There is a lot more that I have to say about the Ford event (including meeting Woz for the first time as you can see above), and I will be posting on Internet Evolution next week, so check back with me then to see what I learned at the event.