Mike Wilson: "Ellison possessed no vision of the future, no great plan to conquer the software industry. His sole motivation was to be his own boss." [Source: https://archive.org/details/differencebetwee00wils_0/page/58/mode/1up]
Mike Wilson: "A year later Ellison made Overstreet his executive assistant. She was everything he wasn't: punctual, detail-oriented, thorough, discreet in her communications. Ellison never had an organized day in his life (in that way he was a typical entrepreneur)." [Source: https://archive.org/details/differencebetwee00wils_0/page/114/mode/1up]
Now let's move onto Ti vs Te:
Even if we do consider him being a Te-heavy ESFP, out of the 2 Thinking functions, he seems to prefer Ti because he places more emphasis about opening up new, personal inquiries via what makes sense to him rather than working with accepted theories. Even from the quotes from your site:
Ellison: "The most important aspect of my personality as far as determining my success goes; has been my questioning conventional wisdom, doubting experts and questioning authority. While that can be painful in your relationships with your parents and teachers, it's enormously useful in life."
(One could also say this fits Se too with the emphasis of it being a practical life lesson)
Mike Wilson: "'I was not suited to being able to work my way up the corporate ladder.' He had the same problems in business that he had experienced in school: 'If people asked me to do things that didn't make sense, I just couldn't do [them]. I couldn't start my own school, but I could start my own company.'" [Source: https://archive.org/details/differencebetwee00wils_0/page/58/mode/1up]
Furthermore, you guys said, "As for being potentially perceived as a crank, since the Ti type uses internal ideas that are derived from his own consciousness to evaluate external occurrences" which fits the following quote below.
Ellison: "When you innovate, you've got to be prepared for people telling you that you are nuts."
Now, one might say that because ESFPs prefer Fi over Te (and don't have Fe in their stack) that therefore all these quotes can be chalked up to Fi personal sentiment but I think of the 2 Feeling functions he prefers Fe over Fi.
To step outside of talking about Ellison for a moment I'll talk about Fe in ESTPs in general. Fe in ESTPs can manifest in multiple ways but one of the most common ways it manifests is having "a rakish charm to them" (as you guys said). To extend beyond just "rakish charm" though is that Fe in ESTPs also grants them an awareness of external sentiments, in which they use can use to navigate and leverage. Ti/Fe navigates this Se real-time awareness of the physical world in the ESTP, bottom-lining and exploiting situations in an unsentimental manner, but not without some practical understanding of the social world. This Se-Fe comination (in that order) can make one very opportunistic, sly, and good at working with people (in underhanded ways), and being able to cause a external sentimental effect that they are looking for, which they refine the techniques silently with Ti. For example, FDR, LBJ, and Trump fit this perfectly:
Rubenzer (on Franklin D. Roosevelt): "As outstanding as FDR's upbeat temperament was his clear willingness to trick people to get his way. He prided himself on his ability to handle others shrewdly and was willing to manipulate people. Crafty and sly, he was able to persuade others to his viewpoint but would also employ bullying or flattery. Not surprisingly, some perceived him as egotistical and self-centered. He would bend or break rules to his best advantage. He was alert to clues that reveal how others are thinking or feeling and seemed aware of the impression he made on others. Yet he wouldn't let others know if he did not like them."
Rubenzer (on Lyndon B. Johnson): "He used strong-arm tactics, flattery, and trickery to get his way more than any other president. He showed an exceptional willingness to distort facts or lie, and was markedly deceitful, unscrupulous, underhanded, cunning, and sly. He prided himself on his ability to 'handle' people, and he was highly persuasive, using virtually any means to his ends."
Peter Theil (on Trump): "He's very charismatic, but it's because he sort of knows exactly what to say to different people to put them at ease.”
Scott Adams (on Trump): "I noticed in [Donald Trump] the skills that I've developed over decades for persuasion but at a higher level than I've ever seen. He's the most persuasive living human that I've ever experienced. And I mean that in terms of actual technique. He's full of technique and it's all the time."
Jon Stewart (on Trump): "He knows how to channel the frustrations of an audience. He knows how to read a room. He knows what the room is feeling and he can articulate it back to them and they understand it."
