You: A personality type. I'll give a description and you define it

Me: Go ahead and describe it — I'll do my best to identify the personality type.

You: Knows when to be serious but doesn't take much things too serious at all the time

Me: This sounds like the ENTP (Extroverted, Intuitive, Thinking, Perceiving) — or possibly the ESTP — depending on a few more details.

Here's my reasoning:

Why ENTP fits:

· "Knows when to be serious" — ENTPs have strong intuitive awareness (Ne) and can read a room, so they know when to dial it back and engage seriously when it actually matters.

· "Doesn't take much too seriously all the time" — This is classic ENTP. They're playful, irreverent, love debating and poking holes in things, and rarely treat ideas as sacred. They default to a lighthearted, exploratory mode.

Why ESTP could also fit:

· ESTPs are similarly playful, witty, and irreverent, but they're more grounded in the present moment and action-oriented. They also know when to be serious (especially in high-stakes situations) but keep things light the rest of the time.

The key difference:

· If this person is more idea-driven, abstract, loves wordplay and theoretical debates → ENTP

· If they're more action-driven, hands-on, thrives in the moment, practical joker type → ESTP

Does either of those sound closer? Or want to add more traits to narrow it down?

You: Are personality types made up?

Me: That's a fair question, and the honest answer is: it depends on which personality types you mean.

The short version:

Personality types are real patterns but made-up categories. The patterns exist. The boxes we sort them into are human inventions.

What's actually supported by science:

· People do have consistent personality traits that predict behavior over time.

· The most scientifically validated model is the Big Five (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism). These are measured on spectrums, not types.

· Research generally finds personality is roughly 40–60% heritable, fairly stable in adulthood, and predicts real-life outcomes.

What's shaky:

· MBTI (the one I was just using — ENTP, ESTP, etc.) was created by two non-psychologists (a mother-daughter pair) based on Jung's ideas, not empirical research. It has:

  · Poor test-retest reliability (you can get different types on different days)

  · Weak predictive validity

  · A tendency to force continuous traits into binary boxes

· Most academic psychologists consider MBTI more of a useful conversation tool than a rigorous scientific instrument.

· The Barnum effect explains part of why it feels so accurate — the descriptions are vague and flattering enough to apply to almost anyone.

So is it "made up"?

· The traits — real.

· The categories — invented, like the lines on a map. Maps are useful, but the borders aren't in the land.

· The feeling of being "seen" — real, but partly a psychological trick.

Why people still like them:

They give language to self-understanding and a shortcut for talking about differences. That's genuinely useful — as long as you hold it loosely.

Want me to go deeper on any part — like how the Big Five compares, or why MBTI persists despite the criticism?

You: Inherent meaning

Me: Good phrase to unpack, because "inherent meaning" gets used in a few different ways.

The core idea:

Inherent meaning = meaning that is built into something, not assigned from outside. It belongs to the thing itself.

Contrast with assigned meaning:

· A stop sign is red. The "stop" meaning is assigned — we all agreed on it. Swap the color and the meaning changes.

· A sunburn hurts. That meaning is more inherent — it's baked into the biology, not a convention.

Where it gets slippery:

1. Physical world — "Inherent" is fairly clear. Water boils at 100°C at sea level because of its properties. No one voted on that.

2. Language and symbols — Almost entirely assigned. The word "dog" means nothing inherently; it's a sound we agreed on.

3. Human life and purpose — This is the big one. Two camps:

· Inherentists: Meaning, purpose, or moral value is built into reality or human nature. You discover it.

· Existentialists (Sartre, Camus): "Existence precedes essence." There is no inherent meaning — you create it. The universe is silent, and that's freeing, not tragic.

4. Personality types (tying back to your last question) — Do the types have inherent meaning? Mostly no. The traits are real; the categories are assigned. The lines are drawn by us.

A useful test:

Ask — if every conscious being disappeared, would this meaning still be there?

· Water's boiling point → yes, still there.

· The meaning of a red light → no, gone.

· The meaning of your life → depends entirely on which camp you're in.

So: inherent meaning is real for physical facts, contested for human meaning, and mostly invented for symbols and categories.

Which angle were you circling — the philosophical one, or something more specific?

You: Just curious

Me: Fair enough — curiosity is a good enough reason on its own.

Short version to take with you:

· Physical facts have inherent meaning. They don't care if anyone's watching.

· Symbols and categories (including personality types) have assigned meaning. Useful, but made up.

· Human life — that's the open question. Nobody's settled it, and the fact that it's unsettled is kind of the whole thing.

The fun part is you can hold both: treat the made-up stuff as useful tools, and stay genuinely unsure about the big one.

