A dynamic alternative to personality tests
Not “ENTJ” frozen in stone…
But a real-time picture of:
Who you are right now (being)—where your attention actually goes, what beliefs you’re operating from, how you’re showing up across different life domains.
Who you’re becoming (trajectory)—based on your recent patterns, not a questionnaire from a decade ago.
Who you want to be (aspirational self)—your chosen identity, not the one a test assigned to you.
This is what we built with Clarity.
It’s not a personality test. It’s dynamic.
Like you.
MBTI says:
“You’re an ENTJ. You’re strategic but emotionally challenged. Good luck.”
Clarity shows:
“Lately, you haven’t been spending enough time recovering, and you are depleted from too much work. Your alignment score is 62. Here’s the gap.”
Personality tests give you a label and walk away.
Clarity gives you a mirror that updates daily, so you align your actions to your best self to better balance the chaos of life.
What I learned after outgrowing my MBTI type
I’ve been using Clarity for months now.
The ENTJ story said I’m “The Commander”—strategic, decisive, focused on efficiency.
Clarity showed that some of my deepest fulfillment comes from domains the Commander archetype doesn’t even acknowledge.
I write poetry.
I spend hours in therapy exploring family legacy, my emotions, my relationships, how I show up, and more.
They’re core to who I’m becoming.
The 4 letters don’t have space for the poet.
But I do.
The ENTJ story said I “struggle with emotional expression”.
I used to. But I worked on it. Then I changed.
Clarity showed something more nuanced: my emotional availability fluctuates with energy and context.
When I’m depleted—running a company, training for an ultra, managing a thousand demands—I contract.
My cup is empty. Makes sense.
But that’s not a forever state.
When I’m resourced with a full cup, I can pour into others and sit with difficult conversations.
In fact, emotionally supporting others is a huge part of my identity as a caregiver.
If I had just went with the archetype, I wouldn’t have found the poet and caregiver inside of me. The identities that really make me, ME.
The ENTJ story kind of indexes towards: “You’re achievement oriented, period.”
I definitely self-identify as a go-getter, high performer, and definitely “achievement oriented”.
But… period?
No.
Sure I’m trying to…
Reach $10M ARR for my startup
Climb V10
Run 100 miles
But I’m also…
Going into my 10th year of therapy.
Questing towards 10k hours meditated (keeping a 30 minute daily meditation streak).
Writing poetry for my side quest of publishing a small poetry book.
Spending time with my baby cousins helping to role model healthy habits—showing them climbing and cheering them on.
These are all the parts the MBTI left on the cutting room floor.
The entrepreneur.
The ultrarunner.
The climber.
AND…
The caregiver.
The poet.
The nurturing corny future corny dad type dude.
You see, my Target Self isn’t “successful Commander.” It’s actually a bigger narrative, that doesn’t fit neatly into boxes. So I don’t accept the boxes.
My Target Self is something more whole.
The ENTJ story said this is who I am.
Static.
Clarity showed “this is who you’re becoming”—and gave me the agency and visibility to assess myself to ask whether that’s who I want to become.
The version of me that took the MBTI isn’t the version writing this newsletter.
And that’s the point.
I’m not static.
Neither are you.
Don’t let 4 letters, or any PDF personality test result, define who you are.
Because in doing so, you imprison yourself with a label. You may kill real self-growth like I did years ago,
Then you don’t become your best self, by default.
Clarity is definitely working to help me become my best self.
What if, instead of a static label, you had a living model of yourself?
Here’s the difference in practice:
Here’s what I’ve learned about the gap between “ENTJ Robert” and who I actually am:
$0
ARR for my startup
What I Did This Week
Here’s some proof against my goals. I consider myself a very high effort person, and a high performer in many aspects of life.
Not just work.
I’ve been injured with an IT band issue, and an elbow surgery, for about a month. Just been getting back slowly.
Today I did a proper long run (~18 miles, 2600 ft elevation gain), and I was huffing and puffing and out of shape—but I got it done pain free.
Climbing V10:
On the same day, right after that run, I just sent a hard V9 project on the Tension Board 1 (all climber nerds will know what this means).
I’m at 403 days of meditating at least 30 minutes daily, to sharpen my emotional regulation and focus skills.
We’re at 500k booked revenue for the year, and we’re just rounding out a customer go-live. Lots of learnings.
Can’t be complacent though, gotta keep grinding.
If you also identify as an intentional high performer, you probably should try Clarity. 😉😉
🏃➡️ Running a 100 mile ultra:
Meditating 10k hours in my life:
📈 $10M ARR startup goal:
So what’s my current progress?
Long ways to go, but progress has been made. 👌
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✌️Culture: Survivor’s Guilt & A Poem
I’ve been doing a lot of processing and thinking lately about Survivor’s Guilt.
The current geopolitical and social issues in Iran, have been on my mind.
Why? There are a lot of parallels (not exactly the same, to be clear) in my own lineage.
My parents immigrated from Vietnam due to the war and had to navigate starting a new life in a new land.
Their parents and my grandparents were revolutionaries during the French occupation of Vietnam.
My dad has an older brother who I’ve seen pictures of but have never known.
When I see those pictures, I feel a yearning for an uncle I never knew.
All my life I’ve asked, “Why me?”
I’ve always felt a lot of guilt in my bones about my family getting out, and me having the opportunity and privilege here that others back in Vietnam don’t have.
I hate that we live in a world where millions, BILLIONS, must choose between survival and doing the right thing. Much of this origin story, drives my passion to empower others to become their best selves.
My heart has been heavy lately for the people of Iran. I wish and hope for better for them.
Anyone reading this newsletter whose heart is heavy too, you’re not alone. ❤️
I wrote a poem recently on the topic of Survivor’s Guilt, to help process the emotional complexity.
I hope it resonates with others out there, who deal with the same thing.
Why Me
“Why me?”,
You ask.
But see,
The river does not ask,
why it carries the mountain’s sorrow,
to the sea.
*Like the rain, *
who does not ask the sky,
why tears must fall,
before things rise.
*Like the farmer, *
who does not ask the earth,
why the seasons turn and change,
they merely cultivated pain.
They buried hope,
like seeds in winter soil,
tending grief before it spoiled.
They wished for the world to cry,
Every tear for one who died,
So their suffering knew no vain.
Even with loss, their love remained.
They did not know who would bloom,
They only wished for You,
For You,
to see the moon.
Because Love does not ask for permission,
No.
Love writes love letters, to Love,
in a language only hearts could know.
*And Love writes why, *
so reasons live in blood and bone,
so deep inside,
“So I could be me,
So I don’t have to hide.”
And Love writes you,
Truth, and not goodbye,
“That weight you carry, but can’t explain?
Your grief for ghosts, and those that came?
The sadness woven, in your soul,
your deep longing, to be one and whole…
You’re not alone, and have never been.
I’ve been that ache, beneath your skin.
That is me, and now you see.
Please come home,
come home,
to me.”
If I stayed with my ENTJ label, I would’ve never wrote this.
Glad I didn’t.
Who would’ve thought life is way better when you don’t put yourself in a box?
👉 Do you want to use Clarity, to become your best self and keep tabs on your own aligned actions?
Check out heyclarity.me and sign up for the waitlist
👉 Do you want to use Clarity API to make your AI/LLM products hyper-personalized with the right context at the right time?
Check out heyclarity.dev and get in contact with us, we’re taking limited early pilots to help AI dev teams solve personalization with grounded evals methodology and tech
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How aligned those are (the gap)—in a measurable way, aligned to YOU.