Discovering that I am an octopus got me thinking.  Nb: If this statement comes as a surprise to anyone, you may need to first read my earlier blog on the subject.

Out of the sixteen possible alternatives I could have been on the animal personality test, I came out as the only cold-blooded one.  Now, I don’t want to make any value judgments regarding hot-blooded versus cold-blooded but, in my experience, it is rare that cold-blooded is used as a term of endearment.  However, on the positive side, I came out as the only creature possessed with nine brains.

When used as an adjective, cold-blooded usually refers to someone without emotion or feeling; most often it comes in front of nouns like ‘murderer’ or ‘killer’.  Does that really describe me?  Surely I am not so friendless?  Perhaps it is time to take a good hard look around the office and assess my friends.

To do this, I decided to refer back to the animal personality test.

I became an octopus by dint of obtaining the result INTJ on a test of psychological attributes.  I am going to make the assumption that I am most likely to be friends with people who have similar attributes to me.  By my reasoning then, I stand the best chance of being friends with people who differ from my test result by just one letter, ie. ENTJ, ISTJ, INFJ or INTP.  What animals do these combinations represent?  I drew up a circle of friendship.

Jeez!  Bear, beaver, owl and wolf.  Where are the friendly dolphins?  What about the cute cats?  Or the sensitive deer?

With friends like these…  And, whilst we are on the subject of enemies.  By extending my analogy, my office nemesis should presumably be the person who has the exact opposite test results to me.

I was INTJ.  So, my most loathed workplace foe should be the person who scores ESFP.

And what animal is that?

© Simon Turner-Tree

Simon Turner-Tree goes in search of a good strong club.