All I really know about INTJs is that if you were making us an MBTI aesthetic post you would never ever ever ever ever ever use the color orange

Ok but in all seriousness what I hate right now is that I always seem to run across this stuff in MBTI posts about relationships between types where it says that certain F-types (especially NF types, especially INFx types) see INTJs as an emotional challenge, but it sets that up as a good thing? Like “INTJ, give INFP/INFJ a chance even if you find them intrusive at first! They will help you unlock the hidden, gelatinous depths of your secret heart of a romantic, and you will realize you’re human after all, happy ending!”

I am very much not an emotional challenge. I have plenty of emotion. I have done a lot of therapy to be able to detect feelings and cope with them. I know my emotions very well. I usually deal with them in private but I know when to let others know about them. I don’t need prompting or babying in order to get that done. My emotions are a part of me, and it doesn’t matter whether I like/want them or not, I have to take care of them in order to keep the vessel as a whole working and in tune. I know this and I don’t need help with it even if I don’t do it the same way an F-type would do it.

I don’t want to be liked for being an emotional challenge. It’s gross and exploitative and usually ends up with a manic-pixie-dream-girl type dynamic, which makes me want to trust other people with emotions even less. 

I’d much rather it be there as a little warning or something. Like “INFx types: You might be attracted to the mysterious, aloof quality of an INTJ. But they are real people just like you, and there is nothing truly alien about them. Be sure not to put them on a pedestal or turn them into a science experiment because of how different their emotional expression is from yours. Treat them like a human being – it’s their choice whether to open up or not, and you shouldn’t try to lull them into a sense of trust artificially in order to speed up that process.”

Another piece of it is that I used to way overvalue my intellect because I thought I had few other desirable qualities, so when someone perceives me as emotionless or aloof, I sometimes become worried that they will find out that I actually do have emotions and stop valuing me because maybe they only liked me because they found my lack of emotionality “fascinating”, and it turns into this unhealthy thing where I end up being even colder than usual because I can’t let them know when I’m actually struggling with stuff, feeling affectionate towards someone, etc, and I really want to get away from that whole No One Must Know mentality. 

It’s kind of hard for me to reconcile the facts that I think of myself as being really intellectual & loving learning, with the fact that I’m honestly not that drawn to a lot of “hard science”. Like I have pretty much no interest in chemistry or physics. I think it’s very characteristic of INTJs (my MBTI type… which I know because I’m hugely into personality science… a “soft” science, haha) to be disinterested in fields that don’t seem immediately useful, so it’s not a huge surprise that I’m like that, but I still feel weird about it sometimes.

I’m going to be taking a programming course next semester & will continue with it if I like it, but while I’ve dabbled in HTML I’m not that interested in programming because I don’t have the eye to see where it would be useful in my life, I suppose. (Also because of practical confusion with like… I can write code, but I don’t know where to put it to make it run?? I know that’s unbelievably ridiculous but honestly that whole part of the process has never really been clear to me because when I was a kid my dad did it for me and now I can’t replicate it.)

But I guess I feel “less intellectual” or something sometimes because I’m into psych and mathematics but also a lot of artistic things like writing poetry and learning languages and photography. The aesthetic part of any field is really important to me and I think that’s part of what appeals to me in psych and math, too – math is aesthetically really incredible to me, and clinical psychology involves a lot of choice and strategy on the part of the therapist, and it has a strong verbal element that I feel suited for because I love to write.

Whereas my sister is more into graphic design and programming and harder stuff like that, and I feel sort of inferior about it sometimes, like my interests are more frivolous or less practical than hers, if that makes sense. It has no real basis in reality, cause I do a lot of really cool stuff too, but I think my stuff is more rooted in my internal fantasy world whereas hers tends to be more entrepreneurial and aimed at an outside audience.

I’m somewhat more of an introvert than her, I think, so maybe that’s why.

it freaks me the HELL out talking about plans with mbti P types because the second a plan is proposed I’m separating it out into all its steps and parts and working pieces to see how it’d work as a whole and they’re just like “hell yeah let’s go on a road trip” and I’m thinking “what about the cost of gas” “whose car do we take” “where do we meet” “what would our route be” “where’s the money coming from” “will we eat out or find some way to bring or buy food” “don’t we all have to work over the summer” “will our parents let us do this”

like I hate to be the killjoy who has to tell you that no, that recipe you want us to make involves 20 ingredients and equipment that we don’t own and we really don’t have the time to make it besides that, but if you’re not going to see it on your own I’m absolutely going to be that guy

I’d much rather be the killjoy than have to freefall my way through something that hasn’t been adequately thought out or planned in advance, sorry 😛 I’m just way too anxious for that

it always throws me off when people say I’m “super blunt” or that they like me because I always say what I’m thinking because I set a really low bar for politeness and social graces so I feel like I’m exceeding it all the time

worst INTJ things: when you’re trying to change someone’s mind on something, so you start quietly, do a little research, make sure your standpoint is correct, get some sources together, and play out the argument like ten thousand times in the shower, and then when you go to present your case you get like two sentences in and the other person’s just like “oh okay makes sense I believe you”

INTJ: I don’t really have a good grasp of my roommate’s schedule.
INTJ: I know she’s gone during the 10am – 11am window on monday/wednesday/friday, but beyond that I have no idea.
INTJ: I’ve thought about making some sort of probability chart to figure out when she is and isn’t home. It wouldn’t be that difficult to record a data point every time I come home and she is or isn’t there with the time, and then one every time I AM home and she returns or leaves, and then somehow arrange the data in Excel to show generally when she’s out, but I’m not sure exactly how I would graph that, and it’d be kind of a hassle –
INFJ: Couldn’t you just ask her for her schedule?
INTJ:
INTJ:
INTJ:
INTJ: Holy shit
INTJ: That literally did not even cross my mind as a possibility

just saw one of those MBTI charts with a “what is this __ you speak of” for each type (like a concept they don’t understand) and INTJ had “what is this "love” you speak of" #ouch #burned

mirror mine

I burn, and I want him to feel it too, the burn, the tense moan of heat,
dragging him along my rhythmic breath, I am coaxing his flame to life,
but he is soft, always yielding, the seas parting for him, waves dousing, drenching. 

I would be alone with myself, then, and tea that scalds me when I want to feel the heat returned. I only want someone
who will turn me back on myself – who presses me forward, lunging towards the sunrise –
I want to be pressed onward always, forced into tomorrow –
beat by beat, push me, syncopate me, mirror me! and if he won’t
I would be alone with myself, and tea,
and the fog at the window, and a sharp world, a glass world.
Mine is a world of burning, a world of ice. 

FORGOT TO MENTION THIS BUT I TRIED THE INTJ TEA that Alex huffle-punk got me for the first time today and it was amazing. Mild, very warm (in terms of flavor), rich, and a little nutty. About to go make myself another cup.