I was making a video on Howard Stern recently and I was picking up on how Howard is abusing Ni/Fi sleep to avoid negativity and chaos in the future. This was interesting to me as Howard was typed as a 7 by Enneagrammer and as a savior “double introvert” in the Objective Personality System. 7s are typically considered one of the more “extroverted” numbers and technically SBPC is still an extroverted animal stack (though not one of the most extroverted). I thought it worthy of a closer look into how these patterns are co-existing in real people.
What even is a type 7?
A simplistic view of type 7 is someone who is extroverted and fun loving, skimming the surface of life and enjoying its pleasures without any real depth. You might imagine this to be an SF type, savior Consume, or at the very least an Oe type in Objective Personality, and to be honest there is a larger clustering there in the crossover data. At the time of this writing there are 31 Oe 7s and only 9 Oi 7s. However for now, I want to focus on two Oi examples in particular, Howard Stern and Steve Jobs. These two are double activated Oi and demon Consume and Play. No savior Oe at all, but rather “planners” in the context of OPS.
As I learn more about type 7, I have begun to see the type as much more than that shallow description above. 7s are at their core a type which refuses to be limited and avoids negativity. They don’t want to be controlled or prevented from making their dreams come true. Limitations and barriers are the death of those dreams. Again, to those more familiar with OPS this sounds like Oe savior rejecting Oi as a demon… so what gives with Stern and Jobs here? Aren’t they supposed to be the controlling [beep]-holes not the fun loving ones? What gives?
Well, what constitutes as a limitation and negativity is contextual to the person. These two individuals with Savior Ni and Fi are envisioning a future state with less negativity and won’t be told that it can’t happen. The negativity they are avoiding is a present moment in which they are not able to get what they want. They are either able to plan out the moments in advance, avoiding negativity, or looking to a future moment that will be better. Either way they are in some way distancing themselves from possible negativity.
By focusing on the controlling side of things, they are keeping their eyes on the prize and rejecting the things that try to impede them (M De and 8 wing at play perhaps?). Rather than simply skimming the surface as described in that over-simplified description above, we see the 7 pattern playing out here in a refusal to see that which would potentially ruin their good time. If you aren’t going to dream big with me, then get out of my way! The processing is moving forward to the next thing, the next treat that can be experienced and figuring out how to get it.
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Howard Avoiding Negativity
In the video I shared above, Howard Stern is discussing with Chris Rock why he didn’t invite him to his wedding. He says, “your wife doesn’t like me” and expresses that he wishes they could be friends but if they were ever to hang out then his wife might come along and ruin it for them. He is confident in his guess (Savior N) that this will not turn out well for him and is thus steering himself towards something more likely to bring that sense of satisfaction. Controlling his future in the direction of pleasant experiences.
Because Howard is consume last, he is particularly sensitive to and doesn’t want to take in any experiences which are “toxic” to his state of flow. He wants to avoid the potential chaos this relationship might bring and is possibly somewhat satisfied by the idea that they could be friends in the future if he were to get divorced, we is willing to wait and play the long game (sleep/Oi) and is satisfied by this potential reality in the future, keeping it in mind as an option. Howard even says this to him and Chris did eventually get divorced in 2016, but I’m not sure if they became friends or not to be honest…
The thing I want to emphasize here is that Howard’s perception of what would be negative might be different than you’d expect. He is frustrated by the limitation and barrier to their friendship, but sees the avoidance of a potential negative experience as more important. He wants them to be friends, but he also wants to avoid the potential for negativity that could come with that. He is taking control (Oi) over what he takes in (Oe) as a means to ensure that he is able to experience things which are more positive. He is still playing out the proactive seeking of pleasurable experiences but in a less direct and more cautious manner.
Jobs Refusing Limitations
Steve Jobs is another interesting example with a similar OPS and Enneagram type. Jobs is known for trailblazing products into the market which had never before existed, refusing to accept that it couldn’t be done. He was stuck on his vision of what a pleasurable user experience would look like and refused to accept anything less. This is a controlled focus over the avoidance of pain for himself and his customers. How can we make a computer approachable? How can we make a product that won’t startle them?
Jobs has demon Se and fears change in the sensory, pushing him to create products which would reduce the jarring nature and rough edges that many technology products often have initially. He is particularly notable for some of the details he insisted be included in his product launches to ensure a smooth customer experience, like having his computer say, “hello” to make it seem friendlier.
By pushing for change (Oe) in the computer space, he was also pushing for things to stay the same (Oi). He wanted humans to be able to interact in ways that made sense to them and wouldn’t freak them out. A natural and intuitive way of interacting, the way we have for millennia (the same – Oi). He wanted to bring the joy of computing to as many people as possible and by making them accessible, he was able to achieve that vision.
The optimism of type 7 and the cutting control of Oi fusing together to create a man on a mission towards a brighter tomorrow. He wouldn’t settle for anything less or allow in any doubt that it could not be done. Jobs had his vision and he made it happen. They made a whole movie about his product launches called “Steve Jobs” which has certainly impacted my memory of this, even if the truth was stretched a bit for dramatic effect. In the film, he often pushed the limits of what was possible and refused to believe that they could fail, because for type 7 its all about overcoming those limitations.
Type 7 and Ni/Fi
Instead of what we might traditionally think of type 7 as someone who is pursuing pleasure in the moment, grabbing for whatever seems good to them at the time, we are seeing Howard and Jobs take a more controlled view, figuring out what will be pleasurable beforehand and taking measured steps in that direction cautiously rather than chaotically. This is still an optimistic path, one which believes that it is possible to avoid the pain and will instead bring pleasure on a consistent basis. To break through and navigate around the limitations and barriers to those pleasures on the fundamental belief that life is to be enjoyed.
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