Hipster INTJ

Ask INTJ: Acting Extroverted, Hipsterism, and One Last Word on INTPs

That’s completely normal, actually. INTJs aren’t reserved because they’re shy or uncomfortable taking charge. They just simply aren’t interested in most people and taking center stage seems like a lot of work without any real pay-off. However, INTJs possess that same natural enigmatic energy as ENTJs, so when they decide to pull focus, they do it wonderfully.

Generally speaking, introverts don’t have large networks. Where Extroverts know lots of people a little bit, Introverts become incredibly close to a small, carefully curated group. So, where an extrovert can act exactly the same towards the person they’re chatting with on a three floor elevator ride as they do to towards their best friend, introverts will be markedly different around their core friend group than they are in most other situations.

INTJs do feel like someone needs to take charge of situations, so they’ll step up and take over if no one else is leading (or if the current leadership is incompetent.) If your friends are all introverts, then of course you, as an INTJ, would naturally take the lead. They’re your close friends, so obviously you enjoy them; being the dynamic energy in that group probably feels really good, even if bringing that same energy seems completely daunting in any other scenario.

I like to have extroverts for friends because we play to each other’s strengths. For example, one person described the dynamic between my best friend and I as, “[My friend] is the one who draws people in, but you’re the one that makes them stay.” Also, when I’m around extroverts, I can often rise to their energy level and be dynamic, but I can also hang back, be the quiet one, and let them deal with the people around us. That’s just my preference, though.

Right. I’m pretty sure I’ve answered this before, but since I’m still getting questions about it, I’ll answer again. I’ll even answer it completely straight this time; not flippant or sarcastic at all.

When I first started this blog, Hipsterism hadn’t quite gone (ironically) mainstream yet, and the hipster blog style (moody text pasted over unrelated pictures) was everywhere here on Tumblr. I choose the hipster style as a sort of sardonic pastiche. The idea of a hipster INTJ blog was just inherently humorous to me because hipsterism is so verynot INTJ.

Basically what I’m saying here is that the hipster parts of this blog are a joke.

INTJs like relevant details. One of the image posts I put up the other night was on this very subject, actually. When an INTJ is in problem-solving mode, they crave all the information they can get their hands on, because this helps them get the full scope of an issue. The more information they have, the more accurately they can predict future outcomes.

Also, if an INTJ picks up an area of interest, they’ll soak up all the details they can. They like to be knowledgeable and competent, and as long as a subject remains interesting, they’ll keep drinking it in until there’s nothing left.

INTPs, however, are less result and conclusion focused. They like to flip around details just to see what’s on the other side. They’re very tangential; they’ll examine one detail which will bring up five other details so they’ll follow that trail until what they’re thinking or talking about is only related to the original topic in the most nominal sense. Also, they’ll focus in on details that have absolutely no consequences for the issue at hand, just because they happened to notice them.

For example, let’s say you’re telling a story and you accidentally said, “Then I picked Bobby up at my house” instead of “his house.” An INTP will stop you and say, “Wait, why would you be picking him up at your house?” whereas an INTJ will likely not even notice that you misspoke. They’ll only ask you to clarify if somehow they’ve lost track of what you’re intending to communicate.

What I’m saying here is that, while an INTJ might occasionally miss the forest for the trees, an INTP will often miss the trees for that really cool color pattern on the third branch from the bottom of that Oak. From just the right angle it looks like the silhouette of Ella Fitzgerald. I wonder if that’s just a random color spread or if there was a chemical imbalance in the soil when that branch was growing. Let’s take some samples and —OH! We could probably cross-reference them with…