1. Ideators: generate novel ideas
Ex: Einstein
Strengths: creativity, insight
2: Investigators: vigorously investigate a topic in order to understand it
Ex: Curie
Strengths: truth-seeking, curiosity, systematicness, persistence
3. Provers: demonstrate that the ideas of others are sound, explore their limits, strengthen or work out the implications of existing theories
Ex: Singer
Strengths: consistency, logic, rigor, bullet-biting
4. Appliers: explore new, useful applications for existing ideas, or combine ideas to make something valuable
Ex: Ford
Strengths: pragmatism, knowledge, goal orientation
5. Doers: do things in the world, reflect on what worked and what didn’t, draw insights from and generalize this experience so others can learn from it
Ex: Graham
Strengths: experience, reflection, generalization, synthesizing
6. Critics: dissect ideas to find the flaws in them
Ex: Wollstonecraft
Strengths: questioning, challenging, dissection, disagreeing
7. Enhancers: refine, hone or clarify existing ideas to make them better
Ex: Bostrom
Strengths: clarifying, honing, making rigorous
8. Popularizers: figure out how to explain important, complex ideas in simple ways; spread them to the public
Ex: Sagan
Strengths: simplification, explanation, inspiration, metaphor
9. Activators: use ideas to change norms or improve society
Ex: King
Strengths: inspiration, eloquence, courage, altruism
10. Storytellers: tell compelling stories to convey information and ideas and to capture the narrative behind ideas
Ex: Gladwell
Strengths: narrative, journalism
11. Cataloguers: collect, categorize and organize information
Ex: Dewey
Strengths: comprehensiveness, organization, categorization
This piece was first written on August 23, 2020, and first appeared on this site on July 8, 2022.
Thank you for the framework! I think it’s a really interesting starting point, maybe also for 80,000 hours as well, to identify personal fit and how to leverage it.
PS: I assume, you meant “2. InvestigatorS” also in plural.