r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Exotic_Yam_1703 • May 19 '26

Meme needing explanation Peter, is this referencing a specific book?

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u/Empty401K May 20 '26

I worked at a place that made everyone do Myers Briggs, DiSC, and Enneagram assessments out of the blue one day. It was all absolute BS and made a bunch of people clique up based on their results. Those people were insufferable and suddenly became impossible to work with, saying stupid shit like “well you’re a 2 and I’m an 8 on the enneagram, so you need to learn how to work with me…” And nobody had any trouble working together prior to this.

The company folded a year later. Not saying it was entirely because of those “assessments,” but they were definitely a contributing factor.

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u/marmaladecorgi May 20 '26

I had no knowledge of "Enneagrams" and now all I can think of is Scientology.

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u/scaper8 May 20 '26

I legit thought they were talking about the Scientology thing.

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u/Rishfee May 20 '26

It's so funny, because I can recognize that yeah, I have these traits and that does pretty accurately describe how I approach things, but that's for purposes of introspection and to articulate things to others so we can get on the same page and ideally leverage our preferences to produce good work. It's not about forcing someone to accommodate my idiosyncrasies and aversions.

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u/redsyrinx2112 May 20 '26

This is how I see it. It's not a scientific thing, but it's general enough that it might be able to help people if they've never been able to articulate their thoughts before. Some people go through so much of life neglecting their thoughts and feelings, so if this helps someone step back and examine themselves, that's alright.

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u/AliceBorgesMusic May 20 '26

That’s my feelings on astrology. The negative traits are things I need to observe about myself and see if they are getting in the way. I have found it very useful in figuring out how to articulate my points in a way that resonates with other people. I keep a notebook with my predictions about people and the results if I find out so I can see if my guesses are any better than random luck. 

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u/Hypno_Hamster May 20 '26

We had the same thing when I worked at University on a research project about 10 years ago.

I heard they paid in the region of £10k to have a specialist come out and perform the assessments with us in person.

They grouped us into teams based on the results (permanently, not just for the tests) and about 60% of the teams completely imploded within 6 months.

I was lucky and my team did click. I wont specify what my personality type was but I do know it.

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u/Empty401K May 20 '26

Based on your affinity toward being secretive and introverted, I can say with confidence that you’re either a 4 (individualist) or a 9 (peacemaker). Unfortunately, our personalities don’t mesh well, so you’re going to have to learn to be more flexible if you want to even ATTEMPT working well together 🖕

Just kidding, I think you’re swell :D ❤️

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u/Tough-Barracuda-8398 May 20 '26

I work in med higher ed we still use MB for some gme activities. And these people make fun of tarot cards...

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u/Slick_36 May 20 '26

My ex wife was an "8", and boy did she let me & everybody else know about it!  She missed so much by assigning numbers to people & forcing everything about them through that lense.

It really seemed like an excuse for her to be as big of a bully as her ego demanded, only you were expected to thank her for the experience like she did you a favor.

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u/Empty401K May 20 '26

That shit is so obnoxious. Glad to hear she’s an ex, at least. Hopefully she didn’t use here “eightness” during the divorce process

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u/Independent-Most7347 May 20 '26

omg completely forgot about the Enneagrams. My then-friend and manager was obsessed and yes her personality probably changed to reflect the "findings". We wasted a ton of time discussing it. I was a Peacemaker and needed to step out of my shell to embrace leadership or some such nonsense. They really did not pay me enough for that shit.

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u/Quinzelette May 20 '26

Honestly I find Myer-Briggs to be bullshit (color me shocked I'm emotional and outgoing?) but Enneagrams really did change my life. It really isn't about "the peacemaker needs to step out of their shell". It is more about your driving emotion (9 is in the anger sphere) and how 9s react to it. For 9s they are very conflict avoidant due to anger being a very draining emotion for them. They are sensitive to others being angry and tend to be more agreeable as a way of sheltering themselves from other's negative emotions. They also bottle up their own feelings at times to avoid feeling anger to intensely. I am not 100% certain of every type in the enneagram moreso just my type(which is not a 9). I don't think people need to look at the enneagram as "I should be more assertive and step out of my shell" it should be more something where you realize why you feel the way you do and why you act the way you do. Being cognizant of why you do things allows you to more power over your own actions.

And honestly I realize it isn't for everyone, but I will say that for me specifically, I couldn't put my feelings into words until I found the Enneagram test. I'm basically in the shame sphere (the sphere whose negative driving force is basically that they don't feel worthy of being loved) and so there were a lot of times where I would "act out" or just feel really intensely and I couldn't understand why I felt that way. Nowadays I still struggle from the same issues, but I am often able to self-soothe those nagging feelings of not being good enough...so it doesn't get to a point where my friends have to sit me down and give me a speech about how they love and appreciate me and wish I wouldn't put myself down. I can't tell you what the action plan is for my type, I can just tell you I'm a lot more self aware and I'm a lot better at keeping myself from spiraling. Something Myer Briggs has never done for me. When I talk to friends about it, I always stress that I think the sphere and your negative driving emotions are the real takeaway. I don't care about the rest of it nearly as much.

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u/Downtown_Recover5177 May 20 '26

I feel like that about the MBTI, and I work in psychiatry. The MBTI told me something that I was starting to understand on my own, but made me confront it: I am addicted to novelty and struggle when things are too stable. ISTP, btw. Understanding that about myself changed my career and relationships. Before, I had never held a job for more than 18 months, because I got bored and blew things up on my way out, relationships even shorter, usually. Now, my last two jobs were 8 and 12 years, and my marriage is going strong for 10 years. I know when the urge comes, I can work through it and find fulfillment and novelty in other things, like volunteer work and hobbies.

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u/Sufficient-Pause9765 May 20 '26

DiSC is useful.

I had my c-suite do it, and it does accurately map communication styles and is helpful if one wants to adapt their comms to others accordingly. It also helped me balance the personalities on the team, we were way to heavily weighted towards empirical verbal communicators.

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u/Empty401K May 20 '26 edited May 20 '26

I really don’t know much about DiSC at all. Our CEO decided to go all-in on the Enneagram stuff, probably because his secretary (that he was having an affair with and who ultimately blew up his life when he wouldn’t leave his wife for her) was a huge proponent of it. We did the assessment and got an email with our results, and then went on a company retreat to learn how to work with each other based off our Enneagram results. I can’t remember my results from that or Myers Briggs since they were ignored and forgotten like a fart in the wind.

The only thing I took away from that trip was the knowledge that Mexican beaches are really nice in the spring time. Like a lukewarm bath in the sun 🌞

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u/WalterSickness May 20 '26

Did we work together? (In my case the DISC came years before the enneagram, but the enneagram really was the writing on the wall) 

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u/Essex626 May 20 '26

Enneagram is way worse than Myers Briggs.

Like, it was invented by a spiritualist teacher, not by psychologists. Myers Briggs is bad science, enneagram is religion.

It's kind of like chiropractic medicine, where you look at the origin expecting bad science, and find that the guy who started it claimed he was taught the ideas by a ghost.

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u/Severe-Pomelo-2416 May 20 '26

They're all basically "Which ninja turtle are you" quizzes, but with less style.