Hey, everyone.
So, because of the holiday coming up and several other things on my plate including looking for a real job because I'm out of options, I was not able to write an original post for today. And I don't know when I will be able to again. So, there will be a few of these response posts for now, but at least you get to see what an INTJ says about what others say about him. And if you guys want to help me out so I can go back to producing original content, feel free to support me on Patreon. $1 from a bunch of people will go a long way.
Anyway, this post is a response to Introvert, Dear's article 24 Small Signs You're an INTJ.
1. You often sense the problems in a system as soon as you look at it—whether it’s how a restaurant is set up, a client’s Internet marketing plan, or the features and settings on an app. You don’t need to be an expert on any relevant subject, you just have a sixth sense for inefficiency.
This is very true. I swear, INTJs must be psychic or something, because there are things we just know. Now, the things we can explain away, that may not be so psychically inclined, but there are times when we do just know things. Clairsentients are what you would call us.
2. Conversely, you get an almost spiritual sense of satisfaction when you witness displays of extreme competence from a major leadership decision to the actions of a single store clerk.
Um... well, a sense of satisfaction, yes. A spiritual sense of satisfaction? That's stretching it a bit.
3. You’ve always known you’re meant for something bigger than punching in at a 9-to-5 job to pay the bills. You want to use your capabilities to do something that matters—and to have real accomplishments. The problem? You have no idea how to get buy-in for your Big Idea, or you stress about having the resources to achieve it.
Oh, yeah. This is definitely a thing. I've seen other INTJs on other websites express the feeling of wanting to do something big, something monumental and different, but because the way the world is set up, they have no idea how to go about achieving that or even getting the capital they need to start. Lucky for me, writing is pretty damn cheap, and I was raised Catholic, so I've already got a good foundation and access to materials and knowledge for solving the universe.
4. You have absolutely no desire to meet your friend’s friend until they say something about a topic you find academically interesting. Then you want to bond with them for hours.
Honestly, I've never had the desire to meet a friend's friend. And if I've never met them, how would I know if they said something academically interesting?
5. Your innate response to any personal problem is to look for answers and solutions, not to simply sympathize with the person. You cannot understand why this isn’t helpful, and you may get frustrated when people don’t want the help.
This is true all over. Light a candle, schmuck. Cursing the darkness won't get anything done.
6. One of your earliest memories as a child is realizing that other people have a whole inner consciousness just like you do which leaves you lying awake at night in awe.
Nope. Never had this feeling at all. Given the way some people act, it's pretty obvious they don't have a whole inner consciousness, and even those who do have one, it ain't nothing like the one I got.
7. You have considered whether “optimizing” your dating life by holding formal interviews might be a really good move.
Not in these words exactly, but in this line of thinking, yes. I did once have a rather intense dating questionnaire on my Plenty of Fish profile. It was like 30 questions long and consisted of everything from "what music do you listen to" to "if you fell into a lake and we were the only ones around, how would you go about drying your clothes?" My hope is that they always chose to take them off.
8. There’s always a “right way” to do things in your head, whether it’s how to dress a sandwich or how you load items in your grocery cart. Following the system might help make small tasks more efficient, or it might simply make sure you get the specific result you want. The only problem is you’re often bad at mentioning that you want things done a certain way, or explaining why. As a result, you may get super annoyed when someone doesn’t follow the “plan.”
Yes to both parts. Sometimes I get asked why, and I don't bother to explain it. Other people don't need to concern themselves with the method to my madness.
9. When someone can’t find something on Google, you take great pleasure in immediately finding it on Google.
This has never happened to me before. In fact, there have been times when I haven't been able to find things on Google and someone else was.
10. You’re a completely different person when you’re with close friends than you are with everyone else. You can be goofy, charismatic and outrageously funny, but remain very reserved with people who aren’t in your “inner circle.”
Mostly true. I did have a friend tell me I was very different outside of school than when I was in school. But even amongst my "inner circle," very few truisms are known about me. I have some friends who aren't quite able to see my light with the greatest clarity, and some friends I have have lights that are brighter than mine. I would say there's only one person alive besides myself who even has an inkling of what I'm really like.
11. When you’re feeling down, and a loved one tries to soothe you with comforting words, you pull away like they’re offering you a poisonous snake.
I don't tend to tell people about my problems. But when I do, I generally don't like some of the advice I get, either because it's stuff I've already heard or know, or because it's the same crap everybody says. And once in a while, it is something I just plain don't want to hear.
12. If you had to list your biggest pain points in life, heartbreak might make the list, but People Don’t Listen to My Advice would be first.
I don't give people advice, and they don't ask for it. I learned early on that giving unasked for advice is one of the most annoying things in the world. Plus, people have a tendency to do whatever they want--most people are the grand architects of their own demise--so they only way they'll learn is by making their own mistakes. And even then, some people still don't learn. So, heartbreak, of many different kinds, is more likely to make that list than people not following my advice.
13. Your inner monologue is actually an inner dialogue where one voice acts as a task master and advises the other voice on what to do. In many cases, the task master voice simply gives orders.
Not really. I definitely have a strong inner monologue like JD from Scrubs. I often narrate a lot of my own life and I'm constantly thinking, sometimes the same thing over and over again. When there are two voices, I believe the first voice is myself and the second voice is either my intuition, conscience, or God speaking to me. Also, the first voice comes from the front of my head and the second comes from the back of my head. I thought that was too weird not to mention.
