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.