Science is my religion, and I have faith in reason.
In my own terms: Involution and Envolution is my religion, and I have faith in entailment.
Only the self-educated and educated person is free.

David Mark Keirsey's Home Page

About keirsey at keirsey.com

Personality Complexity Keirsey Temperament Sorter or Website?

Within what edge of chaos are you? Understanding should never stay put. It is important to get a new understanding. Understanding can always be improved. It's Trade, Stupid -- David M Keirsey I feel I am on the edge of something -- David Bohm I do not have the time. -- Evariste Galois The question is not what should be, but what will be. Other Quotes

My father was the author of Please Understand Me,  Please Understand Me II, and the Keirsey Temperament Sorter II

The Marketing of Madness: What you don't know can hurt you and the society surrounding you. [more about it]

David's Blog of Complexity Science

Professor Keirsey's Blog on Graces and Foibles

Keirsey Temperament Facebook Page

The Keirsey Institute of Higher and Lower Learning

Author's corner: A List of Authors by Temperament to get a better feel of each different drum.

My gift of the month

David's history book montage

David Keirsey's favorite books »

Projects

• Developing a web site for Temperament and Character
• Explaining the Complexity of Existence

Recommended Audio Tapes  or Books on Famous Personalities

• Peter the Great[Mastermind Rational (INTJ)] by Robert K. Massie
• In Retrospect, by Robert McNamara [Mastermind Rational (INTJ)]
• Stephen Hawking's Universe [Mastermind Rational (INTJ)] by John Boslough
• Eisenhower, The President, [Mastermind Rational (INTJ)], by Stephen Ambrose
• A Personal Odyssey by Thomas Sowell [Mastermind Rational (INTJ)]
• Lise Meitner [Mastermind Rational (INTJ)], A Life of Physics, by Ruth Lewin Sime
• Maestro: Alan Greenspan's Fed and the American Economic Boom, [Mastermind Rational ] by Bob Woodward
• Napoleon [FieldMarshal Rational (ENTJ)] by Felix Markham
• Jack, Strait from the Gut: by Jack Welch [FieldMarshal Rational (ENTJ)]
• The Downing Street Years by Margaret Thatcher[FieldMarshal Rational(ENTJ)]
• Personal History by Katherine Graham [FieldMarshal Rational (ENTJ)]
• Genius: Life and Science of Richard Feynman[Inventor Rational (ENTP)] by James Gleick
• Surely your are Joking Mr. Feynmanby Richard Feynman
• Einstein[Architect Rational (INTP)] Lived Here by Abraham Pais
• Soros on Soros[Architect Rational (INTP)] by George Soros
• Just for Fun by Linus Torvalds [Architect Rational (INTP)]
• Gregory Peck, by Gary Fishgall [Architect Rational INTP)]
• The Private Life of Chairman Mao [Teacher Idealist (ENFJ)] by Dr. Li, Zhisui
• Memoirs: Mikhail Gorbachev[Teacher Idealist (ENFJ)]
• My Life So Far: Jane Fonda [Teacher Idealist]
• Blackberry Winter by Margaret Mead [Teacher Idealist (ENFJ)]
• Just as I am, by Bill Graham [Teacher Idealist (ENFJ)]
• Nader: Spoiler, Crusader, Icon, [Teacher Idealist (ENFJ)] by Justin Martin
• Scorsese on Scorsese, [Teacher Idealist] Editors Ian Christie and David Thompson.
• Measure of a Man, by Sidney Poitier [Counselor Idealist (INFJ)]
• An Autobiography : The Story of My Experiments With Truth by Mohandhas Gandhi[Counselor Idealist (INFJ)]
• Carl Gustav Jung [Counselor Idealist (INFJ)] by Frank McLynn
• Reason for Hope : A Spiritual Journey by Jane Goodall [Counselor Idealist(INFJ)]
• Mary Baker Eddy [Counselor Idealist (INFJ)] by Gillian Gill
• Fire in the Mind: the life of Joseph Campbell [Champion Idealist]
• My Life by Leon Trotsky [Champion Idealist (ENFP)]
