Interviews - Xero

I interviewed Xero (Joseph). His interview is embedded below.

Some observations:

• Xero has a natural propensity to look at the world as a glass half full. 
• Likewise, Xero presents himself to others in a "glass half full" way, telling stories in a spontaneous way that emphasize his future prospects, his self-image as an "upstanding citizen", and his positive qualities.
• Very inattentive towards vital resources (time, money, energy). 
• Very inclined to abstract, spiritual, and descriptions of "energy" in his explanations for his character and surrounding lived circumstances. 
• Emphasizes in his own narrative, repeatedly and emphatically, his mentorship and developmental attitude towards others. 
• Inclined to somewhat lengthy, uninterrupted personal explanations, maybe even in a slightly defensive way, as if to say outwardly "I am a more reputable and more compassionate person than my actions might suggest".

   Some themes:

• Emotional warmth and support for others
• Lack of boundaries; "unconditional" regard for others

My view is that Xero is the ESE. My second choice would be the EIE, but I am fairly comfortable with the first choice.

The interview contains elements that are subtle, but largely consists of much less subtlety. To a certain extent, it's very easy to interpret Xero's words literally; he opens the interview discussing his warm-heartedness and his openness towards other people.

What is perhaps more subtle, and very important to recognize is his sensitivity to the interview context, and in particular, his sensitivity to a situation that is unambiguously formal, or at least, comparable in formality Xero's formal, working life, compared to his informal life. I think the exact degree to which we can observe how different Xero's formal and informal lives are from this video, is something of an open question. But it's clear there is a disparity in how Xero acts in an interview -- an interview for a job, or apparently an interview for a typology enthusiast -- compared to how he might act at a party.

Xero has a preference for presenting himself in a positive way that emphasizes his future prospects. He emphasizes for instance his helpfulness towards others despite the negative aspects of their surroundings, while almost completely omitting the details of his personal hardship and suffering (e.g., "That period was a very rocky time in my life, but what I did afterwards was X", which he then spends five minutes talking about). Even when asked thoughtfully and somewhat directly about negative experiences, ("Have you encountered failure stories where you couldn't get through to people you were trying to help") he answered the question without really acknowledging that he had failed to help people, or indeed perhaps in a deeper way acknowledging the implication of a negative outcome inherent in the question.

There was one isolated thing that I thought was very peculiar, and which I pointed out in the interview but which I think is also worthwhile to point out here. There was a long anecdote about working in Louisiana and walking a considerable distance of 11 miles to get to work every day. Instead of contemplating the resources involved in this state of affairs, and finding a cost-effective solution, Xero contemplated the effort of walking this distance as simply, the necessary constraints of his situation. He described that he did not think of the possibility of improving this really bad situation himself, but that it was somebody else who suggested to him that a secondhand bicycle would be a good solution.

More generally, some themes that are more subtle, but still influential:
First of all, Xero seemed to me to have a deficit of thinking of his own resources and energy, and generally, his needs, compared to how he affects others or contemplates others' needs. He described a number of occasions in which he was forced to more carefully consider his own needs in order to get things done, but these times tended to be out of sheer exhaustion, after days of not sleeping well enough having other people make too many demands on his time, and so on. He also described, when asked indirectly, that he didn't feel that his instances of material generosity had been taken advantage of.

Finally, and perhaps most open for discussion; I felt that Xero was very inclined to speaking dryly (especially in the interview context) and was intellectually receptive or even deferential. To me, it felt as though he wished to present himself as an upstanding, kind person, but not at all as an intellectual. Instead he seemed very open -- not only to my analysis of him -- but also in general, to explanation of how the world works.