When you’re looking for a way to feel better, sometimes it’s a good idea to get back to the basics.

Here is a list of some extroverted (E) activities.

In other words, here is a list of some easy ways to run yourself ragged, if you are an introvert (I) and aren’t setting boundaries!

• Making speculative plans
• Running a business
• Meeting goals
• Building a schedule and working to a schedule
• Giving attention to relationships
• Consuming others’ works or ideas (books, movies, etc.)
• Doing research
• Looking for a job
• Interviewing for a job
• Showing up at work
• Showing up, anywhere
• Leaving the house

When I meet with some of my most troubled INTJ clients or friends, it seems like they are doing MOST of those things, every day,

and not enough of the opposite, Introverted things.

Please take good care of yourselves, everybody.

Filed in: Control /110/ | Therapeutic Practice /144/ | Energy /120/

Just FYI, I added a bunch more intuitive journaling cues for those who found them useful.

I continue to use these and they really work well for me.

Filed in:

• Personally I’m making this list because it’s fun to examine life. I hope you’ll read it in the same spirit.
• If you’re learning from other people, that’s a pretty good start to an educated life. It may seem a bit shallow in comparison to starting from first principles, but it’s usually a broad way to learn. Keep in mind that what you are doing is breadth-first learning.
• If someone gives you exciting advice, try to ride that first big wave of emotion knowing that it will eventually flatten out, and maybe come and go over time. It probably feels exciting because it’s brand new. Later on, if you persevere, you may have the opportunity to exchange excitement for lasting satisfaction. But if not, don’t worry, because just about anything in life can be made exciting.
• A lot of people can’t learn as easily from other people, and they can still be smart. Eventually they’ll have to learn why other peoples’ smarts are helpful though, or they’ll feel less smart.
• If you want to feel extra smart, ask every dumb question that baffles you. Act as if it doesn’t really matter that you didn’t know this already, and go find out the answer.
• People who learn things get smarter by organizing those things. You look at an average bookcase and see books, information, and resources. An above-average bookcase employs some unique method of organization, and is really its own proprietary technology.
• A lot of people don’t realize it but they are afraid of closing 100+ tabs because they have actually sifted through loads of crud and created a masterful collection of research and insight in those 100+ tabs, and their browser software simply has no way of knowing that. It is not wise to blame humans for this issue.
• You can do a lot worse for yourself than sneaking out of a boring lecture. A good lecturer will understand.
• If you can’t be logical and constructive, get emotional and destructive as soon as possible. Develop your own personal way of getting it all out, to make room for your constructive side again.
• Please make time to take a walk by yourself. This way there will be more of us out walking by ourselves, and it’ll seem like more of a normal activity.
• If you have to bring all of the groceries from the car into the house in one trip, make a mental note to sit down and set some boundaries with your time today.
• If you get stuck in any project, or just stuck in life: Identify the set of things you either do like/want, or don’t like/want, and rank them.
• Always leave yourself enough energy and time to take a few pictures along the way.
• Don’t take a nap so you feel rested. Take a nap so you can see life from your most skillful and energetic perspective again.
• If someone teaches you that life has to be about something, and that the something is only one thing in particular, be very careful. It is almost certain that you are being taught to close your mind, even if it’s not out of harmful intent.
• If you want to grow old, learn an ever-expanding set of ways to take really good care of yourself. Over time, get familiar with a reliable set of personal standbys for self-care.
• If you want to learn to take care of yourself, learn about the kind of person you are.
• If you want to learn about the kind of person you are, make a list of the interests you keep coming back to in life. Make it very specific, and over time, add even more specific interests to come back to.
• Some of your interests will probably be calculated to make you seem powerful, smart, or popular. But a huge chunk of your interests should through that same lens seem weird, silly, and vulnerable.
• If you want to learn where personal growth may await you, keep a list of others’ interests that you don’t like.
• If you keep a list of things you don’t like, sort it by least-to-most disliked. Then when it’s time to grow and adapt, the task will seem less daunting.
• If you want to defeat fear, call it something else. The more names and descriptions you have for fear, the more likely you can beat it.
• If you want to defeat procrastination, call it something else. The more names and descriptions you have for it, the better.
• If you want to do something very hard, start calling it something else. The more names and descriptions you have for it, the better.
• To enjoy a hobby more, track and organize your progress in it, and always know where your tracker is. Keep a set of questions there too.
• You can learn a lot, and solve more problems, by making your own map of a place.
• You can learn a lot, and solve more problems, by making your own map of an idea, or a person.
• If your map needs to change, change it as soon as possible, even if the change isn’t beautiful or perfect. A living, changing map of something important is practically its own energy source. Conversely, an unchanging map of a dynamic and important place or topic is painful and draining.
• Being able to predict things is a unique skill. Not many people appreciate it. A lot of people fear it. If you find yourself predicting things a lot, be careful of how much you do this when socializing.
• For a lot of people, raw prediction isn’t that helpful and is even perceived as harmful or snobby. Especially if it isn’t accompanied by a specific plan or a set of next steps.
• A big part of relationship success depends on how much you can be in the other person’s way without them minding. Beyond that, it’s important to learn to get out of the other person’s way.
• To be in someone’s way more often, without them minding as much, keep track of times when you felt like you got in their way, and make a note of a different approach you could try next time, or ask them.
• To get out of a person’s way, stop sharing so many of your gifted perspectives (use them with yourself or with others who want access to them), keep your physical distance light and extended, and generally go find something else to do.
• A lot of people think that sharing their gifts and skills with the other person ought to make things better for the relationship, when in fact it often makes the other person feel incompetent and undermines co-creativity. Thus the need to get out of the other’s way.
• If you want good, healthy people to like you more, get out of their way and find ways to make them feel good about the way they like to solve problems.
• If it hurts you to have to get out of someone’s way, either find someone else to be around, or change your focus to your personal, inner world. This should include an abiding interest in your own hobbies and goals.
• You can do a lot by taking an expansive viewpoint. For example, you can take over a country, or join a traveling circus, or set new and proper boundaries for yourself, or discover a new, exciting book you didn’t know about. But keep in mind that some of these things are more likely to lead to an unfortunate and early death than the others.
• One way to save a lot of money is to make a spreadsheet. Another way to save a lof of money is to learn all about yourself. Someone with financial wisdom ought to be aware of both of these perspectives, and more.
• The worst advice you will ever get will probably start with the word “just”. The amount of raw, inexperienced naivete which cowers behind the word “just” will someday be fully recognized…but likely only after it leads humanity to the brink of extinction.
• Be sure to take breaks when writing long lists. They do tend to get depressing after a while.