• Alexander Hamilton [Champion Idealist (ENFP)] by Noemic Emery
• Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama's Mother, [Champion Idealist (ENFP)], by Janny Scott
• Out of My Life and Thought : An Autobiography by Albert Schweitzer [Healer Idealist (INFP)]
• The Spiral Staircase by Karen Armstrong [Healer Idealist]
• What Falls Away by Mia Farrow [Healer Idealist (INFP)]
• Audrey Hepburn [Counselor Idealist (INFP)] by Barry Paris
• Truman [Inspector Guardian (ISTJ)] by David McCullough
• Titan The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. [Inspector Guardian (ISTJ)] by Ron Chernow
• Buffet: A Making of an American Capitalist,[Inspector Guardian] by Roger Lowenstein
• The Last Tsar (Nicholas II) [Protector Guardian (ISFJ)] by Edvard Radzinsky
• Mother Teresa[Protector Guardian (ISFJ)]: Official Biography by Kathryn Spink
• Stalin[Supervisor Guardian (ESTJ)] by Edvard Radzinsky
• Iron Rose: Biography of Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy [Supervisor Guardian (ESTJ)] by Cindy Adams
• When Pride Still Mattered (Life of Vince Lombardi) [Supervisor Guardian(ESTJ)] by David Maraniss
• I Remember by Dan Rather [Supervisor Guardian (ESTJ)]
• Underboss: The Life of Sammy, The Bull, Gravano [Supervisor Guardian (ESTJ)]
• Life of Mozart [Composer Artisan (ISFP)] by Edward Holmes
• Alan Ayckbourn: Grinning at the Edge [Composer Artisan (ISFP)] by Paul Allen
• Steven Spielberg [Composer Artisan (ISFP)] by Joseph McBride
• Streisand: Her Life [Composer Artisan (ISFP)] by James Spada
• A Woman named Jackie (Jacquline Kennedy Onassis) [Composer Artisan(ISFP)] by C. David Heymann
• Ford:  The Men and Their Machines:  Robert Lacey [Henry Ford, Promoter Artisan (ESTP)]
• Rough Riders by Theodore Roosevelt[Promoter Artisan (ESTP)]
• Life of the Party (Pamela Digby Churchill Harriman)[Promoter Artisan (ESTP)] by Christopher Ogden
• A Good Life: by Ben Bradlee [Promoter Artisan (ESTP)]
• Memoirs by Pierre Salinger [Promoter Artisan (ESTP)]
• Somebody to Love, by Grace Slick [Promoter Artisan (ESTP)]
• Its Not About The Bike, by Lance Armstrong [Crafter Artisan (ISTP)]
• Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan [Crafter Artisan (ISTP)] and the world he made, by David Halberstam
• Me by Katherine Hepburn[Crafter Artisan (ISTP)]
• Here we go again, by Betty White [Performer Artisan (ESFP)]
• Leaving Home, by Art Buchwald  [Performer Artisan (ESFP)]
• Liz! [Performer Artisan (ESFP)] by C. David Heymann
• Picasso[Performer Artisan (ESFP)]: Creator and Destroyer by Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington
• Leonard Bernstein[Performer Artisan (ESFP)]: A Life by Meryle Secrest
• Knee Deep in Paradise, by Brett Butler [Performer Artisan (ESFP)]
• Oscar Wilde: A Certain Genius [Peformer Artisan (ESFP)] by Barbara Belford

Interests

• Temperament and Character Theory
• Temperament in Revolution
• Revolutions
• Books and Video about People
• The Four Temperaments: Artisan Guardian Idealist Rational
• Comparative Complexity:The study of Science and "History"
• On the Structure and Process of Existence, REVISITED
• Look. What I've figured out is that I can predict the future.I just can't predict when.-- Steve Case CEO AOL
• Toward the Physics of "Death"
• Towards the Phenomenology of Massive Replicative/Dissipative Structures
• Towards the Science of Comparative Complexity
• Genes, Memes, Wemes, and Xemes
• Machine Learning
• Computer Security
• Autonomous Systems
• Intelligent Fault-Tolerant Control
• Intelligent Forces
• Mobile Robotics
• Path Planning
• Investing
• Common Sense Investing
• www.vanguard.com
• Motley Fool

