Too Many Aptitudes

Once upon a time I took an aptitude test. It was part of a course for unemployed people. I was hoping it would give me some pointers to what I really should be doing with my life, and how I could be more successful.

It wasn’t one of those tests where you have to choose between pairs of activities. I hate those. And it wasn’t one where you rate yourself on various characteristics. Don’t like those either. It was a problem-solving test with sections of different kinds of problems. That was ok. I like solving problems.

I can’t remember much about most of the sections. Probably some verbal tests, maybe some logical puzzles, possibly  diagrams of cogs and wheels and pulleys. I do remember the maths test because it was the hardest. I hadn’t done any maths for a long time. But my brain cogs managed to de-rust themselves enough to answer the questions.

And I remember the abstract reasoning test. It was the last one and I loved it. Zipped through it in no time and wished there was more. I might have been the only one who enjoyed it though. I could see other people sitting there looking perplexed. And when I handed it to the supervisor he looked at me as if he didn’t believe I could have done it so fast, and maybe I’d just ticked the answers at random so I could go home early.

The results were kind of disappointing. I was very good at everything. So there were no clues about what I was doing wrong or what my true vocation in life should be. No excuses for being a failure - it must be all my own fault. Because high aptitudes are obviously good things to have, aren’t they? How could they be a problem?

Well Hank Pfeffer thinks they can be a problem. He’s even written an article called The Too Many Aptitudes Problem. Read it and see if you think he’s describing Scanners and Renaissance Souls.