According to this, I'm an ISTP (Introverted Sensing Thinking Perceiving). I'm skeptical, as usual, about this sort of thing, but the ISTP profiles certainly sound like me. Not perfectly, of course, but oddly close.

This list of traits common to ISTPs struck me as particularly interesting (swiped from here):

• Interested in how and why things work
• Do not function well in regimented, structured environments; they will either feel stifled or become intensely bored
• Constantly gather facts about their environment and store them away
• Have an excellent ability to apply logic and reason to their immense store of facts to solve problems or discover how things work
• Learn best "hands-on"
• Usually able to master theory and abstract thinking, but don't particularly like dealing with it unless they see a practical application
• Action-oriented "doers"
• Focused on living in the present, rather than the future
• Love variety and new experiences
• Highly practical and realistic
• Excellent "trouble-shooters", able to quickly find solutions to a wide variety of practical problems
• Results-oriented; they like to see immediate results for their efforts
• Usually laid-back and easy-going with people
• Risk-takers who thrive on action
• Independent and determined - usually dislike committing themselves
• Usually quite self-confident

Bits and pieces from the most commonly-cited description of ISTP:

ISTPs are equally difficult to understand in their need for personal space, which in turn has an impact on their relationships with others. They need to be able to "spread out"--both physically and psychologically--which generally implies encroaching to some degree on others, especially if they decide that something of someone else's is going to become their next project.

I'm not positive I understand this, but the bit about "personal space" rings true.

But because they need such a lot of flexibility to be as spontaneous as they feel they must be, they tend to become as inflexible as the most rigid J (huh?)when someone seems to be threatening their lifestyle (although they usually respond with a classic SP rage which is yet another vivid contrast to their "dormant," impassive, detached mode).

That's me.

[. . .] ISTPs are masters of the one-liner, often showing flashes of humor in the most tense situations; this can result in their being seen as thick-skinned or tasteless.

Heh.

Like most SPs, ISTPs may have trouble with rote and abstract classroom learning, which tend not to be good measures of their actual intelligence.

I wonder how many of us (ISTPs) have ADD?

[ISTPs] are at their best in a crisis, where their natural disregard for rules and authority structures allows them to focus on and tackle the emergency at hand in the most effective way.

I do tend to stay calm in emergencies. I freak out later.

Food for thought, I suppose. And something to do on a lonely Friday night.