For fun, Parina and I mapped enneagram types to a pair of Magic: The Gathering colors. (Following in the great tradition of https://medium.com/s/story/the-mtg-color-wheel-c9700a7cf36d) For each color pair, there’s no ordering; think of it as a set.

Without further ado:

1 Reformer White red

2 Helper Black green

3 Achiever Black white

4 Individualist Blue green

5 Investigator Blue red

6 Loyalist Black blue / blue white

7 Enthusiast Red green

8 Challenger Black red

9 Peacemaker Green white

Let me know if this helps or resonates with you.

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11 comments, sorted by Click to highlight new comments since: Today at 1:35 PM

I disagree with some of these.


1 fits white-blue better than white-red.

I'm not entirely sure what 2 fits, but black-green isn't it. White-red, maybe? [EDIT: Much like 4, it's actually 3 colours. White-red-green.]

3 is more black-blue than black-white, although white is a strong third.

4 really works better with 3 colours (blue-green-red).

5 isn't red. It's pretty close to mono-blue, but if I had to give it a second, it'd be blue-green.

6 is weird. Black has the trust issues, but doesn't fit much else. I'd say white-blue-red.

7 is red-blue, not red-green.

8 is black-red, with green if you add a third.

9 is green-white.

Hey Alexei, sorry for writing here, I tried it at https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Ckg5JS8E5QXYhM89r/credence-calibration-game-faq

I know it's been a while since this game was developed, but I've discovered it recently and I want to make a better one. More question types, community-contributed and voted questions, categories, profiles; cross-platform web app, themes, better UI etc.

It's of course going to be open-source.

Would you like to help with math model for questions and evaluating, or maybe with development?

galatyuk.ilya AT gmail

That sounds great! I don't have time to help with the development, but the math is pretty easy: https://acritch.com/credence-game/

Definitely post it here on LW when you have a beta version.

The Open Philanthropy Project created an updated version (I am not a huge fan of it, but itt does have a lot of the things you care about): https://www.openphilanthropy.org/blog/new-web-app-calibration-training

Noice, I didn't know about that particular version!

It does indeed have some things and some useful info, but yeah, having played it for a bit, I agree it has its own flaws.

Interesting attempt!

I identify strongly as Enneagram Type 1 (feels like I'm the textbook case-- the extreme fit is what persuaded me to take a woo personality system seriously), but also score/feel extremely low on Red. (There's the word-association-identification test somewhere, and that's one place I had minimum red.)

A hypothesis I have is that although I do value freedom/flexibility/autonomy (Red stuff), I never feel at much risk of having those taken away (because of my Black?) and so feel no special need to protect them, no need to rebel, etc.

My (admittedly limited) model of you does have Red, but also the Red is super well integrated. So it might just feel natural? (E.g. "rebellion" is red, but it's more common in red that's not very developed.) I dunno, thanks anyway for the data point. :)

Simic here: Never heard of enneagram before. I generally model people based on their fear so I like the axises it uses to evaluate people; but honestly every one of them feels like they fit except one and even then I could stretch it to kinda fit. Kinda like the Forer Effect ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnum_effect ). Posting mostly to combat publishing(?) bias where I expect you to only be able to find posts by people who fit the system really well.

When I first ran across enneagram and read about it myself, it also felt like all the types kind of fit. But then a friend was describing the true meaning of Peacemaker to a group of us and it... felt like he was reading my essence. Then I went home, took the test, and sure enough that was my type. So I think the descriptions out there are not that great and it's better if you talk to someone with a strong understanding of the system and they can help you figure out your type.

Is there a book or source you recommend? I really like the axises it chose so even if I end up disbelieving it I think I'd really enjoy knowing enough about it to discuss with people what ways they do/don't fit.

Edit: reordering the columns to change my perceived importance of each column has -vastly- improved my opinion of the system and my interest in it has gone up. Except now this list says I'm grull (red/green) which has never appealed to me. Black/green/blue all the way.

I actual don’t know! I kind of learned it from people / a bit from the official site.