My Pet INTJ

I am extremely fascinated with personality theory, and my Myers-Briggs personality profile is introverted, intuitive, thinking, and judging (INTJ). It is important to understand oneself and others in order to better communicate and so that we can learn to appreciate our differences in strengths.

You can learn your personality type in about 15 minutes by taking a quiz at http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp.

Here is some basic information about INTJs, based on information from several websites, books, and my own experience.

1. INTJs know everything. We know what we know, and we know what we don’t know. In other words, we are aware of what knowledge we have as well as the areas in which we do not have expertise. This helps us to be self-confident, as we are aware of our strengths and weaknesses.

2. INTJs are perfectionists, and we are constantly looking for ways to improve existing systems.

3. INTJs love analyzing systems, whether it be systems of data, individual people, or organizations or groups of people.

4. INTJs are extremely independent, the most highly independent of all the personality types, and tend to be free from the constraints of authority and convention for their own sake.

5. Respect is extremely important to an INTJ, and others gain or lose our respect based on their behaviors and thoughts, rather than merely their rank or title. Authority figures and celebrities have no power, per se, but must earn our respect.

6. INTJs have a difficult time with social convention. We detest small talk and do not understand social rituals. We can come across as socially awkward at times. Small talk is boring to us, as it is competing with the intriguing voices in our heads.

7. INTJs are very private, and we process things internally. If we open up to you, we trust and respect you a great deal. We live inside our heads and have rich, imaginative inner lives.

8. INTJs are highly intuitive and are thus able to empathize with others.

9. INTJs love generating ideas and possibilities.

10. INTJs make up only 1-2% of the population.

11. INTJs want things to make sense. We want to be able to logically and rationally understand things, which may be elusive in interpersonal interactions.

12. INTJs make a lot of associations in their minds. One comment can lead to several rapid associations in succession, leading us to blurt out a response that seems (on the surface) to have nothing to do with the original comment, when in actuality, there was a complex line of thinking involved.

13. INTJs are immune to a lot of sales pitches because we are very skeptical. We do not get caught up in the emotional hype of marketing.