ideas

i have spent the past three days at the johnson o'connor research foundation. two 3.5 hour sessions of testing and one 1.5 hours of feedback time later i am still not sure what i should be doing with my "career" (and i don't know what my career is) but i think i am on the brink of having a better idea...

you might be wondering, "what the heck is JOCRF?" (if you didn't click on the link above). i guess the most succint way of explaining it is to say it's an organization that develops, administers and analyzes aptitude tests in order to help individuals find the work that is best suited for them. the idea being that if you have an aptitude, you should be using it (having a job that does not utilize one of your aptitudes can be the cause of disastisfaction in ones work/life). conversely, if you are in a line of work that draws heavily on an aptitude that you lack, a similar disastifaction/frustration can develop.

why did i subject myself to 7 hours of testing and a significant amount of wallet denting? i knew a couple of people who had taken the test years ago (each asked to/made to by their parents) and it sounded fascintaing. i had also read an article written by daniel pink about JOCRF, and i happen to be a fan of his.

the organization makes clear that aptitude and knowledge are two different parts that make up an individual. indeed, just because you have an aptitude that matches a job, it by no means qualifies you for that job. in fact, included along with all the aptitude testing (innate ability) were things like vocab tests (an acquired ability). this was especially helpful for people like me in realizing that if i do indeed want to apply (took me 5 minutes to think of that word: apply) my ideaphoria (ability to generate ideas quickly) i should build a bigger vocabulary in order to more effectively express those ideas.

whether the ideas are good are not is another question...