INTJ everywhere

So…it never really occurred to me how heavily famous MBTI is. There are ideas about implementing the MBTI test as part of Sauder School of Business supplementary applications.

But I think MBTI, in the midst of its popularity, has never been more misunderstood. So please take some time to read this post if you truly which to use MBTI to the best of your advantage.

For those that don’t know what MBTI is, the test determines how you perceive and interact with the world around you. the MBTI is characterized by 4 categories, with 2 different personality traits for each category. You can be extraverted/introverted, sensing/intuitive, feeling/thinking, judging/perceiving.  There are, according to MBTI, 16 different personalities, each with varying degrees…and therefore everyone is a bit different one way or the other. To give you an example what I mean by varying degrees, think about it this way. I can be an introvert, but someone else might be even MORE introverted than I am. This goes for each individual category as well. (there are no specific names for each category)

The MBTI gets more complicated, there are specific combinations which mean something, such as the fact that if you’re F and P together, it means you’re introverted feeling etc. But we won’t get into these details.

For now, if you’re interested in this popular phenomena, then try out the test in the below link. I personally prefer it if you went to find out each different type, and identified yourself there since this free test isn’t actually that good. But yeah, if you don’t have the time to read through 16 different profiles, then this test is your best bet.

http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp

Keep the letters that you got, because this part gets interesting.

What I want to focus on, is the second letter…the sensor and intuitive part. Let’s see what the experts say..

The “SN” preference refers to how we gather information. We all need data on which to base our decisions. We gather data through our five senses. Jung contended that there are two distinct ways of perceiving the data that we gather. The “Sensing” preference absorbs data in a literal, concrete fashion. The “Intuitive” preference generates abstract possibilities from information that is gathered. We all use both Sensing and Intuition in our lives, but to different degrees of effectiveness and with different levels of comfort.

We are Sensing when we:

• Taste food
• Notice a stoplight has changed
• Memorize a speech
• Follow steps in a plan

We are Intuitive when we:

• Come up with a new way of doing things
• Think about future implications for a current action
• Perceive underlying meaning in what people say or do
• See the big picture

So what do you understand it to be? To my mind, the sensor is the one we see in school, who tries everything to keep details tidy and studies word by word. The Intuitives are the ones who understand things, who can come up and adapt to situations, who can reasonably tell the future.

Out of almost everyone I asked to do the MBTI test, almost 90% have responded saying that they are intuitive.

According to Carl Jung, the number of intuition-orientated people is roughly 30% of the population.

So what’s going on here? Was Carl wrong?

One way to explain this is to say that most of my friends are intuitive. It may be a valid point, since I tend to get along better with people who have intuitive characteristics. However, I personally don’t think that ALL of my friends are intuitive, I believe a number of them are sensing-orientated, simply a lot of them don’t like creating new things, they like following the old. It’s perfectly fine to follow the old, and in some ways, it may be better than trying to create something new.

Another way to explain this phenomena may be to say that the world has changed since Carl Jung’s time, and the world is at present 90% intuition orientated. Yet, I don’t believe this is the reason either. A lot of us still enjoy following rules, abiding to simple orders, need to be given direction. I am no exception.

So what’s going on here if I already rejected two perfectly valid propositions?

The reason can only be explained by our culture.

Why do I suspect the validity of this argument? It comes down to our culture. Everyone likes feeling special, especially if they are specially gifted in some sort of way. In fact, I would deem it to be a culture of pride, whereby the pride comes from being able to do something competently within a short amount of time. Many of the times, I hear the excuse being made: “Oh I got this high grade in a very short amount of studying time” as if to imply the intelligence of the speaker. Nobody ever admits how long it takes them to actually revise for a certain subject. Almost everybody tries to say or imply some way or the other that they have studied minimally and have not received enough time to prepare. Why? In case they do poorly for all their prep time, and some other guy comes along with a high grade saying they didn’t study at all. It gets annoying when people do that.

So by observing our culture of pride, I am to deduce that the reason why many people jump towards the ‘intuitive’ bandwagon is for the same reason. First, intuitives sound smarter, and seemingly do things with ease whilst sensors have to work hard without much result. Second, intuitives are rarer, which goes on to make people feel special in terms of their abilities. Everyone likes to differentiate themselves some way or the other, right? So why not choose the rarer type?

A lot of people misunderstand MBTI….it does not impose a personality onto you. It’s simply generalised estimates as to how you behave and perceive. Everything is a PREFERENCE. Having an N in your four letters does not mean you ‘have’ intuition. It means that you prefer it. Everybody has intuition, it’s all about how much you prefer to use it compared to others.

I’ve travelled quite in depth into the MBTI system. I’ve been to forums of different MBTI types. I find that a lot of quieter Asian achievers typically get the ‘INTJ’. This is because asians typically prefer I in the first place, prefer N for reasons we discussed, and their TJ is achieved through their desire to achieve, compete, and excel. I don’t believe that there are THAT many INTJs, I have only come across a fair few which I think truly represent the type. I’m not trying to say that you are not ‘worthy’, because MBTI is not about worthiness. It’s about who you are, and your true identity.

Remember, next time don’t say that you ARE an INTJ, or you ARE an ENFP. Say that you have THE PREFERENCES of Introverted Intuitive, Thinking and Judging. You are not labelled by these four letters, and they don’t say who you are.

By all means, I don’t mean to say that EVERYBODY who believes they are intuitive DON’T actually prefer their intuitive function, but naturally there should be skepticism before we easily accept these preferences about who we are.

Hope this helps.