No, its not. Its not the worst pseudoscience because parts of it map tolerably well to a some of the axes of the Big-5 model which has some apparent empirical validity, but it in is still pseudoscience with a huge marketing push behind it.
> I've heard a common complaint that "traits are a spectrum, not discrete categories." But often in biology, this is not exactly true, just like there are light brown leopards and black leopards but no dark brown leopards.
Yeah, sure there are traits that, within a properly selected domain, really are binary, but in terms of personality traits of the type M-B addresses, as well as knowing that M-B doesn't quite have the axes right, we known that position on those axes where M-B has the axis right still aren’t binary or even bimodal, because we have extensive personality research that isn’t a just-so story with a marketing push to sell proprietary BS products and consulting services.
Myers-Briggs hasn't really been useful for me. I fall very close to the middle on 2 of the axes.
It can give a vague discription to some obvious traits, and many people need validation or direction, so that's why it "works".
I've heard a common complaint that "traits are a spectrum, not discrete categories." But often in biology, this is not exactly true, just like there are light brown leopards and black leopards but no dark brown leopards.
Don't "listen to the scientists" who say otherwise, those hopeless reductionists who obsess over what is true but useless rather than what is faulty but useful. Pareto said it right: "Give me the fruitful error any time, full of seeds, bursting with its own corrections. You can keep your sterile truth for yourself."
Of course it doesn't cover everyone well or every aspect; it's just one model of many, but it's useful and predictive.
As for zodiac signs...I can see some correlations popping out based on whether you're young for your grade or old for your grade (like Malcolm Gladwell talks about in Outliers), or perhaps when your parents decided to "mate" says something about them which says something about you, but yeah idk how deep it goes.