Recommended Books to Read on How the World Works

1. *Complexity: The emerging science at the edge of chaos, M. Waldrop: [An entertaining introduction to the Science of Complexity]
2. ***Life Itself, Robert Rosen : [A revolution in scientific thinking, but don't hold your breath, hardly anybody knows about it] more
3. *** Anticipatory Systems, Robert Rosen, 1985:  [Deconstruction of the Newtonian paradigm]
4. ** The End of Certainty : Time, Chaos, and the New Laws of Nature, Ilya Prigogine, Isabelle Stengers  [Dissatified with Quantum Mechanics? here's why. Explains Poincare's resonances] more
5. The Meme Machine, Susan Blackmore :  [Levels of selection: Memes and Genes]
6. At Home in the Universe, Stuart Kauffman: [Musings from a pioneer in the Science of Complexity]
7. The Life of the Cosmos, Lee Smolin: [About the Evolving Universe] more
8. The Deep Hot Biosphere, Thomas Gold : [No, not everything taught in school is correct.]
9. *Microcosmos,  Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan:  [Another view of Earth from the bacteria's point of view] more
10. Gaia's Body, Tyler Volk, 1998. : [Details about Lovelock and Margulis's Gaia theory]
11. Hypersea: Life on Land, M. McMenamin and D. McMenamin: [Open your eyes to what is not seen: Some beginning history of Multi-cellular Eucaryotes] more
12. ** The Evolution of Individuality, Leo Buss : [Darwin roll over, levels of selection: transition between procaryotes to multi-cellular eucaryotes]
13. The Symbolic Species : The Co-Evolution of Language and the Brain, Terence W. Deacon: [So you think you remember everything, think again, its in the environment]
14.  Chaos &Fractals, Peitgen, Jurgens, and Saupe: [Learn the conventional mathematics of chaos and order]
15. MetaMan, Gregory Stock: [Individual humans are not the most complex things in this world]
16. Five Kingdoms: Lynn Margulis and K. Schwartz: [Learn the complexity of Life]
17. The Lessons of History, Will and Ariel Durant: [Those who fail to learn ...]
18. Knowledge and Decisions, Thomas Sowell [Why all the ignorance? Because it there's lots of it] more
19. ** The Major Transitions in Evolution, John Maynard Smith &Eors Szathmary : [Learn about some of the processes of life]
20. Please Understand Me II, David Keirsey(of course)[Learn about the diversity of humans, that is not part of environment, ethnicity, or gender]
21. The Borderlands of Science, Michael Shermer [An important survey of science and non-science] more
22. The Nuture Assumption, Judith Rich Harris: [Children are smarter than you think]
23. Why They Kill: Discoveries of a Maverick Criminologist,  Richard Rhodes:   [What statistics doesn't tell you]
24. Of 2 Minds: The Growing Disorder in American Psychiatry, T. M. Luhrmann. [Pills or Freud's method doesn't work very well, in fact often add to the problem]
25. User Illusion:  Cutting Consciousness down to size,  Tor Norretranders[Consciousness isn't what you think it is]
26. Conquests and Cultures, Thomas Sowell [Those who fail to learn ...] more
27. Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond: [Those who fail to learn ....]
28. The Origins of Virtue, Matthew Ridley: [Those who fail to learn ...] more

* Introductionary
**Difficult Reading
*** Extremely Difficult Reading [but worth it, if you get it]
Bibliography[Sorted by Author]
Bibliography[Sorted by Domain]

Author's corner

DVDs

Quotes to Live by

I keep trying to abstract the world out, but it keeps coming back in.

Sum, ergo sum

    DMK's corollary:  theory must be the opposite of speculation, despite the fact its hard to remember to distinguish between a postulate and a conclusion.