Ellison fits this dynamic:
Mike Wilson: "He had a lot in common with Churchill: ... both were witty, insatiably curious, and charming when it suited them. ... He shared at least one other trait with Churchill: Both men were masterful manipulators of public opinion who were motivated largely by self-interest. In 1898 the young Churchill wrote his mother, 'I do not care so much for the principles I advocate as for the impression which my words produce & the reputation they give me. This sounds very terrible. But you must remember that we do not live in the days of Great Causes.' Ellison's story about his college career was Churchillian in that sense." [Source: https://archive.org/details/differencebetwee00wils_0/page/33/mode/1up]
(Both Churchill and Ellison focus on external sentimental effects as opposed to internal sentimental effects, Fe over Fi in this case)
Mike Wilson: "He could dazzle people with his insights and madden them with his lies. He was [someone] who could delight audiences with his colorful speeches." [Source: https://archive.org/details/differencebetwee00wils_0/page/9/mode/1up]
Mike Wilson: "Ellison's charms were such that even the aggrieved pastor said he still liked him. As a friend of Charles Foster Kane's says in Citizen Kane, '[It's] not that Charlie was ever brutal. He just did brutal things.'" [Source: https://archive.org/details/differencebetwee00wils_0/page/9/mode/1up]
Mike Wilson: "Ellison succeeded not as a technologist but as a marketeer. He did not have any special convictions about technology; Silicon Valley was where he ended up."
[Source: https://archive.org/details/differencebetwee00wils_0/page/103/mode/1up]
Mike Wilson: "Ellison somehow knew that he could sell relational technology by talking about it in a negative way, which was an example of his uncanny sense of communication and marketing."
[Source: https://archive.org/details/differencebetwee00wils_0/page/102/mode/1up]
Also, didn't those quotes above also fit your sites description of ESTPs to a tee? (Not directly about cognitive functions, I know, but still, a description, while not the end-all-be-all, is still something to consider): "ESTPs tend to have a relaxed and open attitude and they often have a strong charisma. They tend to have a way with people where they are extremely shrewd at connecting with them and convincing them of their plans. One can often find an ESTP at the center of a large network of friends and business connections, which the ESTP can draw on for making his latest plan come true. ... Their directness and ease of expression makes them appear self-confident and convincing in the eyes of others. Colorful and compelling, ESTPs are in many ways equipped with that extra savvy which allows them to do well in business as well as in life. ... [They have a] charming exterior."
Taking it all together he seems to prefer Fe over Fi. Note for the quotes above, not just the slyness (which any type can admittedly be, albeit some types are more prone to it than others) but also the lack of sentiment-based convictions. Now, a counterargument would be his supposedly Fi-like statements such as:
Ellison: "Bill and I used to be friends a long time ago. That was before he turned mean and ran Netscape out of business. I think what Bill did to Netscape was appalling, so I don't talk to Bill anymore." [Source: https://youtu.be/1cYy-b7qfCE?si=BeqJFi4Dizsa64i8&t=449]
Sounds like a Fi-like conviction value judgment right? Well immediately after he said that in the interview it cut away to Mike Wilson who then said:
Mike Wilson: "I think it's true that Bill tried to run Netscape out of business, but believe me, Larry Ellison didn't take it personally. I think he gets a kick out of Bill Gates and that he loves having this person to have a rivalry with. There's no ill feeling between Bill Gates and Larry Ellison; that's completely manufactured for the press." [Source: https://youtu.be/1cYy-b7qfCE?si=9IBriQeu-kAAzASd&t=464]
So taking this into account it's best not to take what Ellison says at face value. Obviously when it comes to typing people, one has to infer which statements are directly indicative of their cogntive functions or not, which is not easy as one has to consider context and overall patterns as opposed to one off instances, beliefs, instances of potential insincerity, etc. (which is why many people who get into typology end up being terrible at applying the theory).
Furthermore, the quote below could also indicate a lack of Fi:
Mike Wilson: "Ellison was not one to make public displays of deep emotion — or private ones either. Whatever he really felt about Bob's death was bound to stay locked inside him, a thundering heart in a stainless steel cage." [Source: https://archive.org/details/differencebetwee00wils_0/page/270/mode/1up]
Of course, I already know the counterargument, "the quote is Fi bro as it is about protecting his inner sensitivity that he keeps to himself." But from my observation (and I preface that this is not universal) many ESFPs are transparent regarding their inner warmth, sort of like a "wear heart on sleeve" type of person. But even ignoring that general tendency, a T type's relationship with emotions (and I know emotions don't equate with Feeling in a Jungian sense but bear with me) can often manifest as keeping them "locked inside ... a thundering heart in a stainless steel cage" as a result of the correlation (not that I didn't say causation) of T types tendency to suppress emotion as a result of T's less sentiment-based oriented nature than F.
Addressing counterarguments:
One might say that his "self-exploration" is indicative of Fi and while that sounds Fi-ish at first glance I think the quote is moreso saying "I like to test my own limits" which is definitely not unusual for ESTPs at all.
Secondly, one might say that him defending his friends in spite of public sentiment is evidence for Fi. And to that I would say that while it certainly can be an indication of Fi, it's not that out of the box for an ESTP to have enough integrity to do that (relative to how much "integrity" one consideration Ellison to have). Real-life ESTPs are not cartoony slippery conmen, even the actual ESTP cons :P
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