Overview (Extroverted Intuition + Feeling)
The Pundit is characterized by a quick wit, fast speech, and childlike charm, which they naturally display when sharing and discussing various (even unrelated) ideas, concepts, and phenomena, particularly those that deal with humanity and personal identity from a utopian point of view. Despite the childlike behavior and strong emotional affect, the Pundit carries a certain seriousness behind their words. They can act random and nonsensical, but when it comes to their facial expression or approach to human concerns and morals, they are often markedly serious or even somewhat solemn. At those times, their conduct is more reminiscent of an older person and differentiates them from the Experimentalist or Inspirer.
Similarly to the Performer, many Pundits tend to prefer either a professional approach or to speak from a heartfelt place (one-on-one), which is often associated with stereotypical introversion, even though the Pundit typically comes across as an extrovert in public situations.
Most Pundits are educators and professors in the social sciences and humanities, social commentators in mass media, philosophers, comedians, writers, actors. Many Pundits have a history of trying out the wildest and most opposing kinds of professions until they settle on one (or several) pursuits.
A pundit is a person who offers to mass media opinion or commentary on a particular subject area (most typically politics, the social sciences…)
The term originates from the Sanskrit term pandit (paṇḍitáपण्डित), meaning “knowledge owner” or “learned man”.[1] It refers to someone who is erudite in various subjects and who conducts religious ceremonies and offers counsel to the king and usually referred to a person from the HinduBrahmin caste but may also refer to the Siddhas, Siddhars, Naths, Ascetics, Sadhus, or Yogis (rishi).
A pundit now combines the roles of a public intellectual and has a certain expertise as a media practitioner. They play an increasing role in disseminating ideas and views in an accessible way to the public.
Purpose Role: The Pundit is in their natural element when they create or discuss novel (esp. utopian) ideas and concepts on human matters, including their own personal preferences and morals, in a way that is also accessible and entertaining to people.
Main Functions (Ne & Fi)
When it comes to ideas and concepts about the human spirit, there is no idea that is too farfetched nor uninteresting for the Pundit, even if they are purely utopian or dystopian and cannot be applied or realized in the “real world“. They are the most inclined from all personality types to be entirely open-minded towards any humanitarian idea they come across – and naturally, they constantly come across or generate such ideas on a regular basis, “seeing“ associations between different fields and relating them back to humanity.
That does not necessarily mean that the Pundit will internalize and take on the idea for themselves and their lifestyle. Quite on the contrary, the Pundit can be known for deliberately playing devil’s advocate, juggling between different viewpoints and perspectives without settling on one, in order to explore an idea or concept from all possible angles. In doing so, the Pundit indirectly pokes at the underlying moral value or personal significance underneath, showing to others a possible way of seeing what might be morally right or wrong (or both?).
The Pundit can be quite categorical in their personal judgments of people’s character or other humanitarian matters. However, their propensity to switch between different ideas, as well as their overall changeable nature and spirit, often leads to them totally discarding a former moral value and taking on the opposite not much later, sometimes just for “size“ (like shoes). Many Pundits also see the world of self-identity and morality as an ever-evolving playground. If the Pundit has been focusing too much on the world outside of themselves, they can at other times introspect and get lost in their subjective feelings, possibly to the point of melancholy.
External Behavior
Strong Unvalued Extroverted Feeling (Fe)
The Pundit tends to convey a slightly wacky and endearing charm, though some shy individuals of this type attempt to hold it back. Nevertheless, they can be known for influencing the social atmosphere, either through loud laughter or taking over the conversation, either by presenting interesting ideas or sharing their personal opinions. However, this is mostly the case if they are talking about a subject matter that they know a lot about, and if there are no dominating personalities present. If that is not the case, the Pundit will blend more into the background.
The Pundit can be quite aware of the disconnect between their public boisterousness and the internal seriousness within. They may use sarcasm to emphasize this. The Pundit prefers a professional approach in others and tends to look down on certain social norms of behavior, even though they can follow them very well.
Aim at Extroverted Thinking (Te)
The Pundit typically likes to collect as much knowledge and trivia as possible. Some Pundits are obsessed with fictional worlds and the discussion/discourse of them, whereas other Pundits tend to focus more on practical/“worldly“ knowledge and trivia. Nevertheless, Pundits are typically characterized by a thirst for knowledge and a keen interest in the laws of the (fictional and/or real) world, which they like to comment on from a philosophical “what if“-perspective.
Unvalued External Sensing (Se)
Pundits often have a personal disdain for people who put a special emphasis on pushiness, external appearances and a “just-do-it“-attitude. Pundits can play up some amount of those traits in themselves, but those moments tend to be short-lived, a bit underwhelming and stressful for them.