14. You grew up speaking two languages: the one your parents taught you, and Excel spreadsheets. (Autosum, baby!)
I hate Excel. It's not very user friendly, and it always takes me three attempts to make a proper graph. Other than that, I have no idea what the rest of that program does. And sometimes the autosum drives me up the wall. No. If I were to have a second language, it would either be Latin, Italian, philosophy, or literary.
15. When someone asks which is more important to you, having an interesting job or having a meaningful job, you’re like, wait, I thought those were the same thing.
Pretty much, yeah. I mean, I can see a difference if you really want to make one, but I would never have a job that was meaningful and uninteresting, or an interesting job that wasn't meaningful.
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| While a great job for loners, not really meaningful. |
16. You’re great at making life plans, but somehow you always manage to overlook how your emotional state will affect those life plans—or why that’s even important. Getting even a kindergarten-level education in your own emotions feels like you discovered profound truths about the world.
The first part is true, the second one isn't. See, I do make plans and then sometimes don't follow through because my feelings aren't feeling it. But, unlike most INTJs, I'm very aware of my feelings and my emotions. They never surprise me and I'm not surprised I have them. I don't even suppress them to tell the truth; I just don't find it necessary to involve them if I don't have to.
17. You casually but thoroughly devour information on a given topic until you are a near-expert, then get bored and move to a new topic.
Kind of true. I was big into mixology for a while. I thought about becoming a bartender or barback. But there are definitely times when I'll get into something and then absorb information like a sponge absorbing water, but I don't always make it to near-expert before I get bored.
18. You feel a constant striving, and no matter what you do, you never feel like you’ve accomplished enough. This is what propels you toward great things, but it also leaves you feeling perpetually critical of yourself and your achievements. There’s always something bigger you feel like you should be on top of.
I didn't feel this for the longest time, but after I got out of college and figured out what I actually wanted out of life and that the only way I was going to get what I wanted was by going after it myself, this definitely kicked in in a big way. For instance, I self-published four books alone this year, but I feel like I can do more, and I am trying to. I want to seven published before the end of the year. Not to mention all the stuff I need to write for this blog and stuff that I need to write in order to solve the universe. I mean, four books in a year and 140+ blog posts in less than six months? It's still not enough.
19. You can clearly remember when you crossed the line from seeing social skills as something you “just don’t have” to something you can study, practice, and improve.
Well, yes and no. I do remember the moment when I realized I could study social skills, it was around the same time I found out I was an INTJ. But, I've never thought of myself as "just not having social skills." Get me in the right mood and the right atmosphere, and I'll be the smoothest talking turkey you've ever seen. And get me the right girl, and I can literally charm the panties off her.
20. You have complicated, nuanced views about the universe that don’t fit in the usual “religious” or “atheist” boxes.
No, I fit into the Roman Catholic box quite snugly. There's only one small thing I don't side on with the Church about, but it's not big enough of a problem to raise a stink over. It's not worth risking excommunication. And, it's not even that relevant to my life right now. However, I will admit that I don't like thinking of myself as "religious." I'm a practicing Catholic, yes, but to me, only Bibles, rosaries, rituals, priests, and nuns can be described as "religious." Not the laity.
21. You can be convinced to use social media, but you need a utilitarian reason to do so.
Very true. I'm very unlikely to tell anyone about the awesome time I had doing something or going somewhere unless there was a profound lesson I learned from it or I didn't have the usual experience that people expect to have from such an event.
22. You don’t get caught up in a lot of petty emotions, but it’s hard to control the envy you feel when you see other people achieving more than you. (And you hate this feeling, but achieving more never seems to assuage it.)
I don't know about this one. I think I might get caught up in petty emotions, and I do feel some envy when I see people accomplishing more, but it's usually about things related to either writing or relationships. Two of the things I want the most right now: more readers and a girlfriend. As for achieving more, well, I'm achieving a lot on the writing side. I ain't getting sh*t done on the girlfriend side.
23. It’s hard to say why, but your tastes have always run toward classical and elegant things. You can find pleasure in a grungy dive bar or greasy spoon diner, but there is something about timeless beauty and dignity that meets a need in your soul—and you can see the failings in anything that falls short. The result is a desire for high quality things in your life.
Sort of, yeah. I don't know why, but I love the hell out of Ferrari and I disparage Lamborghini. But then looking at firearms, I'll always take an AK-47 over an AR-15, but then again, AK-47's are classic and elegant to me. AR-15's are too sleek and modern. And I definitely like the European longsword. And I can remember criticizing my Drama instructor's choice in the plays we had to read when I was at Wayne. They were sort of mundane and low-brow. That's one of the reasons why I don't like avant-garde poetry; everything that makes classic poetry classic has been removed.
There's a saying I like. It comes from Petrarch in 14th century. He said, "When the darkness breaks, the generations to come may contrive to find their way back to the clear splendor of the ancient past." And he was right.
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| Wanted to read Shakespeare, got crap like Topdog/Underdog and Stop Kiss. |
24. Talking about small details is physically draining, and you have a hard time not daydreaming during casual chitchat. You’re more likely to be thinking about new technologies, space travel, medical advances, the evolution of humankind, the age of the universe, or competing understandings of the cosmos. When you meet people who can discuss these same topics, you hold them close like precious treasure.
I don't know about the first part; depends on the small details. Sometimes I love the small details. I love explaining stuff and knowing all the little tidbits behind something. But, whenever my friend John and I ever get together, it's very likely we're going to talk about Medieval warfare, weapons, and tactics. And my Old Man and I are always talking about science or engineering, while my sister and I discuss theology and philosophy. So, that part is true.
Well, I hope you guys found that enlightening. I'm sorry I can write more about it, but I don't have much time right now. So, that's it for today.
Keep writing, my friends.
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