(OK, so I guess that’s it. For now. —Marc)

Filed in: Goals /52/ | Coaching /27/ | Essays /52/ | Thinking /70/ | Interests /111/ | Control /110/ | Productivity /119/ | Energy /120/ | Therapeutic Practice /144/

One of the most important life upgrades for INTJs is learning to differentiate execution and constructive action from reflection and introspection.

All of those things are important; that second group of things is more commonly INTJ.

INTJs are primarily perceptive—that is, we take in information via our subjective intuition. It is our dominant cognitive function. If overused, we can feel too dreamy or grandiose about future things, or we can end up thinking in terms of “what will definitely happen” as opposed to “what I want to have happen,” or “what I will try to do about it.”

In my own productivity system, my daily journaling template contains the following phrase right above my list of Square items:

“High Executive, Low Contingency”

Let me explain why this is, starting with an examination of that phrase.

What is meant by High Executive?

Here are some examples:

• Directly acknowledging that you need to move forward with a problem, task, or project—keep items on a list or a calendar.
  • Introverts are well known for ignoring or avoiding newly-developing issues. This kind of acknowledgement activity helps you avoid that risk.
  • This includes any kind of task, from your hobbies to your paying job, to working on relationship issues—which areas need more of your executive function?
• Actively exploring and recording what’s needed next. Include all of this information along with the task on your list.
  • Time estimate (If an item will take longer than 5-10 minutes I break it into parts)
  • Next steps clearly indicated
  • Any other ideas that come to mind
• Writing down what you don’t like about a task, if it bugs you.
• Making a plan! More below.
• Working on a new problem ASAP, even if in draft mode.

What is meant by Low Contingency?

Contingency thinking usually involves concerns about the future of a project or undertaking.

These concerns often sound like…

• Well, I could do that, but then what would happen is…
• Oh, I can immediately see the problem in this plan.
• These things always start well, but then…
• I could move forward, but I am pretty sure that X or Y will happen…which is annoying because…

Boom! Progress blocked.

