Meetup : San Diego experimental meetup
Discussion article for the meetup : San Diego experimental meetup
We’re having a meetup in our usual haunt on Sunday, January 15th at 1pm. Food and drink are available for purchase, though you’ll need your ID to get anything alcoholic.
In the spirit of developing Rationality Dojo curricula, we’re going to test a newly developed training session. We want to see how it works and to get your feedback on how it came across to you. And I think we’ll have good fun in the process. :-)
If there’s time and interest, I’m also willing to continue the discussion from last time by giving a presentation on what I call the Enneagram keys. These are guidelines for interacting with the types that let you (a) build a good relationship with someone of a known type, (b) hit their hot buttons like nothing else (which is really meant to help you know why they get hurt or angry and how to avoid doing that), and (c) open communications and build rapport. Because each Ennea-type has a relatively specific way of reacting to specific keys, you can also use the keys to test hypotheses about someone’s type. For instance, if you don’t know whether you’re dealing with a Four or a Nine, you can try suggesting something optimistic about their future (“Today might be a bit drab, but tomorrow is a new day!”). A Nine will typically respond with something positive (a spacey smile if they’re withdrawn or a big grin and nods if they’re feeling confident), whereas a Four will typically turn cold and might even give you an eyeroll. So the keys are where the Enneagram most blatantly pays rent.
But I’m definitely open to other options! I could stand to train my calibration better, and I have as yet to play any of the calibration games others have brought on occasion. (I’m looking at you, Jennifer!)
So! Please, show up, help us develop a solid Rationality Dojo curriculum by joining us in getting stronger, and join in on some delightful conversation!
See you there!
As a quick addendum: If you’re interested in hearing about the Enneagram keys but weren’t at the previous meetup, you’ll get a lot more out of that discussion if you have some familiarity with the Enneagram beforehand. If you’re totally new to it, I’d suggest reading this webpage. Just two caveats:
You can safely stop after you’ve read the section on “Levels of Development.” I’m pretty sure the material on Directions of Integration and Disintegration is just pretty theory and doesn’t quite tie into reality the way an empirical claim should. I also don’t talk that much about the Instinctual Variants.
There’s a lot of fluff in Enneagram talk. It started out as a kind of sacred geometry and then went through several layers of having psychological theories woven into it. Despite its origins, though, empirically the system works extremely well in specific domains. Part of my goal in this presentation (if we elect for me to present it) will be to point out exactly how you can test it and precisely what results to expect. It’s not subtle. So please don’t be too surprised to find mystical language and dualism and other mental traps in Enneagram literature; it’s pretty ubiquitous, but unnecessarily so. There really is a rational version of the Enneagram, and that’s what I focus on and am offering to share.