05 of 10 Hero archetype
The Philosopher
Curious and quick problem-solvers, who take the system apart before they trust it.
- Trait
- Range: Ideas
- Read as
- Intellect or Openness
- Day job
- Engineering and product, Research and science, Design and strategy
- Nemesis
- The Craftsman
- Allies
- Archimedes, Leonardo, Galileo, Turing
This is your archetype. Your answers are kept for ninety days.
ThePhilosopher
- Execution50
- Leadership69
- Teamwork50
- Adaptability64
- Negotiation50
- Vigilance30
Curious and quick problem-solvers, who take the system apart before they trust it.
Who is the Philosopher?
The Philosopher is dealt to a man whose range sits high against other men: how much you go toward ideas and the new thing.
Archimedes took the bath apart to see why the water rose.
c. 287–212 BCYou go toward the hard problem. New ideas reach you before they reach most men, and you take a system apart to see how it works before you trust it. You are usually early, and usually right about why.
What you bring, and what it costs.
Powers
- You take it apartYou understand what you use, because you opened it up first. That is why you spot the claim that does not hold.
- EarlyThe idea reaches you early, so you have a head start on the things that matter later.
- Pattern-spottingYou have looked at more than one field, so a new problem often looks like one you already solved somewhere else.
- RangeYou hold more open threads than most men, and something you read last year solves a problem this year.
Weaknesses
- Too many open frontsThe fifth project is the one that costs you. Nothing you started was wrong, but with that many running you cannot tell which one is working.
- Novelty over proofEarly is not the same as right, and you are drawn to the new thing before the trials are in.
- The manual you never readSometimes the boring documented way was the fast way.
Five traits deal the archetype.
Scored against other men. Range is the one that deals this card.
Base traits
The archetype's shape. Yours replaces it after the twenty.
NerveNRV
SteadyAlert
41Neuroticism
How early a threat registers and how hard your mood is to hold.
EdgeEDG
BluntWarm
63Agreeableness
How much other people pull at you and how much you give way.
MethodMTD
ImprovSystem
55Conscientiousness
Whether you run a plan or run on the day.
PresencePRS
Low-keyOutgoing
67Extraversion
How much you go toward people and take the room.
RangeRNG
PracticalIdeas
90Openness
You go toward the new idea and the hard problem. You take a system apart before you trust it, and you are usually early.
Your ten traits
Where the Philosopher wins at work.
Openness predicts how fast a man learns in training and sits with leadership. Entrepreneurs score higher on it than managers do.
The papers: Personnel Psychology, 1991J Appl Psychol, 2002, PubMed 12184579J Appl Psychol, 2006, PubMed 16551182
Roles
- Engineering and productTake the system apart, then build the better one.
- Research and scienceThe hard problem is the attraction.
- Design and strategyIdeas before most men have seen them.
- Founder work and ventureThe trait entrepreneurs score higher on.
- Security testing and investigationFinding the way in is the whole job.
- Data and quantitative workComplex and abstract work that is yours alone.
Skills
- Learning a new system fast
- Seeing the pattern across fields
- Being early
- Taking the claim apart before trusting it
Your allies.
Took the bath apart to see why the water rose.
Cut open bodies and drew machines to see how things worked.
Pointed the telescope up, and the old system came apart.
Broke the German cipher by building a machine that thought about machines.
Your nemesis: the Craftsman.
ThePhilosopher
- Execution50
- Leadership69
- Teamwork50
- Adaptability64
- Negotiation50
- Vigilance30
Curious and quick problem-solvers, who take the system apart before they trust it.
VS
TheCraftsman
- Execution50
- Leadership31
- Teamwork50
- Adaptability36
- Negotiation50
- Vigilance70
Practical and hands-on men, who trust what works and let the fashions pass.
You take the system apart and he never opens it. He got it working on Tuesday with the boring documented method, and you were still reading the source.
Know all ten.
The card reads five traits from twenty questions. Understand Yourself asks one hundred, scores all ten traits against other men, and confirms or corrects the card. It comes with New Heroes.
Join New Heroes →Browse the free records →Take the twenty questions again →
Twenty items from a public-domain instrument, scored against 892 men. The card says something about you. It does not say what to take.