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Before we continue with the main article of this newsletter: our latest OPS typing class is out now. This time, it’s on the actor Timothy Olyphant.

Our next class, will be on the musician Leonard Cohen (highlight to see). The class comes out on November 29 at 9 pm UTC on the Practical Personality YouTube channel.

Without further ado, here’s this issue’s article on the big incongruence between Timothy Olyphant's 512-type and his social type, and how he learned to deal with it.

Finding Your Game

Internal Scream

“Holy crap, I’m fucking up here!”

The pressure and the intensity were becoming overwhelming for Timothy Olyphant. It was 1997 and the young, inexperienced actor was freaking out on the set of Scream 2. It was only the third movie he had worked on.

“We haven't really talked about this last scene, but I'm not sure about the stuff you're doing off camera,” said legendary director Wes Craven, before he went on to explain his ideas for the scene to Tim.

Panicked thoughts like “I got to get his right,” were going through the actor’s head, while desperately trying to mask the tension he was feeling.

“What’s the big deal?” You might be thinking. “Isn’t this a totally normal note from a director to an actor?” You’d be right, of course. But the self-conscious Tim was freaking the fuck out.

So much so that he’s still telling this anecdote more than 25 years later.

If you know Tim’s personality type, this reaction isn’t the least bit surprising. You wouldn’t recognise it in his recent interviews, but his type comes with a huge contradiction between his first human need and his first social need.

A contradiction that stifled him for years.

However, Tim remained persistent and made his contradictory personality work for him—it merely took him a bit more than a decade.

Disproving Anecdotes

Timothy Olyphant is an actor who got started in the 90s with movies like Scream 2 and Go. Nowadays, he’s most famous for the critically acclaimed HBO show Deadwood and his leading performance in the neo-Western crime show Justified.

We typed him in our latest OPS typing class as FF-Ti/Se-CP/S(B) and a social type #4.

There is a strong incongruence between his first human need, self, and his social type, which is highly tribe-motivated. In other words, his first responsibility is checking and acting from his personal perspective, while his main long-term motivation comes from other people.

Tim’s social type comes through in every interview. He hardly ever seems nervous. He’s charming and funny and not shy about trolling his interviewers. He hesitates to take compliments, and you only ever see him flex ironically, making fun of the cliché of the arrogant movie star.

In every interview, he’s disproving decider anecdotes left and right.

At the same time, Tim puts himself under so much more pressure than his friendly demeanour reveals. He only occasionally hints at it, like when he talks about his early experience on the set of Scream 2.

But he had a lot to work through before he arrived at the level of internal comfort and external success he is now.

Too Tense

When Wes Craven questioned Tim’s acting choices, it wasn’t anything unusual, and it wasn’t personal either. The director simply had a different vision for the scene, and still needed to figure out how to capture it in collaboration with the young actor.

He never meant to imply that Tim wasn’t suited for the role. But Tim took it that way.

When he received the note, he felt embarrassed and his mind jammed shut. Back in 1997, Tim neither knew himself as an actor, nor could he switch to the director’s perspective.

He was still far away from knowing what he could bring to the table. He wasn’t confident in his abilities yet.

On the contrary, Tim felt desperate to get it right and couldn’t stop the compulsive tendency for over-thinking that comes with his lead function, Ti.

Had he been able to see himself from Wes’s perspective, it would’ve loosed him up. There was no reason to worry. The director wasn’t his enemy, but his friendly collaborator.

Tim the ISTP got stuck in his limited perspective, alone and afraid.

However, as a social type #4, he’s mainly tribe-motivated. Being with others, connecting and collaborating with them drives him. He’s not interested in elevating himself above the tribe.

But if he cannot get out of his head, he cannot work well with others and, therefore, not satisfy his main social need.

On the flip side, self-motivation is his last social need, which is reflected by the meandering beginnings of his career.

He initially left college without finishing his master’s degree. He started out working as a swimming coach, before he went to New York looking for other opportunities. He dabbled with stand-up comedy, before he ultimately decided on acting.

The lack of self-drive made finding his mission difficult—and the double-activated Oe didn't help either.

Seven years after Scream 2, he got one of the lead roles in Deadwood, but the pressure of a prestigious HBO show got to him again. Suddenly, Tim stopped having fun on set. He couldn’t stop the incessant over-thinking, making him too tense and too self-conscious yet again.

In his own words: “It was a great show, but I hoped I’d be better in it—at least in the first season.”

Being stuck in his head separated him from the tribe, the main source of his motivation. He couldn’t work with them to the best of his abilities.

But eventually, Tim found his way out.

A Justified Leading Man

Every person has every social need. As a #4, Tim is self-motivated too. It’s just not his main driver.

With acting, he had finally found the right specialisation for him, which allowed him to work with the tribe and for the tribe.

He remained persistent and stuck with it. He made it his mission.

In 2010, four years after Deadwood had ended, he starred as the lead in the TV show Justified. This time around, Tim wasn’t anxious. He had found his game and knew what team would be right for him.

Through consistent practice—while experiencing hits and surviving misses—he had built his confidence and skills. Tim knew he could deliver quality work with consistency.

He also knew where he’d fit in. Tim had developed a good sense of other people’s perspective. He knew what was expected of him and what projects he could serve best.

He never stopped using his Ti. He never stopped putting pressure on himself to make the decision that’s right for him. But he managed to balance it out with a good dose of Fe, learning to see the tribe and understanding how to collaborate.

The tension of his younger years was gone. Now he was able to be his best, most confident self.

If you're a social type #4, the tribe comes first in terms of long-term motivation. Working in a specialised role comes second. Being self-driven and having a personal mission, comes last. But all these parts are important—some are just more important than others.

Once Tim found his mission that would lead to connection and collaboration, he used his ISTP tools to become the best actor he could be.

His lead function was both his best ally and worst enemy. Ti made him focus on his skills, abilities, and discernment. It made him push himself not just hard, but too hard. It made him figure out his game.

But Fe—seeing through someone else's eyes—was the missing piece of the puzzle, the complement he needed to pick the right team for his Ti game.

It’s all a game of balancing opposites. It took Tim a few decades, but in the end, he learned to play it well.

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