My story · Essay · Roland A. Puck

1 November 2026

Openness · Working together

Where you stand with me.

Why I publish my personality tests, and why I still don’t ask you for one.

I believe that a collaboration, a partnership or an investment has a better chance of success when everyone knows where they stand. Not just feels it. Knows it. That is why I have decided to publish my test results.

I don’t expect the same full openness from people who want to work with me. But I invite you to make sure we both know what we are getting into before our first conversation. Not so that no time is wasted. But so that you know in advance what you are letting yourself in for. There is a difference.

What I tested, and what I didn’t

Two results are published here, both from 11 August 2026: my HIGH5 test and my Big Five test. I keep them apart on purpose, because they are often lumped together even though they measure different things. HIGH5 says what I like doing and do well. The Big Five say what my style is like: open, conscientious, outgoing, agreeable, calm.

A third profile is on its way: the HEXACO test. As a sixth dimension it measures honesty and humility, and that is exactly what interests me most when it comes to working together.

One more honest note: the reliability figures for HIGH5 come from the publisher itself, and no independent scientific review is listed there. So for me, my HIGH5 result is one voice among several, not the truth. The Big Five are the most thoroughly researched personality model there is.

Five strengths and their flip sides

According to HIGH5, 63 per cent of my profile sits in the Thinking family, 20 per cent in Feeling, 16 per cent in Motivating. And 1 per cent in Doing. Here are my five strongest strengths, each with what the report itself lists as a watch-out:

StrengthWhat it meansWhat you can expect
1 StrategistI see the big picture and how everything connects.I get impatient with people who decide more slowly. And I can get stuck in planning instead of acting.
2 AnalystI look for simplicity and clarity in lots of data.My matter-of-fact view can come across as cold. And analysis can turn into a defence when I don’t like a piece of feedback.
3 CoachI discover potential in people and help it grow.I sometimes push people into roles they are not ready for yet. And I easily forget about myself along the way.
4 CatalystI get things moving where they have stalled.My pace can overwhelm others. Once the first momentum is gone, I can lose interest.
5 PhilomathI love learning, a lot and across the board.I spread myself too thin. A new topic quickly pulls me away from an ongoing one.

My Big Five: the rough edges

The strengths profile shows what I can do. The Big Five also show where things get tight.

DimensionScoreWhat it means for me
Openness88Very high. New ideas, unusual paths, abstract thinking.
Conscientiousness65Medium. The most honest number in my profile.
Extraversion52Right in the middle. I can fill a room, and afterwards I need quiet.
Agreeableness73High. I like to help without sacrificing myself.
Neuroticism42Below the middle. I tend to meet a crisis with analysis rather than panic.

My openness is the engine; without it there would be no puck.house. My conscientiousness is the rough edge: my demand for structure is greater than my appetite for routine. And my extraversion sits right in the middle. From the outside I seem to be switched on all the time; in fact I need the tower room to recharge, not as decoration.

A word on astrology and numerology

There is a third pile of papers about me: an astro-numerology reading from 19 August 2026. I am not laying it out in detail here, but I am not hiding it either: Sun in Libra in the seventh house, Mercury conjunct Pluto, life path number 4, personality number 33. I know how that sounds to some ears. It doesn’t stop me liking these images. To me they match what the tests measure remarkably often, and at the Stammtisch they make better conversation than the weather. If you want to know more, ask me.

One per cent Doing

This is the number that made me laugh the most, and it is the most honest one in the whole report. I am a starter and a thinker. According to HIGH5, the family that organises, reaches goals and gets things done stands at one per cent for me. My Big Five tell the same story in a different language: conscientiousness 65, right in the middle of the field.

What does that mean in practice? I need people who are good where I am not. That is not false modesty, it is the blueprint of how I work. At puck.house it has become a principle: with every package, part of the price can be offset by helping out. For me, working together is not a nice extra but the only way I work well.

The Stammtisch at puck.house seen from the gallery, in black and white: a large oval wooden table on herringbone parquet, covered in lamp parts, tools, cables and a monitor, with empty chairs.
The Stammtisch, Vienna’s word for the regulars’ table, at puck.house, photographed from the gallery on 1 November 2026. Deliberately in black and white: nothing here is finished yet, everything is still taking shape. This table is only full when people sit at it. That is a picture I cannot take myself as the host.

The defeat it comes from

In September 2019, around the planned official opening of the5thP, my burnout becomes clear. What I want to drive forward is far beyond my strength. The following months become a serious personal crisis. I wanted to prove that I was right. I wasn’t.

Today, among the watch-outs for the Catalyst in my HIGH5 report, I read a sentence that would have helped me back then: the constant drive to initiate and push things forward can lead to burnout, for yourself and for your team. My lesson: my strengths need a frame, otherwise they eat me alive. And I need people who finish what I start, and who tell me when enough is enough. The story behind it is part of my life story.

What tests can do, and what they can’t

I am no believer in tests. The key finding from research is quickly told: no personality test predicts whether two particular people will get on. In a speed-dating study, more than a hundred self-reports collected in advance could not predict who would especially like whom. What counts is the working relationship two people build with each other. In coaching, it is clearly linked to success.

So why publish at all? Because a profile doesn’t predict, but it does explain. It is not a certificate but a map. And because openness about who you are shows one thing above all: here is someone you can talk to before something goes wrong.

What this means for us

If you want to work with me, there is no test barrier waiting for you. You book, just as things are. Afterwards I invite you to choose one of three equal paths:

  • You share your test result, if you have one.
  • You answer three short questions about what you want.
  • You leave it, and we simply talk.

All three paths lead to the same conversation. If you would like to take a test yourself first: the IPIP-NEO-120 measures the Big Five, is free and takes about fifteen minutes.

And so there is no misunderstanding: test results do play a part for me, but not the leading part. They are one topic of conversation among several. Whether we work together is not decided by a percentage, but by what we see of each other in conversation.

To close

I sum up my first fifty years like this: I know what I can do. I know where I am hard work. And I will talk about almost anything if the person across from me wants to. The tests are just a phrasebook for that. The real thing I write myself.

Now you know where you stand with me. I look forward to finding out where I stand with you.

Roland A. Puck

Sources

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