howard gardner recognizes eight kinds of intelligence. you've probably seen this before, or taken a test to find out which category applies best to you. the kinds of intelligence are things like logical-mathematical, linguistic, naturalistic, musical, spatial, etc. each is paired with an 'end state,' which is basically a suitable career, such as scientist, journalist, biologist, composer, navigator, etc.

but intrapersonal sorts such as myself apparently aren't suited for any career. our end state is a 'person with detailed, accurate self-knowledge.'

it all makes sense now.