ILI or LII?

[AlexAnder]

Hi all, can you help me determining whether I'm ILI or LII?

Tell me about yourself.
I’m Alex, 16 years old and I’m from Italy. Yeah, such a beautiful country.

What do you study or do for a living? How did you come to do that? What do you like or dislike about it?
I’m attending a scientific lyceum, 10th grade. At the moment I’m studying for my IGCSE exams (Mathematics, Physics, Geography, Biology, English). Let’s say I like most of the subjects, but I really can’t stand the Italian school method. I’d rather build my own school where students learn what they want, instead of covering too many areas in a usless and overly-superficial way. I don't like subjects like History. Italian culture is strongly funded on its past and I find pretty meaningless to study all those facts twice (1st/8th grade and 9th/13th grade). One time is enough. For me school is quite easy. Always As and some Bs with not much effort. I like it when a topic is challenging, that's why I spend more times on the subjects I am least comfortable with.

What are your values, and why?
Live and let die. I don’t care about others’ thoughts on me and my actions. I just let them speak and say what they want. My friends always tell me I’m honest and humble. If I know the truth I always speak up. I never criticize others for their ideas even if I know they’re wrong. I don’t like to embarrass people: I just want anything to be quiet and normal. Don’t bother me and I won’t bother you. I hate when people try to get what they want by cheating. It's just not meritocratic and not logical.

What else do you do on a daily basis? What are your interests and hobbies? Why do you do them?
My day is pretty normal and I tend to see my life in week patterns. Studying aside (which takes me often less than 2 hours and a half), I spend my time at home, alone. I have a LOT of hobbies. First of all: Music. I love listening, playing and composing music. I play the bass, the violin and the drums and I always find myself drumming my fingers on the desk. This means I always have a piece of music in my head. Maybe due to this strong influence, I have perfect pitch and it’s so cool (but annoying at times). I can recognize any musical note, like a car horn, a bell, a beep. I also have eidetic memory: I can easily remember (by visualizing information in my mind) the tracklist of an album, the length of a song or the pages of an assignment. As you can see, I’m interested in personality typing (since 23/12/2015, I love dates) and I like anything which can be synthetized with a scheme, a map or a classification. Another hobby: thinking. Yeah, the core of my daytime. I always analyze things and I think it’s what I do most of the time. I’m also obsessed with time, counting days. On my phone I have a day counter with all my important life events (both since and until). For example, by looking at it, today I can say I've lived 5844 days. Going out with people is not one of my hobby. I prefer staying alone, spending time doing whatever my mind tells/suggests me to do. I also like writing poems since poetry is an art based on rhythm. I am an hardcore Green Day, Muse and Ramones fan. So hardcore that I spent the whole autumn/winter 2016 interpreting, forecasting and recording the positions of 2016/2017 Green Day singles in the US music charts.
It's not an hobby, but on the 14th of January I went to a Green Day concert. I don't like loud and crowded places. The list would go on (collecting things, such as stones, coins, postcards, stamps, reading lots of interesting things on the internet and things like that).

Describe your relations with family and friends. What do you like and dislike about them?
I am cold most of the times. I never display any emotional gesture and I feel embarrassed when so. When I am with a close friend, or talking about topics I like, I completely change my attitude, becoming very open. I am reserved and I HATE working in groups. Individuality must be awarded. As I said, I never go out with friends, but at school I have a peaceful yet detached relation with them. There is an inverse proportionality between my analytical behaviour and the level of friendliness I have with someone: the more I know a person the less I analyze him/her.

What do you look for in friends? In romantic relationships?
In both cases: someone to discuss with. I want nothing else. Just someone to have a good intellectual exchange with. I don’t give a shit about appearence.

What conflicts have you encountered recently with other people? Why did they happen? Which kinds seem to happen on a regular basis?
I always have problems for being too honest. Sometimes I say things that should not be said, then I bite my tounge off. I just can’t stand two-faced people who aren’t fair with themselves and others. Also, I happen to have arguments with friends who don’t follow the logics and deny the truth in front of my eyes. Although I may have this kind of problems, they are very unlikely to happen more than once a month. I’m usually a person who does his own business. I don’t care about others.

