The 9 Ways of Working

Why it’s on the list: Goldberg’s application of the Enneagram’s nine types to working life — how each reads a deadline, a conflict, a boss. Kyle’s note has it as “Nine Ways of Working”; the published title uses the numeral.

confidence: low: an earlier edition was published in 1996 as Getting Your Boss’s Number, and the printings are hard to separate, so the year is the later edition’s. The Enneagram itself has no empirical standing as a personality instrument, which is worth knowing given the thread asked what taught you most about how the world works.

Where I saw it: In the reply thread to @SpencrGreenberg’s question, “What non-fiction book taught you the most about how the world (or how humanity or society) really works?” (June 5, 2025) — a crowd-sourced list Kyle recovered by hand and saved to his Apple Note “Books To Read”; the full set of replies lives on A question for you — What non-fiction… (tweet). It was listed there as “Nine Ways of Working”.

Connections

• Psychology — typology as a framework, with the usual caveats.
• Company Building — the book’s actual use case is managing a team.
• A question for you — What non-fiction… (tweet) — the thread this recommendation came from.