Me, myself, and whoever comes along

Thursday, August 19, 2004

I am a Visual Mathematician!

Well... what's the hell is a Visual Mathematician, and what does it means to me? First of all.. how did I ended up at this wonderful conclusion?

I did a small online IQ test from Tickle. It's being announced at a number of top sites. Despite the fact that I liked the test, and that the result seemed true to my own self, I wouldn't recommend the test for one reason; the company invites you to do the test for free, but asks for personal info before showing you the result. It's actually clever on their part - you fill in the forms, and when you believe that you are going to see the results, "please fill in the form below". Damned, at this point we're too curious to stop it. So if you want to take the test yourself, beware. Nobody knows exactly what are they up to with the ability to cross my email address and birth date with the test results. I'm sure there's market potential here.

But anyway, I did the tests, and I was too curious to see the results, so I've filled in the registration form. Well, the result is the one I said above -- I'm a Visual Mathemathician with an above-average IQ score (no, I'm not going to say it out loud). Now, what does it mean for me? Tickle defines it as follows:

Your Intellectual Type is Visual Mathematician. This means you are gifted at spotting patterns — both in pictures and in numbers. These talents combined with your overall high intelligence make you good at understanding the big picture, which is why people trust your instincts and turn to you for direction — especially in the workplace. And that's just some of what we know about you from your test results.


Curious as I am (didn't you notice it?) I did a Google search for the term. The top listing is this blog entry, that must hold some type of record. The original post is from July 9, 2003. We're already mid-august, one year later, and there is still some people commenting there. Some of the traits seems to be surprisingly common: for instance, visual memory; ability to remember faces, but some trouble to remember names, unless associated with the faces; and a number of other traits. Some posters also have pointed out at how hard is to go through high school, for many VM's drop out of boredom (that's my case, too).

It seems that VMs are pretty common, and really share a number of personality traits. It also seems that some of the problems I've been through are common for people with the same intellectual type as myself. It's good to know it, as it will surely help me as I keep trying to understand myself and to get the better of my own potential.

Monday, August 09, 2004

Let's start coding again!

Python Notes is my newest blog, where I'm discussing Python coding. My own pet personal project in Python is an entirely new webapp framework for personal information management. It may sound weird, but it's a cross between a blog and wiki, with some advanced ideas regarding collaboration and interactive document sharing interspersed. It's my take on the blog revolution, let's see if I can make it work, at least for my own personal use.