How would your friends describe you?
Aloof, silent, genius (ok, I often say they exaggerate here), detached, organized, funny (weird sense of humor), phlegmatic (they are envious of my “never-anxious attitude”). They always come to me to exercise for tests, oral tests or philosophical question. They say "you are an oracle", meaning that they can rely on my information. I'm happy about that but I don't think it's fair to treat me this way. My help is not for any kind of emotional support. I'm not good at that. Unless I have to calm down someone.

What do people generally see as your strengths? What do you like about yourself?
I’m quick to do anything (study in a little), they are always surprised when I calculate things fast in my mind (like square roots) or I remember dates ecc. Some say I am very good at sketching things and writing poems. Personally, I like my perfectionism: doing things giving my 100%. My willpower is one of my main traits. If I want it then I can do it. Also, ideas, ideas, ideas. My mind is always full of random ideas which may never have a practical use. I often try to exploit them and most of the time it’s a success. School is the main place where I share those ideas. This may be the reason why I have a good impression on teachers, who define me “creative”. Friends also say I have a good rethoric and like to have "inspiring" conversations, as they say, with me. I'm always punctual, often arriving at the meeting point very early (15/20 minutes before).

What are your weaknesses? What criticism do you often face from others? What do you dislike about yourself?
I’m intransigent and stubborn. I like to do things my own way and it takes a lot of time before I can trust someone, after having analyzed his words and actions for days. Consequently, I’m not so adaptable in difficult situations (I consider it my greatest weakness). My friends also say I’m too unemotional. They’d like me to spend more of my time with them. I put too little effort on my appearence (ordinary clothes, ordinary haircut, ordinary shoes) but health is one of my main concerns. I’m not good at respecting authority. There is no problem if I agree with your way of thinking, but if you want me to respect meaningless rules just because “you want it”, don’t expect me to be mild. I can become rebellious and defensive when my principles are not respected. In the end, they say I’m too precise. I am pedantic when I see grammar and numerical mistakes, inaccurate layouts, correcting others not because “I want to criticize you”, but because “I care”. I hate to repeat things.

In what areas of life can you manage well on your own? In what areas of your life would you like help?
I am VERY indipendent. Since 1st grade I haven’t had any need for help (homework, time managing, money managing) by anyone. At times, it can even annoy me being helped when I already know how to do something. Usually I am the one who helps (even if I’m not the most altruistic person on this planet). Looking in depth, though, I need help in some areas, such as the emotional field. I need someone helping me to become more trustful, gragarious and willing to take more risks.

What things do you find to be a chore? What things do you enjoy more than others?
I don’t like studying boring topics or being forced to read “this book”. For example, now I’m answering all these questions and I find this activity quite boring. Also, listening to some of my teachers’ lessons/monologues. I prefer an interactive lession with questions and active participation (I might be a declarer type). In fact, when given the opportunity to present some of my new ideas to the class (secret alphabets, how to create your signature, how to analyze a country using charts only and shit like that), I like my classmates to interact and ask other things. What do I enjoy more than others? Thinking, obviously.

What goals, aspirations, or plans do you have for the future? How did you come to have them?
I want to become a statistician. Numbers, data, charts, graphs, tables. That’s my world. I think it’s always been clear to me. I just have to work hard to accomplish my goal and, at times, it’s scary to think about faliure. Besides this, I’d also like to become a music producer. Money is not important to me: I just need to do what I like.

If you had enough money to live comfortably for the rest of your life without working, what would you do with your time?
“Rock all night, think all day”. I’d buy a recording studio on an isolated mountain with thousands of instruments from all the world, entire discographies of my favorite artists (also classical music, Beethoven and Vivaldi are my myths) and spend the rest of my life playing and inventing music, also analyzing relationships beetween mathematics and music. Interdisciplinarity is important to me. I’d jump from observing the universe with a mega-telescope to write a novel about the first thing that comes to mind. Rest? Nah, I don’t have time for that.

