Have you noticed, in terms of information metabolism, your 'dual' does not often match up with you? (I have experienced this quite often) I have heard a lot of theories as to why: "your type is wrong", "you've mistyped them", "socionics is just plain wrong"...

Well, I have my answer: socionics only looks at external traits, not who is on the inside. Therefore, there are a lot of people who are wearing 'masks' that look like your dual, but who are simply a completely different type on the inside! This seems to be the case with my 'dual' all the time (is it not simply common that people wear an enthusiastic mask just for 'social reasons'...)

This seems to be a better answer to me than the notion that socionics 'simply doesn't work'; it makes a ton of sense that there is some pattern to how people behave socially that is based on personality. However, it would not be the external traits that match up, but who the person is on the inside. Therefore, that could easily be what creates a lot of confusion about how people interact, and why 'his IM doesn't match up with mine.' Nonetheless, I think this could run deeper than simply that the types would match up if it weren't for who we are (or pretend to be) socially... I also wonder if the early stages of the development of socionics could have been misguided, because of this problem. Why? If for instance, John, an 'ILI' describes himself as a sober, sarcastic, deep thinker, and he matches up with Mary, a 'feisty' SEE, it could be that either of these types are wrong, because they are describing their social mask, not who they really are on the inside... In that case, socionics was probably developed based on external traits, and some of the types would therefore be mismatches because of it... This would lead one to question some of the categorizations of duality that are at the centre of socionics...

In any event, I think the notions of 'relations,' 'dual,' and 'information metabolism' are generally correct - they seem to fit a clear pattern to how people interact socially... However, Model A would probably be better served if it were based on internal traits rather than external ones - for the reasons above and because that's essentially what makes people who they really are... In any event, I'd like to hear what you think... Is socionics wrong because it completely neglects internal traits? (I think it's probaby wrong for that reason, but there could still be convincing reasons to say otherwise...)