THE OPS FIELD GUIDE · v0.4
The Objective Personality System, actually explained. Ten coins, four companions, 512 characters — folded small enough for a cardigan pocket, receipts on.
Dave and Shannon Powers took Jung's functions and MBTI's 16 types and asked one operational question: what can two independent observers consistently agree on?
The answer became a checklist of binary judgments — coins. Flip all nine independent coins and you land on one of 2⁹ = 512 types. Everything else in OPS is coins composing: functions = need × letter, animals = observer × decider, a type = nine flips in a string.
▸ The whole cast. Tap any coin to open it in the Coins tab.
Every coin flip funds one side and starves the other — the system's scarce-resource rule.
The funded side is your savior — automatic, respected, overused. The starved side is your demon — avoided, disrespected, quietly accumulating a debt. "We are addicted to our saviors. We WANT to be our demons." Ignore a demon long enough and the debt comes due all at once — a tidal wave.
The guide ships with one live record — organize-and-flag, not re-evaluated. It seeds the Studio.
INFJ JUMPER · INFO-DOMINANT · PLAY LAST · MODALITIES OPEN
Savior Ni + Ti — both introverted, a jumper. Sleep & Consume savior animals, Blast activated, Play last — the pain point: fun is always "after the processing," and the processing never ends. Sensory and De modalities still unverified — flagged open, not forced.
Every claim wears a tag. Honesty as HUD, never a disclaimer.
| claim | status |
|---|---|
| The 9-coin structure & 512-type math | ● core — internally consistent |
| ~90% operator agreement (precision) | ◐ observed — their data, unpublished |
| Memory-recall spectra · learning styles · facial patterns · ADHD links | ◐ observed correlations — unverified |
| Coins measure real, stable traits (accuracy) | ▲ contested — unproven, per OPS themselves |
| Interpretive observation is "objective" | ▲ contested — operators aren't blind (Kennedy '18) |
Strongest critiques: operators interpret motives rather than record behavior; the jumper concept patches the Grant stack it inherited; terminology drifts between eras; no papers or standardized test exist. Use OPS as a lens, not a verdict.
Every term in our register and OPS's own words — definition, how operators use it, an example, and its relatives.
The POCKET-OP kit. One token layer; night swaps in automatically via prefers-color-scheme — reflective LCD becomes backlit dusk. Every component below is built once and reused ruthlessly.
The LCD is the only surface that changes character, not just value: unlit pea-cream by day, amber-on-dusk backlight by night.
Fixed hue family + two-face SIGIL pair per coin (stroke 1.2, LOCKED), everywhere. Each card: ink (AA text) / fill (coin) / soft (tint) — day row, then night. Sigil ink on any fill is constant #2C2620 in both modes.
Two curves only: ease cubic-bezier(.32,.72,0,1) · spring cubic-bezier(.34,1.42,.36,1).
| MOVE | DUR | CURVE | NOTE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Key press | 120MS | EASE | translateY 1px + scale .98; shadow flattens |
| Selection / fade | 180–240MS | EASE | LCD segment invert, row highlight, mini-rack light |
| Beam tilt | 320MS | SPRING | bar rotates ±9°, medallions counter-rotate level |
| Tab indicator | 320MS | SPRING | pill slides under the active tab |
| Odometer roll | 400MS | EASE | digit strips translate; bar width follows |
| Coin flip | 550MS | SPRING | rotateY 540° (360 + 180), preserve-3d — never a flat snap |
| Rack select | 500MS | EASE | spin-settle: full 360° with a scale kiss at 60% |
| Verdict settle | 350–400MS | SPRING | medallion pulse on statement/beam selection; slot dots echo |
| Height reveal | 420MS | EASE | vault, explorer steps, decoder readout, glossary — measured height, no jumps |
| Idle float / spin / orbit | 6–16S | LINEAR/EIO | hero coin ±5px + Y-wobble with one lazy 360° per 12s; fusion parents orbit — ambient only |
| Reduced motion | OFF | — | all animation stilled; states swap instantly |
★ The Balance Beam is the signature comparison device: two face-sigils on a tilting scale, five tap positions. The same component demos each coin in the Vault and records verdicts in the Studio. Material rules: soft matte shells, 1.5px warm-line borders, membrane shadows (0 2px 0 + ambient) that flatten on press. No glass, no gloss or sheen, no left accent stripes — category identity is always a chip, medallion, or dashed tint. Pixel type is HUD-only. Day is a cardigan; night is the same cardigan by lamplight.
Ten binary pairs, each with a hue and a two-face sigil it keeps everywhere in the guide. Tap a coin to open its vault card.
Watch the coins fuse — into functions, into the four animal companions, and finally into a full 512-type code.
A function is two coins fused: Fe is nothing but Tribe(De) + Feeling. The badge shows its parent coins. Tap for savior vs demon.
"An animal is just two functions working together." Each is a fusion coin — its parent coins orbit the creature's sigil. Energy and info flow shown on the gauge.
Every type carries all four animals, ranked. Two saviors (one energy + one info), a third worked at hobby-strength, and the LAST — the recurring boss.
Shown: the author’s stack — Sleep then Consume savior, Blast activated, Play last. The last animal is the type's biggest pain point and its highest-leverage growth lever.
The code is a password: nine flips in one string. Tap a segment — it lights the coins it decodes in the rack above. Example shown: Dave's documented type.
▸ Tap a segment. Its coins light up; the flips read out below.
Each pole has an unhealthy "status" expression and a healthy "character" one. Growth = working the demon side before the tidal wave does it for you.
| pole | status (unhealthy) | character (healthy) |
|---|
Halve your way from all 512 characters to exactly one. Pick a hub, a lane, a stack, a modality — and watch the space narrow live.
32 SUBTYPE COLUMNS × 16 STACK·MODALITY ROWS = 512 CELLS
Every MBTI hub splits in two: the standard savior pair keeps the classic 2nd slot; the jumper skips it (both saviors share one attitude).
| MBTI hub | standard saviors | jumper saviors |
|---|
Jumpers ≈ half the typed population. Dave types himself Ni/Fi (INTJ jumper); Shannon Te/Se (ESTJ jumper). ● core model
Evidence first, then a lean on the beam, then how sure you are. Every verdict halves the roster — watch the odometer breathe down from 512.
OPS's real method uses two operators typing independently, then comparing. Solo mode is a study tool, not a verdict. ▲ contested accuracy