SBTI IMSB Personality — 5 Chinese Idioms for the Self-Defeating Fool
SBTI IMSB fights impulse with insecurity and overcomplicates. 5 Chinese idioms (chengyu) for this counterproductive personality.
IMSB on SBTI means you're the Self-Defeating Fool — impulse fighting insecurity, plans that backfire, overcomplications that ruin good things. Chinese idioms (chengyu, 成语) have famously specific language for this pattern. Here are 5 that match.
多此一举
duō cǐ yī jǔUnnecessary action
Literal: Take a superfluous action
One (一) action (举) too many (多此). Chinese has a family of expressions for this and it is worth hearing the differences: 画蛇添足 is adding something that spoils the thing, while 多此一举 is milder and merely wasteful — the step that changed nothing either way. It is very often used of oneself, in the mild s...
Example
Adding more features to the software was just an unnecessary action that complicated things.
给软件添加更多功能只是多此一举。
画蛇添足
huà shé tiān zúRuin by adding extras
Literal: Draw snake add feet
The Strategies of the Warring States tells of retainers given a single flagon of wine and agreeing that whoever finished drawing a snake first should drink it. The quickest man, seeing the others still working, began adding feet (添足) to his snake (画蛇) — at which the second man finished, took the fla...
Example
The excessive explanations only confused the simple concept
过多的解释反而让简单的概念变得混乱
自相矛盾
zì xiāng máo dùnContradict oneself
Literal: Spear shield contradict self
Han Feizi tells of a man of Chu selling weapons who said of his shields that nothing could pierce them, and of his spears that there was nothing they could not pierce. A bystander asked what would happen if one of his spears were used against one of his shields, and he had no answer. Hence spear (矛)...
Example
The policy's conflicting requirements made implementation impossible
政策中相互矛盾的要求使得实施变得不可能
拔苗助长
bá miáo zhù zhǎngRuin through impatient intervention
Literal: Pull seedlings help growth
This comes from the Mencius. A man of Song, impatient that his seedlings (苗) were not growing (长), went through the field pulling (拔) each one upward to help (助) it along, then came home exhausted to announce what he had done; his son ran out to find every plant dead. Mencius tells it against those ...
Example
The overanxious parent's excessive intervention harmed the child's natural development
过于焦虑的父母过度干预损害了孩子的自然发展
揠苗助长
yà miáo zhù zhǎngHarmful interference ruins growth
Literal: Pull seedlings to help growth
This one comes from the Mencius. A man of Song, impatient that his seedlings (苗) were not growing (长), went through the field pulling (揠) each one upward to help (助) it along, and came home exhausted to announce what he had done; his son ran out to find every plant dead. Mencius tells it against tho...
Example
The manager's constant micromanagement hindered the team's natural development
经理不断的微观管理阻碍了团队的自然发展
Quick Reference
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