Understanding Your Results
This guide walks you through what your Quadrantology test scores mean. The underlying framework is called Death and Taxes—a master 2×2 that organizes 13 different models of personality and behavior.
The Master 2×2: Death and Taxes
Every model in the test maps onto the same fundamental grid:
- Vertical axis (Temporal Horizon): Life (top) vs. Death (bottom)—how far into the future you orient.
- Horizontal axis (Scarcity Structure): Taxes (left) vs. Play (right)—how you relate to constraint and freedom.
The four quadrants score differently: Q1 (Play/Life) = 3 points, Q2 (Taxes/Life) = 2 points, Q4 (Play/Death) = 2 points, Q3 (Taxes/Death) = 1 point. Your total across 11 models determines your overall orientation.
Exit vs. Voice Bias
Your E (Exit) and V (Voice) scores reflect your fundamental orientation toward institutional change. Exit-biased ("left-minded") people tend to abandon failing systems and create new ones. Voice-biased ("right-minded") people tend to stay within systems and reform them from the inside.
Exit archetypes (Hacker, Contrarian, Legalist) cycle clockwise through Goals → Processes → Values. Voice archetypes (Investigator, Holy Warrior, Operator) cycle counterclockwise through the same vertices. Interacting with people who share your bias feels natural; interacting across the bias feels wrong.
The Three Ethical Orientations
Your Vi, C, and D scores determine which archetype you land on within your triangle:
- Virtue Ethics (Vi)—Values-based; following the example of people you consider virtuous. Maps to Legalist (Exit) or Holy Warrior (Voice).
- Consequentialist Ethics (C)—Goal-directed; outcomes matter most. Maps to Contrarian (Exit) or Operator (Voice).
- Deontological Ethics (D)—Process/habit-directed; following rules and duties. Maps to Hacker (Exit) or Investigator (Voice).
If your three ethical scores are roughly equal, you move freely around your triangle and are relatively good at getting unstuck. If one score is very dominant, you may get stuck in that vertex more frequently.
The 13 Models
The first 11 models are scored on the 2×2. Each model captures a different facet of how you relate to the world. The 13 models that have all been rudely shoved into this 2×2 are:
1. Cognitive Orientation
| Profanity Seek truth through absurdity | Laughter of the Gods Generativity |
| Acting Dead Incomprehension | Sacredness Seek happiness through values |
2. Energy Dynamics
| PE down, KE up Neighborhood entropy up | PE up, KE up Neighborhood entropy down |
| PE down, KE down Entropy up…slowly | PE up, KE down Neighborhood entropy up |
3. Creative Instinct
| Customer Driven "Solve a problem" products | Dent in the Universe Freedom products |
| Insurance Acting-dead products | Product Driven Authoritah products |
4. Life Scripts
| Make Money Lifehacker scripts | Make Beauty Imaginative scripts |
| Do Nothing Default scripts | Make Sense Hipster scripts |
5. Game Orientation
| Finite Game Play for fuck-you money | Infinite Game Play to keep playing |
| Game Exit Stop playing | Finite Game Play for utopia |
6. Signaling Instincts
| Incentive-Based "Everything has a price" | No Signaling Necessary Freedom is a signal by itself |
| Mortality-Based Quality of life-and-legacy | Hypocritical Based on priceless values |
7. Being and Doing
| Make Things Work NTs, SPs | Make Things Live Integrated |
| Preserve Things Miss Havisham | Make Things Significant SJs, NFs |
8. Structure of Habits
| Hacking Smooth unskills; conscious incompetence | Mindful Natural; mindful flow |
| Procedural Algorithmic; unconscious incompetence | Ritual Striated skills; unconscious competence |
9. Structure of Goals
| Destructive Analysis | Creative-Destructive Transformational |
| Preservative Stability | Creative Synthesis |
10. Interpersonal Mode
| Pragmatic Trader ethics: "Win-win or no deal" | Imaginative Pluralistic ethics: "Find a creative option" |
| Preservative Defensive situationist: "With us or against us" | Idealistic Guardian ethics: "Honor with in-group, deceit with out-group" |
11. Views and Holds
| Fox Weak views, strongly held | Very Zen You are probably lying |
| Cactus or Weasel Strong-strong or weak-weak | Hedgehog Strong views, weakly held |
Scoring Summary
For each of the 11 models above, identify which quadrant you fall into. Then use the point values: Q1 = 3 points, Q2 = 2 points, Q4 = 2 points, Q3 = 1 point. Your grand total places you in one of four ranges:
- 33 points: LIAR/DELUDED (all Q1—nobody is this consistent)
- 25–32: Approach Mode—you are running towards life
- 18–24: Retreat Mode—you are running away from life
- 10–18: Stayin' Alive—survival mode
12. Transitions: The Emotions Between Quadrants
Movement between quadrants is driven by specific emotions. Each transition has a characteristic feeling:
- Cynicism ← pulls you from Q1 toward Q2 (from Play/Life toward Taxes/Life)
- Curiosity → pushes you from Q2 toward Q1 (from Taxes/Life toward Play/Life)
- Resignation ↓ pulls you from Q2 down to Q3 (from Taxes/Life to Taxes/Death)
- Restlessness ↑ pushes you from Q3 up to Q2 (from Taxes/Death to Taxes/Life)
- Guilt/Shame ← pulls you from Q4 toward Q3 (from Play/Death toward Taxes/Death)
- Anger → pushes you from Q3 toward Q4 (from Taxes/Death toward Play/Death)
- Fear ↓ pulls you from Q1 down to Q4 (from Play/Life to Play/Death)
- Doubt ↑ pushes you from Q4 up to Q1 (from Play/Death to Play/Life)
Rate each emotion 1–10 for how strongly you experience it. The emotions come in opposing pairs across each quadrant boundary. Your outer struggle is the boundary with the largest net pull (vertical emotions). Your inner struggle is the boundary with the largest net pull (horizontal emotions).
13. Self-Actualization
The "turnpike of maximal growth" runs diagonally from Q3 (Taxes/Death) to Q1 (Play/Life). People who fall off this turnpike go in one of two directions:
- Disruptors fall off toward the Taxes/Life side (Q2)—they break systems down.
- Reformers fall off toward the Play/Death side (Q4)—they build systems up.
The color of your outer struggle row (from the transitions scoring) tells you which you are. Neither is better—both are necessary for creative destruction.
Archetype Relationships
Each archetype has three key relationships:
- Nemesis—Your opposite on the other triangle. Very hard to get along with.
- Frenemy—Same vertex on the opposite triangle. Similar ethical orientation, constant disagreement about methods.
- Evil Triplet—Same triangle, aligned but strong where you are weak. You depend on them but may not like them.