Enneagram

There are so many personality tests these days, Myers Briggs, Enneagram, Helen Fisher… People love categorizing themselves and other people, which explains why horoscopes and Chinese astrology are still a thing. When we start putting other people/ourselves in these categories, confirmation bias come into play and you tend to notice/overemphasize certain attributes because you already categorized them/yourself as “this type of person”. Doesn’t stop me from taking these tests though 😛

This is my Enneagram test result. I’m saving it here because I would never actually pay for a report.

It looks like I’m pretty squarely a 5, and reading even that short blurb makes me nod at its accuracy.

Here’s the full spiel about Type 5 from the Enneagram Institute:

Fives are alert, insightful, and curious. They are able to concentrate and focus on developing complex ideas and skills. Independent, innovative, and inventive, they can also become preoccupied with their thoughts and imaginary constructs. They become detached, yet high-strung and intense. They typically have problems with eccentricity, nihilism, and isolation. At their Best: visionary pioneers, often ahead of their time, and able to see the world in an entirely new way.

• Basic Fear: Being useless, helpless, or incapable
• Basic Desire: To be capable and competent
• Enneagram Five with a Four-Wing: “The Iconoclast”
• Enneagram Five with a Six-Wing: “The Problem Solver”

Key Motivations: Want to possess knowledge, to understand the environment, to have everything figured out as a way of defending the self from threats from the environment.

Examples: Siddartha Gautama Buddha, Albert Einstein, Oliver Sacks, John Nash (A Beautiful Mind), Stephen Hawking, Vincent van Gogh, Edvard Munch, Georgia O’Keeffe, Salvador Dali, Alberto Giacometti, Emily Dickinson, Friedrich Nietzsche, Agatha Christie, James Joyce, Jean-Paul Sartre, Susan Sontag, Stephen King, Ursula K. LeGuin, Clive Barker, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Jane Goodall, A.H. Almaas, Eckhart Tolle, Meredith Monk, Glenn Gould, John Cage, Kurt Cobain, David Byrne, Peter Gabriel, Laurie Anderson, Jane Siberry, Trent Reznor, Thom York (Radiohead), Alfred Hitchcock, Marlene Dietrich, Stanley Kubrick, David Cronenberg, Werner Herzog, Tim Burton, David Lynch, David Fincher, Jodie Foster, “The Far Side” Gary Larson, Annie Liebovitz, Bobby Fischer, “Wikileaks” Julian Assange, Aaaron Swartz, X Files’ “Fox Mulder,” Dr. Gregory “House”