Who am I? How to get a straightforward, comprehensive, unbiased picture of myself, my key personality traits and my values, without going through long hours of meditation or months of appointments with a professional analyst?
With Watson Personality Insights, in a matter of seconds I got all of the above and much more. Not the first time I take a personality test, as it is a common practice in most companies to provide a thorough assessment to newly appointed managers and executive. But, there is a big but: in my experience, these tests are highly biased, as you can easily infer from the question how the answer will be evaluated, and the feedback you will receive, therefore possibly changing the answer you provide. Instead, with Watson Personality Insights I used 10,363 words from 21 blogs posted in the last 3 years on betterness.it; blog posts on topics ranging from marketing, leadership, design, art, minimalism and more. I did no write the posts thinking that someone (or something!) would ever use the content to analyze my personality.
After digesting in few milliseconds more the 10k of words, Watson Personality Insights returned a nice sunburst chart, visualizing how do I score on 47 parameters aligned to the three different models used by the service. And with the help of the documentation available at Watson Developer Cloud, you can understand the meaning behind the numbers. Here is what Watson has to say about me:
On Personality (the model describing describe how a person engages with the world): with high openness (97%) to experience, I am described as intellectually curious, emotionally-aware, sensitive to beauty and willing to try new things. Likely eager to trying new activities and experiencing new things (adventurousness 100%); open to and intrigued by new ideas and love to explore them (intellect 100%); prefer to challenge authority (100%) and traditional values to help drive change (read my lips: I-am-not-a-yes-man); highly appreciative for art and beauty (artistic interest 86%), both man-made and in nature; with a wild imagination (64%), but mostly do not frequently think about or openly express my emotions (emotionality 26%… so true!).
I have an energetic and pronounced engagement with the external world (extroversion 83%). I like high group visibility, talking, and asserting myself. I do enjoy a fast-paced, busy schedule with many activities (100%), being assertive I tend to speak up and take charge of situations (98%), and I am comfortable leading groups; I do enjoy environmental stimulation, love the excitement by taking risks and feel quickly bored without lots of action going on (excitement seeking 57%); I am socially confident and feel comfortable around other people (outgoing 54%), but also have a strong desire to have time for myself (gregariousness 28%), and I am generally serious and do not joke much (cheerfulness 28% sic, should I joke more? I wonder if Watson got this right, not sure my friend and colleagues would agree with this statement!).
From an emotional perspective: I am comfortable with myself (melancholy 28%), self-confident, and hard to embarrass (self-consciousness 22%), I tend to feel calm and self-assured (prone to worry 12%); I can handle unexpected events calmly and effectively (susceptible to stress 9%); I am mild tempered, and it takes a lot to get you angry (fiery 5%… but beware, if you get to the point to make me angry, you’d better not be around!); generally, have control over my desires, which are not particularly intense (immoderation 3%).
I tend to act in an organized and thoughtful way (consciousness 62%), setting high goals for myself and working hard to achieve them (achievement striving 90%); I feel I have the ability to succeed in the challenges I take (self-efficacy 90%), carefully thinking through decisions before making them (cautiousness 79%), with the self-discipline to tackle and stick with tough tasks (self-discipline 74%); I take rules and obligations seriously, even when they are inconvenient (dutifulness 56%), and I do not make a lot of time for organization in my daily life (orderliness 39%)
I believe the best of others and trust (98%) people easily (maybe too much?); I am easy to please and try to avoid confrontation (cooperation 79%); I do feel fulfilled when helping others (altruism 77%); I feel what others feel and am compassionate toward them (sympathy 72%); I think it is wrong to take advantage… but can find tricks in the book to get what I want (uncompromising 45%); I hold myself in high regard and I am pretty satisfied with who I am (modesty 3%).
On Needs, the model describing which aspects of a product are likely to resonate with me as a consumer: my highest value is curiosity (90%), indicating a high desire to discover and grow, while I am low on closeness (setting up a home) and harmony (appreciating other people viewpoints and feelings). That’s why it’s easier to sell me an adventurous trip in Patagonia, rather than an all-inclusive family package at a Club Med.
On Values, the model highlighting the motivating factors that influence my decision-making: I am high on openness to change (90%), emphasizing independent action, thought, and feeling, as well as a readiness for new experiences.
This is the naked me. Do I agree with all of the above? Mostly yes; certainly there is a lot of valuable material to think through from IBM Watson Personality Insights. While I will go over it, trying to get a clearer picture of myself, you can try the service end enjoy the journey of self-discovery enabled by Artificial Intelligence. After that, you might still want to go through meditation and analyst appointments, but the starting point of self-awareness will be much higher.