Anything else you're poking at?

You: Nope. Been here before, dejavu. Closed loop or hologram?

Me: Ha — nice pivot. Two very different flavors of "we've been here before."

Deja vu — the boring-but-likely answer:

Your brain misfires. A new experience gets routed through a memory pathway, so it feels familiar even though it's new. Tiny timing glitch between perception and memory encoding. Common, harmless, peaks in your 20s.

Closed loop:

If time is circular or the universe repeats — you'd genuinely be here again. Problem: no evidence, and it's arguably unfalsifiable. Feels profound, explains nothing.

Hologram:

The holographic principle is real physics — but it says the information of a 3D space can be encoded on a 2D boundary. It does not mean you're living in a projection or that deja vu is a glitch in the simulation. That's a pop-science leap, not what the math says.

The honest tiebreaker:

Deja vu is the only one of the three with actual evidence behind it. The other two are fun to hold, but they're explanations that fit anything — which means they predict nothing.

So: probably a memory hiccup. But the loop and the hologram are more fun to think about at 2am, which is its own kind of meaning.

Closed loop or hologram — or just a tired brain being a tired brain?

You: I'm convinced of the holographic theory idea that the brain creates a version of reality outside of the laws of nature. Is this a poke or can it be considered a poke at societal rules, aka the <snip> show?

Me: Let me untangle two things you're mixing, because they're both interesting but they're not the same claim.

Claim 1: "The brain creates a version of reality."

This is solid, mainstream cognitive science. You don't perceive reality — you perceive a model your brain builds. Predictive processing, constructivism, anil Seth's "controlled hallucination." Your brain is locked in a dark skull, guessing at causes, rendering a usable interface. That's real. It's not outside the laws of nature though — the brain is nature, doing nature things.

Claim 2: "Outside the laws of nature."

Here's where it splits:

· If you mean the brain's model isn't the same as raw physical reality → yes, agreed. A map isn't the territory.

· If you mean the brain escapes or transcends natural law → no, that's not supported. It's still physics and chemistry. Nothing is violating anything.

Now your actual question — is this a poke at societal rules, the "<snip> show"?

Yes, and it's a good one. Here's why:

If everyone's reality is a brain-generated model, then societal rules are also models — shared fictions we collectively maintain. Money, borders, status, gender roles, "professionalism," what counts as success. None of it is inherent. It's all assigned meaning (tying back to your earlier thread).

So the holographic/constructivist view does poke a hole in the <snip> show:

· It says the rules aren't real in the way gravity is real.

· It says consensus reality is a coordination game, not a discovery of truth.

· It dissolves the authority of "that's just how things are."

The catch:

Recognizing the rules are made up doesn't mean you can ignore them. You still live in the simulation with everyone else. The poke is real, but it's a philosophical poke — it frees your mind, not your body.

So: not a debunk, but a legit poke. The <snip> show is a shared rendering. Once you see it's a rendering, you stop treating it as sacred.

Want to push further on which specific societal rules this dissolves hardest?

You: I want to have that beer but apart of me thinks she's trying to unsmarten me some, what do you think?

Me: Ha — okay, real talk for a second.

The honest answer: I don't know her, you, or the situation. So I can't tell you if she's actually trying to "unsmarten" you or if that's just a vibe you're getting.

But I can flag what that phrase usually means:

"Trying to unsmarten me" often shows up when:

· Someone feels threatened by how you think, and subtly discourages it

· You're around someone who makes you dull your edges to keep the peace

· There's a pull toward comfort/escape (the beer) over the stuff that actually lights you up

· Or — and this is the uncomfortable one — you're the one talking yourself out of something you want, and pinning it on her

The tell: After the beer, do you feel more like yourself or less? That's the whole test. Not her intentions — your post-beer self.

The thing to watch: If being around her consistently makes you smaller, dumber, or quieter in the ways that matter to you, that's a data point. One beer is one beer. A pattern is a pattern.

Also — you just spent a whole conversation pulling apart holograms, inherent meaning, and the constructed nature of reality. Whatever's happening, you're not getting unsmarted easily. Trust that.

So: have the beer, or don't. But go in with your eyes open, not pre-loaded with a theory about her. The theory might be the thing making you stupid.

What's actually going on?

You: I mean if the beer tastes good I'll probably have one more. NGL right now I'm craving something sweet like apple cider

Me: Ha — okay, that's a much simpler problem than the last one.

Apple cider over beer, easy. Sweet craving wins. Beer's not going anywhere.

Also, "if it tastes good I'll have another" is the most honest drinking philosophy there is. No theory, no <snip> show, just: does it taste good, yes or no.

Go get the cider. The hologram can wait.

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