please share what new insights you have on 9s :) i find it hard to recognize 9s who are high energy like karl jacobs and tubbo especially
It’s the high-energy thing I've been grappling with recently, actually! It used to trip me up too, usually my bindspot would be the higher energy 9w1s / when they’re generally in manic-workaholic mode (compared the humble minecraft builder slow and steady tinkering), because that tends to be the opposite of what most profiles would expect.
At the core of most enneagram types usually sits a paradox or two that they swing on, although they’re endlessly multi-faceted on top of that. Sixes get a fear / bravery split, Fives get being real smart / not knowing a dang thing (/j), and Nines get inertia / flow-state-workaholism.
High-energy Nines have the workaholic streak of Threes in that they’re inclined to hustle to buy their ticket into the world, socially, systemically or interpersonally. (The difference between this and Three integration is how much consideration they give to what they’re doing, or if the work is just what happens to be in front of them / given to them at the time, as they can struggle to say ‘no.’) They meld with people, but they also meld with workflows, easing into a slipstream of goals and tasks and doing.
High-energy Nines seem to have a hard time pulling themselves out of the flow state, and can struggle with flowing from thing to thing if they’re stressed or disoriented. It’s a bit of an ADHD caricature at times (regardless if they have it or not) because they can move from distraction to distraction by accidentally putting equal weight on all possibilities and getting lost in the sauce because of it.
I was kind of resigned to assuming that I would never really intuitively understand what ‘a fear of disconnection’ meant, because according to The Scrolls I’m one of the most naturally remote people out there and threatening me with time separate from the world is like threatening me with a vacation. What I needed to tap into was their drive for feeling and being felt by the world in a grounded way, stimulation itself, something a bit more in the vein of effectiveness.
Nines tend to believe in their own natural irrelevance (as an ego) in the flow of life. Sometimes it bothers them, sometimes they’re at peace with it– it’s not a fully rational belief, but it’s how they experience themselves and how they sometimes experience others experiencing them. They can be a bit melty at the edges, taking on the perspective of others because they’re magnetized to that outside input to some degree. Some of them can be very naturally selfless and invest in other people both for their own enjoyment and to go along with something that feels like it has gravity, pulling them into that slipstream again.
On the flip side, it can also give them a complex to try and make up for their sense of irrelevance, to try to build or find something to hold onto so they’re not lost to the void of the world and their own psyche. Of all the things it took me way too long to understand, this one is pretty high on the list– what can feel like a life-or-death scrape to feel connected to something (without being fully consumed by it, a thing that some of them might think they want but tend to burn out on.) Because they feel like the tether they’re grasping is so thin, some of them can feel very easily undermined or discouraged. If you take into account the wings delegating how anger goes, you might get a dismissive or bullish Eight wing or a sharp and obsessively self (and other) critical One wing. You might also start to deal with jealousy and envy as they decide that certain things overshadow them naturally or are out of their reach on a count of who they are. Can easily become resentment if they lean into learned helplessness, or thinly veiled passive aggression if they’re trying to be competitive and play peacemaker at the same time.
That’s a bit of the worst-case scenario, though. Most Nines ‘arrive’ fairly gently, but this accounts for the fringe Nines that almost show up with a vengeance– super amped up and eager to hustle out loud in a way that one usually doesn’t expect from Nines. (But it does come out in little ways in even the milder cases– a covert competitive streak seems to be a guilty pleasure if you put certain games in front of them. They like mastery as much as anyone if the mood is right.)
If they choose to burn the fuel of “I want to be something to someone / the world” they can naturally turn this energy into an altruistic ambition to have an effect on the lives of the people around them in a positive way. Choosing one particular path might be the hard part, but natural flexibility can back them up as they find their way there.
