Now as much as the internet is filled with critiques and crucifying comments about the accuracy and legitimacy of personality tests, this writer happens to be on of the biggest fans of letter sequences that detail her entire being. In recent years there’s been growing popularity and refinement to tests designed previously with user friendly and interface gorgeous websites like 16 Personalities and SDI by Act Knowledge. These websites make it easy for users of a range of ages to understand the prompts and recieve their personality analysis fully packaged in a few clicks. Such personality tests extend into more specific analyses that determine your work or creative type, going so far as to offer unsolicited relationship advice when you discover your love language. It was this specific type of quiz that led me to discover my personal creative type that helped me write this week’s poem “tell me now.”
To preface my journey toward this quiz, I have always been intrigued with not only writing poems but the process by which I come across the ideas for them. I think there is a common misconception of ‘lightbulb’, ‘eureka’, or ‘epitome’ moments where a boon of inspiration is recieved at some obscure hour and while that can be true, it’s not the only path of my personal poetic process. I started writing when I was in Grade 7, at a beautiful time of hormones, hurt, and angst- apt fuel for pseudo-wise word snippets. Most of my writing around this age was strictly done in class as my English teacher, an amazing woman who was obsessed with poetry, made us write a poem a day. Reflecting on this time bound writing is interesting as my current style generally follows no strict schedule with both my urge to write and actual production time happen in the dead of night.
Elementary, however, was a time of stressors very different to my modern ones, and after reading about the science behind night creativity my normal midday writing during my non-busy time of life makes sense. This phenomena occurs because of your frontal cortext, in-head task manager, shutting down from exhaustion which allows the more creative, lucid parts of your mind to wander. In simple terms, “exhaustion … can spur creativity because, frankly, you just don’t give a damn” (Christensen, 12). Hence my affinity for nightime writing under the stars- stuck to my bedroom ceiling, is now justifiable by simple science and an awfully busy schedule.
After this self relfection I decided to go down a little internet rabbit hole that led me to a fairly new Adobe Creative Type test that the internet has been obsessing over. I was greeted with stunning visuals, as expected by Adobe, and a cute series of animations after each question. I went through the quiz provided with two relatively simple choices for each statement/question and the process felt very fun and straightforward, with just enough thought involved. After completing the test I was greeted with a bright orange monster (see picture) that showcased my creative type- “the Adventurer.” As part of my strenghts, my creative energy levels are high and I keep a strong spirit of curiosity which lends to my personal observation of creative rushes in my life. Adobe also pinpointed that my untapped potential was focusing on a project which I do see as a weakness in how I generally pursue creative projects sporadically and am often noncomittal. My favorite element of the quiz was the extra personality assesment that they include within your creative type giving examples such as how the Adventurer is often a Rennaisance person who familiarizes themselves with interdisciplinary hobbies and passions across fields, which I resonate with.
Despite your personal stance on personality tests, it’s can be fun to try and take them, albeit with a grain of salt, to gauge some traits within yourself that you may be able to discover with MTBI, SDI, or Adobe prompts and some critical self relflection. My poem for this week came from a sporadic creative rush while on my trampoline, if your process is methodical maybe its time to learn more about it.
Works Cited
Christensen, Tanner. “Why You’re More Creative at Night and How to Reproduce the Effect.” Creative Something, Creative Something, 19 Dec. 2017, https://creativesomething.net/post/54997033332/why-youre-more-creative-at-night-and-how-to.
“Creative Types by Adobe Create.” Creative Types by Adobe Create, https://mycreativetype.com/.
wikiHow, wikiHow Staff. “4 Ways to Be a Renaissance Person.” WikiHow, WikiHow, 25 Jan. 2023, https://www.wikihow.com/Be-a-Renaissance-Person#:~:text=Being%20a%20Renaissance%20person%20means%20that%20your%20interests,fit%20and%20active%2C%20and%20embrace%20your%20creative%20side.