In the same vein, they may engage in some activity that is physically exhausting or demands sensorial attention and focus, but they rarely gain true enjoyment out of that. A few Pundits can be more interested in fashion, but then their sense of style tends to come across as somewhat weakly coordinated or unusual, for example combining colors and patterns that do not naturally work well together or fall flat.
Unvalued Internal Thinking (Ti)
The Pundit often acts in contradictory ways or makes statements that are logically contradictory, whilst going with the flow of their ideas and associations, especially when it comes to the human realm – there, they see lots of human behaviors that logically seem contradictory. To others, the Pundit’s line of thinking is usually not streamlined, going from one idea to the other, often losing the initial point of the conversation. The conversation may end up on a topic that seems almost entirely removed from the starting point, but to the Pundit, it is all invariably connected. If others point out and criticize their logical inconsistency or mental disorderliness, the Pundit can become quite upset.
Also, many Pundits can be quite opposed to putting (human) concepts into neat (logical) boxes and may scoff at that notion. However, other Pundits are more open-minded and are willing to work with logical structures, as long as the focus lies on the idea or concept itself.
Valued Internal Sensing (Si)
The Pundit (often unconsciously) yearns for true physical and mental relaxation, which can be hard to attain for them, because their minds are typically always racing and focusing on the world outside of themselves. Instead of pushing for the next goal or challenge like the Performer, the Pundit would rather find personal bliss in a restorative movement or tranquil room atmosphere. The Pundit benefits from viewing their body more as a personal sanctuary and tending to it like a flower, though they struggle with that and need outside help in this area. Many Pundits wish they could just turn off their minds and truly enjoy creature comforts, though that can be elusive to them.
Pundit Celebrities: Click here
Note: Of course there are pundits who possess a different personality type, so please do not assume that all pundits in the world fit this personality type! I call the Extroverted Intuition + Feeling personality type “The Pundit” not only because they are usually pundits, but also because this personality structure personifies the archetype the best.
Type Compatibility
Most compatible:
- The Stabilizer*
- The Pundit
- (Coming soon)*
- The Humanist*
Least compatible: The System Builder
*Note: These types can be occasionally less compatible due to mismatching Enneagram Trifixes.
Functions
The Ego of the Pundit
The Super-Id (valued but weak)
The weakest Functions:
The strongest Functions:
Correlations:
ENFP (MBTI), IEE (Socionics)
Note: Both MBTI and Socionics include Big 5-related aspects in their types, especially MBTI is mostly a variation of Big 5 nowadays. My version of the Jungian types does not use Big 5 traits, hence the conventional 4-letter idea of “ENFP” might not fully apply. Based on the letters, you might count as “ENFP” but not as The Pundit with Ne and Fi as their first functions. Read this for more on this issue.
Subtypes
There are 3 specific subtype variations of the Pundit.
Those variations can be grouped into Ne (Extroverted Intuition) subtype and Fi (Introverted Feeling) subtype.
Ne Subtype (Classic Extrovert)
Ne subtype Pundits share most of those traits:
- Stereotypically extroverted
- Very fast speech and mind
- Highly theoretical and philosophical
- Disheveled and chaotic, “all brain-no body“
Can be mistaken for ENTP / ILE.
Fi Subtype (Introverted Extrovert / “Ambiverted”)
Fi subtype Pundits share most of those traits:
- ”Ambiverted” (can be mistaken for an introvert)
- More personable and charming
- More concerned with appearances
- More commonly found in entertainment or politics
Can be mistaken for INFP, ISFP, ESFP / EII, ESI, SEE.
Note: Don’t mistake Jungian “ambiversion” with asociable Enneagram instinctual stackings, like Sx/Sp and Sp/Sx. If you are an extrovert with one of those stackings, you’ll come across as “ambiverted”, even if you don’t have that subtype!
No Subtype (Standard Type)
A Pundit who falls into both categories more or less is mostly likely the No subtype kind.
Enneagram Types
If you are not a Type 3 or Type 7w6, then you are most likely not The Pundit. But make sure you are correctly typed. You can get a typing from me here.
Type•volution 
Great article! Compared to anything on the internet, this suited me best it’s almost scary.
However, why didn’t you put any description regarding Ti PoLR? Some other personality types got their PoLR, some do not. Maybe that’s your writing style, or maybe you haven’t figured out how Ti affects NeFi people.
Still great article though. Really appreciate it.
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Hey, happy to hear this suits you well! Yeah this is really just my writing style, I tend to focus on the most important bits, but later I typically add the other functions for completion. In this case, I overlooked it! I just added the Ti bit, thanks for pointing it out!
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