Introduction

As of today, there are over 7.7 billion people worldwide, all of whom are divided between more than 190 countries, with at least 3,800 distinct cultures, 4,200 religions, and 7,100 languages spread across various oceans and continents. From these numbers alone, one can immediately tell that humanity in and of itself, is remarkably diverse.

But despite the numerous faiths, ideologies, and traditions held by an endless spectrum of people, there is no doubt that every single human being, regardless of their background, can find a shared identity in the species that we belong to—Homo Sapiens.

Cognitive Diversity

This raises a crucial question: If all of us are of the same origin, what gave rise to so many different groups of people? We may not be able to explain the diversity of our cultures and beliefs—that we leave to the pundits—but we hope that our framework can offer the answers to another pressing mystery: the origin of our diverse personalities.

We’ve devised the theory of Origin for this exact reason. But hold on, what is Origin? Most dictionaries define it as a point where something begins. However, in NXT, its meaning goes much deeper than that. The Origin of an archetype holds the answer to their most basic traits, providing comprehensive explanations to the motivations behind their every behavior, from the way they think to the way they speak.

Much like how a person’s origin story is formed through various key defining moments, an archetype’s Origin is composed of several key personality building blocks: Type Outlook, Type Tactic, Type Nature, and Type Instinct. Through a combination of just four building blocks, we will end up with 32 archetypes, each with their own unique set of traits, behaviors, and mannerisms.

Jungian Functions

The following subtopics in this section can be understood easily by those who are familiar with the concept of cognitive functions as used by various personality frameworks. Nonetheless, we recommend that you read the next few parts with caution as the terms used are similar but may hold fundamentally different definitions.

The reason why the same terminology can often be found across different personality frameworks is because they all originate from the same source: the Jungian cognitive functions. From there, numerous theories were developed, bringing Jung’s ideas in various directions. That alone is a major factor why it is so difficult to debate the validity of different frameworks, as they tend to use the same terms proposed by Jung, but with their own unique interpretations attached to them.

Knowing this, do keep in mind that although our explanations here are consistent with the NXT personality framework, they will most likely be incompatible with other personality theories.

Conclusion

Without wasting any more time, let us explore the first building block of an archetype’s Origin, Type Outlook.

Read next part → Type Outlook [Origin]