Correa Neto
19th August 2003, 11:19 AM
Some time ago the company where I work decided that we need to have more self-knoweledge, and that this would increase our productivity.
And they hired a guy who uses "eneagrams"- actually he was presented to us as a scholar on the issue. It is supposed to be an excellent and currently widely used tool for self-knoweledge (it started to smell - and quite badly- to me as another of those self-help things). But a large multinational company would not use such unscientific thing, would it?
The wole stuff looked to me (and still looks) absolutely woo-wooish. It is a diagram, supposed to have been created ages ago, in Asia, more speciffically in Afghanistan, and later brought to the west by the mystic Gurdjieff (nice refference, eh?). The diagram divides mankind in 9 basic types, defined by a set of questions (that looked to me just like one of those thousands that can be found around the WWW). An as in astrology, the categories have very vague descriptions (at least so it seemed to me), so chances are you would find something that "fits" with you. If you do not fit in the description, thats because of the nearby or opposed classifications, quite like the ascendants in astrology.
I started to question the origins of the eneagram. On what evidences was the guy basing his claim that the eneagram has such an ancient age? He said paintings on cave walls. I happen to have a certain knoweledge about ancient art and ancient civilizations. And I told him I had never seen a photograph or drawing or description of such a symbol. He said "Thats because the Taleban denied acces to the caves, and they exploded many caves with drawings and statues with non-muslim motifs (sic), and the americans exploded many caves in the attacks against the Talebans, so they no longer exist". I said "And what about descritptions from before the Taleban regime?" He said, "Oh, the caves are very hard to find, in very distant places, few explorers reached them". I was about to continue with my arguments- the guy was cornered and I was loving every moment of that, since I started my questioning at the end of the 2-days long course. Then someone warned me that the responsible for the human resource area from the company was sitting a few rows behind me... And that the guy studied the enegram for years and based several decisions on his personal and professional lives (and also our carreers!) on this thing. And he was not happy at all with my debunking...
I shutted up (eppur si mouve)... But I am still angry with all of this.
What if I used astrology to tell the investors where to put thir money?
I work in a large mining company. We are leaders in our market and supposed to have cutting-edge technology and methodology in almost every aspect (hahahahaha- sarcastic laugh). My job forces me to have a skepticall point of view. If I donīt do it in this way, I risk dumping a couple of million dollars down the drain. And getting the boot on the next moment.
But these guys can use woo-woo stuff to get their money and eventually decide if we are fit or not for a given position. And yes, I checked with a friend of mine who is a psychologist, and she told me that it is pure BS in her opinion.
A note- some googling for eneagram will return several woo-wooish sites.
My questions are:
-Do you had similar experiences?
-Am I wrong with my conclusion that eneagrams are woo-woo?
-You company uses it or similar things?
-How would you react in my position?
Sorry for the exceedingly long rant.
as always, edited to correct some typos
And they hired a guy who uses "eneagrams"- actually he was presented to us as a scholar on the issue. It is supposed to be an excellent and currently widely used tool for self-knoweledge (it started to smell - and quite badly- to me as another of those self-help things). But a large multinational company would not use such unscientific thing, would it?
The wole stuff looked to me (and still looks) absolutely woo-wooish. It is a diagram, supposed to have been created ages ago, in Asia, more speciffically in Afghanistan, and later brought to the west by the mystic Gurdjieff (nice refference, eh?). The diagram divides mankind in 9 basic types, defined by a set of questions (that looked to me just like one of those thousands that can be found around the WWW). An as in astrology, the categories have very vague descriptions (at least so it seemed to me), so chances are you would find something that "fits" with you. If you do not fit in the description, thats because of the nearby or opposed classifications, quite like the ascendants in astrology.
I started to question the origins of the eneagram. On what evidences was the guy basing his claim that the eneagram has such an ancient age? He said paintings on cave walls. I happen to have a certain knoweledge about ancient art and ancient civilizations. And I told him I had never seen a photograph or drawing or description of such a symbol. He said "Thats because the Taleban denied acces to the caves, and they exploded many caves with drawings and statues with non-muslim motifs (sic), and the americans exploded many caves in the attacks against the Talebans, so they no longer exist". I said "And what about descritptions from before the Taleban regime?" He said, "Oh, the caves are very hard to find, in very distant places, few explorers reached them". I was about to continue with my arguments- the guy was cornered and I was loving every moment of that, since I started my questioning at the end of the 2-days long course. Then someone warned me that the responsible for the human resource area from the company was sitting a few rows behind me... And that the guy studied the enegram for years and based several decisions on his personal and professional lives (and also our carreers!) on this thing. And he was not happy at all with my debunking...
I shutted up (eppur si mouve)... But I am still angry with all of this.
What if I used astrology to tell the investors where to put thir money?
I work in a large mining company. We are leaders in our market and supposed to have cutting-edge technology and methodology in almost every aspect (hahahahaha- sarcastic laugh). My job forces me to have a skepticall point of view. If I donīt do it in this way, I risk dumping a couple of million dollars down the drain. And getting the boot on the next moment.
But these guys can use woo-woo stuff to get their money and eventually decide if we are fit or not for a given position. And yes, I checked with a friend of mine who is a psychologist, and she told me that it is pure BS in her opinion.
A note- some googling for eneagram will return several woo-wooish sites.
My questions are:
-Do you had similar experiences?
-Am I wrong with my conclusion that eneagrams are woo-woo?
-You company uses it or similar things?
-How would you react in my position?
Sorry for the exceedingly long rant.
as always, edited to correct some typos