Introduction

The world is a chaotic place—its course, often unpredictable. Without warning, earthquakes may happen and volcanoes might erupt, wiping out entire populations within a day. These unforeseen events have long perplexed many, spurring generations of people to embark on quests to decipher the mysterious and erratic workings of the world.

Creativity is the ability to introduce order
into the randomness of nature.

Eric Hoffer

What they found was that despite its randomness, the world is full of recurring patterns that seem to follow a rhythm. When we take a step back and look at the world over the span of centuries, we come to realize that symmetry can be found throughout our existence, from the pace of our pulse and breath to the change of seasons and tides.

To record the rhythms of the world, people of the past used calendars and stars. But as time went on, civilizations grew more sophisticated, and so did their methods for identifying rhythms. Nowadays, scientists can identify rhythms at every scale of the cosmos, from galaxies down to atoms with only the use of mathematical formulas.

NXT Rhythm in this sense, is the formula that deciphers the recurring patterns of human behavior. When you first meet someone, you might be stumped to find them outgoing at one moment but quiet the next. But if you spend enough time with them, you will realize that their contrasting behavior is actually part of a larger pattern.

Through NXT Rhythm, we can understand why others may occasionally behave differently and predict their patterns of behavior. Furthermore, it explains the subtle or sometimes clear variations between archetypes of the same Origin.

The Four Drives

In music theory, a musical note embodies a unique pitch and duration of a sound, making each note completely distinct from any other. When strung together in a predictable pattern that repeats over time, these notes form a rhythm.

Similarly, the rhythm of our personalities is also composed of various “notes”, namely the four primal human desires: Explore, Build, Lead, and Evolve. When they are paired together based on our Type Perspective and Type Strategy, these personality “notes” contribute a significant amount of influence to the overall pattern of our behavior. We call these pairings the four Type Drives.

Before we dive into the details of the four Type Drives, here are the brief descriptions for each Type Drive:

• Reflector: A relatively more introspective person as they often ponder upon their life and on making things perfect.

• Analyzer: A relatively more curious person as they often seek to discover new things that are of interest to them.

• Interactor: A relatively more participative person as they often communicate openly with others across a myriad of topics.

• Director: A relatively more organized person as they often inform others reliably using established information.

Just as a person can Think and Feel, Lead and Evolve, Build and Explore, they too can Reflect, Analyze, Interact, and Direct, but with different frequencies and levels of mastery.

By examining the order of priority in which we use these four Type Drives, we can then determine our Type Style and Type Variant, revealing a pattern unique to each of us.

And there you have it, the essence of Rhythm in a nutshell! Don't worry if you find it a tad too complicated; we will explain the details in the next few parts of this section.

Type Similarities

For those who are familiar with the MBTI personality framework, you may have noticed many parallels between certain preferences in MBTI and certain Type Drives in NXT.

In MBTI, Extraverts are typically described as outgoing and lively people who derive energy from being around others. They like to talk about things out loud and hear what people have to say. Introverts, on the other hand, are typically described as reflective and reserved people who derive energy from their inner world. They prefer doing things alone or with people they are comfortable with.

From the descriptions above, one can see how Extraverts are similar to Interactors and Introverts to Reflectors. It is interesting how different systems can detect the same patterns of behavior although they were developed separately. Because the truth is, we didn’t create Type Drive with these parallels in mind; they just happened to arise.

Unfortunately, the Extravert and Introvert dichotomy in MBTI has been subject to countless criticisms as it does not explain those who fall in the middle: the Ambiverts. This discrepancy, however, is cleared up when we realize that the level of extraversion and introversion of an individual depends on the arrangement of their Type Drive.

Of course, MBTI is by no means a bad system, but its theory can often lack a comprehensive explanation to certain aspects of personality.

Conclusion

Interested to know more? Let us dive into the details with in-depth explanations from the next part onwards!

Read next part → Type Drive [Rhythm]