If you don't understand something said, don't assume that you are at fault.  David W. Keirsey

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. George Santayana
     DMK's generalization:  Entities, which do not learn from history, will repeat it in form.
    Those who fail to learn from history, will not add to it.  

Necessity is the mother of invention.

   Nietzsche's corollary:  What does not kill me, makes me stronger.

The scientific world is beginning to discover Robert Rosen, not so much because it wants to or because it likes what he teaches, but because there may be no other way to proceed.  Don Mikulecky

You can't effect the cards that you are dealt, but you can determine how you play them. Milton Erickson

You don't chose your passion, your passion choses you -- Jeff Bezos

Passion breeds talent -- Stanislas Dehaene

Passion requires temperament -- David M. Keirsey

Without extremes you have no middle.  With no middle, you don't have extremes. -- David M. Keirsey

"The future has arrived, it's just not evenly distributed" -- William Gibson

"The past is here and in the future, it's just not evenly distributed" -- David M. Keirsey

Death starts when internal change happens slower than external change - David M. Keirsey

"Our vision of Nature is undergoing a radical change toward the multiple, the temporal, and the complex" -- Ilya Prigogine

"In far from equilibrium conditions, the concept of probability that underlies Boltzmann's order principle is no longer valid if the structures we observe do not correspond to a maximum of complexions" -- Ilya Prigogine

Only the educated are free -- Epictetus

Quantum mechanics, with its leap into statistics, has been a mere palliative for our ignorance  -- Rene Thom

The academic career compels a young man to scientific production and only strong characters can resist the temptation of superficial analysis  -- Albert Einstein

Danger lies not in what we don't know, but in what we think we know that just ain't so - Mark Twain

Truth emerges more readily from error than confusion -- Francis Bacon

Everything in the world has a reason, but not all reasons are reasonable. Natalie Brooks.

Ideas do not have to be correct in order to be good; its only necessary that, if they do fail, they do so in an interesting way.  -- Robert Rosen

   Keirsey's addendums --

     Ideas do not have to be correct in order to be good; its only necessary that, when they do fail (and they will), they do so in an interesting way.    

Ideas do not have to be incorrect in order to be bad, its only necessary that, when they do succeed (and they will), they do so in an interesting way.

Give me a fruitful error any time, full of seeds, bursting with its own corrections. You can keep your sterile truth for yourself.  -- Vilfredo Pareto

"If it ain't broke, fix it 'til it is." - Karl Schultheisz and Andrew Meehan

It is easier to explain machines from a living universe than to explain life from a dead one.  -- John J. Kineman

All is flux  Heraclitus
All is atoms and void  Democritus

You must posit at least one logical contradiction to generate existence.  David Mark Keirsey

The progress of science is the discovery at each step of a new order which gives unity to what had seemed unlike. -- Jacob Bronowski

Change is inevitable. Therefore, change must change. Through induction this will lead to change at ever increasing levels of complexity. -- Henk Langeveld  ;-)

The axiomatic method is very powerful -- Kurt Gödel ;-)

One of the main jobs of conciousness is to keep our life tied together into a coherent story, a self-concept. It does this by generating explanations of behaviors on the basis of our self image, images, memories of the past, expectations of the future, the present social situation, and the physical environment in which behavior is produced. -- Joseph Le Doux

Let Chaos storm, Let cloud shapes, swarm.  I wait for form.  -- Robert Frost.

Questions

• Where is the frontier? - Daniel Hillis
• How shall I teach my children? - Cliff Stoll
• What does technology want? - Kevin Kelly
• What is the information content of Spin, Mass, and Charge? - David Keirsey
• Why did Ludwig Boltzmann commit suicide? - David Keirsey
• What is the precise relation between dissipation and replication? - David Keirsey

 

You can't beat first order statistics - David M Keirsey

Use it or lose it - David W. Keirsey [read about it]

If you can conceive it, you cannot perceive it;  if you can perceive it, you can't conceive it.

Interesting Pointers to Cyberspace

Personal Information

Personality: INTP (Rational: Architect)

Education

Publications

Last Updated July 17, 2013