What kinds of things do you do to manage and/or beautify your environment (your room, your house, etc.)? What do you think of daily chores?
I like order. At times my desk can be a mess, but I know I’ll tidy up soon. I love putting things in order (when I have time, I have to do it WELL). My room is very ordinary, as you could expect. A 1000 pieces puzzle of a ship on one side, my drowing of “The Resistance” artwork [the Muse album (Origin of Symmetry is better, though, it’s pure genius)]. On my wardrobe, a poster of the band I play in. Talkin’ about daily chores: well, I don’t say I like routine. It’s quite boring and repetitive. But in makes me feel comfortable. I need structure but I don’t like it. It’s strange to think about it.

How do you behave around strangers?
That’s an easy one. I am silent, with a predictable robotic respect of social norms (I have to mantain my reputation). Never start a conversation. If one asks me something though, I always try to respond in a soft way.

How do you react to conflict? What do you do if somebody insults or attacks you?
I like arguments. I often take part in an argument for the sake of exercise my logical thought. But when in serious conflict, I try to isolate myself and do something else, acting like I am superior to the other person. If someone insults me (very rare, I don’t know why) I always find a way to counterattack him. My sense of humor helps me to do that. If the problem with that person persists, then I actvate my “don’t-give-a-shit mode”. Useful all of the times.

What is one common misconception that people have? Explain why it is wrong.
“For you everything is easy”. I can’t quantify how I hate this sentence. Just because I’m good at school they think I’m “God” (oh, just so that you know, I’m agnostic). They always compare their performance to mine to see if they did well. What a useless method. I make mistakes and I’m happy about it.

What did you do last Friday?
School, homework, 2 hours of bass, swimming pool and TV. Fantastic, don't you think?

Who do you admire, and why?
People who do what they want to do. It doesn’t matter who they are, if they’re rich or poor, famous or unknown, powerful or not. They accomplished their biggest goal.

What are your religious or spiritual beliefs and why do you hold them?
As said, I am an agnostic. The existence of God can’t be neither proven nor disproven. I need more information. This said, I think that clergy is something wrong. We don't need it. Faith is something else.

What are your political beliefs, and why? To what extent do you care about politics?
Politics? No, I don’t care about it. Power is not something I seek.

What kind of work environment do you prefer? What do you look for in a job?
I like to work with people that do what should be done. I can’t stand incompetence, inaccuracy and distraction during a work group. This is the main reason why my teachers always give me the “leader” role, even though I don’t like it that much. I don’t want to control people. Efficiency? Yes, but ideas first. Original is better than ordinary. When I am the leader I give assignments to every member of the group, that will share his work in a second moment with others.

What is or was your favorite school subject and why?
Mathematics. I don’t know why. Maybe because is the one that I struggle the most with. A love/hate relationship.

How do you approach responsibility? What do you tend to expect of others?
I am very dutiful. “Work first, then play” is one of my mottos. When I have not completed an assignement I feel guilty. If I am not prepared, though, I love improvising and it always results in something good. From others I expect competence, collaboration and creativity (my CCC rule).

If you were to raise a child, what would be your main concerns, what measures would you take, and why?
First of all I don’t think I’ll have a child. But if so, then I’d be not very strict with him. I’d let him explore and understand the world, fulfilling any of his curiosities. I’d try not to influence him with my point of view and help him only when he really needs it. I don’t know if it’s the right way, but that’s how I would do it.

What is the purpose of life? What do you find personally meaningful in life?
We only live once. We can’t spend our lives being subordinated by someone we don’t want to obey. I think we should bet on our future. Build our life from the fundamentals to get what we want. And (here comes Einstein) never stop questioning, always asking “why?”. We exist to understand.

I hope my answers are focused enough.

You may need some test results: In almost all the tests I scored as LII. Sometimes as ILI. I did the SOLTI-160 twice scoring as LII, but it looks like I'm constructivist (the only Reinin dichotomy I don't fit at all). Also, I'm an Enneagram 5 and in the Big 5 I have low Extraversion, high Openness, low/average Agreeableness, high Conscentiousness and low Neuroticism.

Thanks in advance!