This is relevant to INTJs due to our primary cognitive function, Ni, or Introverted Intuition, also known as “Visioning”. It is a helpful contingency-planning function, so INTJs tend to be good at speculating about future outcomes. So good, in fact, that the word “speculation” becomes kind of an insult—hey, we KNOW! Right?

And, while these kinds of concerns always block progress, they can sometimes be reasonable.

Personally, “Low Contingency” is probably impossible for me. I’m simply way too aware of these outcomes as a baseline; it’s a huge part of who I am. That’s why I say “Low” instead of “A Little Less”. I try to overemphasize the risk of this kind of thinking in my notes to myself.

Still, some contingency thinking is useful. And for that reason, I encourage executive activity that is also integrative and plan-based.

Don’t Skip Planning

This is a very common problem for beginners to this process. It’s also a common problem for over-executive people. I’ve been there myself.

High-quality executive function INCLUDES planning.

Being more executive is not the same as improvising.

It is not the same as undertaking the next idea that comes to you.

Sometimes these kind of things feel much better than doing nothing, but they are not the same as working from a plan.

Being more executive is also not the same as hurrying around and making low-quality decisions. Sometimes this kind of activity feels rewarding, but it’s not the same.

INTJs tend to fall in this trap when they get frustrated with a lack of progress, slip into opposite-type ESFP “NOW” mode and start scrambling for traction and executing without thinking things through.

How to Plan Actively for Execution

Active planning is a great way around this:

• Keep an ongoing, developing plan for the specific area or task
• Always know where it is kept
• Label it as a plan
• Indicate problems with the plan as they come up
• Revise the plan way more than you admire, cherish, or love the plan
• Schedule ongoing plan review with others if possible, to hold yourself accountable

You’ll know that your planning is supporting executive activity when:

• Problems come up—they always do, but now you respond actively more often, instead of stopping work
• Among your first responses to a problem is, “OK, what could I/we do about this?”
• The plan is treated more like a constantly-changing support structure than something to be admired
• You find yourself changing your approach to planning over time
• You find yourself evaluating how you’d do things differently, next time

Favor Showing & Reviewing a Plan before Showing Results

A lot of INTJs tell me that they feel pressure to show results when they work with other people. Please be careful here!

A lot of times it’s better to show a plan and show progress.

If you work to show results too early, it can compromise the quality of your work and process. Results naturally follow as the plan unfolds. Skipping the plan-review and progress-review can too easily undermine your later work, or make your work less efficient later. (I consider this reasonable attention to contingency)

Skipping forward to showing results can also make other people uncomfortable, or become a demonstration of poor planning skills on your part.

It can also make others feel bad, or feel like they have been dragged along while being excluded from the process-oriented aspects of the work. Keep the process-minded people around you in mind as much as possible.

The following personality types are known to be very process-minded: INTP, INFP, ISFP, and ISFJ. The relevant interaction style shared by these four types is known as Behind the Scenes.

The act of sharing a plan helps YOU in some ways, but it also helps THEM orient themselves to where you’re at, and they will feel more included.

If someone is continually pressuring you to show results WITHOUT showing a plan, or reviewing a plan, it may be wise to reevaluate your work with this person. Maybe they don’t take it as seriously as you do, and maybe that’s a problem or a sign of an inequity in your working relationship.

How to get Enough Contingency Planning, but not Too Much?

It can help to learn to be careful, or more nuanced, with contingency planning. It’s a natural gift for INTJs, which also means it can easily be overused.

It’s a good idea to work to a standard with contingency planning—meet some minimum bar that you’ve already specified.

For example, it may be a good idea to specify the types of contingencies that you’ll allow to interrupt your work. Maybe something like: “A problematic issue which I think will certainly develop within 30 days and may cause the project to fail completely.”

If some future outcome / possibility is bugging you, always write it down and make a simple plan. Use your imagination and be creative in developing workarounds that fit the context. Try to avoid derailing the current project—instead, support it and its timely completion as much as you can.

Executive Addiction?

Beginners sometimes find that they get really black & white results from new processes. It will take some time to get used to a higher level of execution.

For this reason, I wanted to briefly mention a problem that beginners encounter when emphasizing executive processes:

An executive lifestyle can also be addicting. It feels good to be on the rails! The energy feels like it could help you accomplish just about anything. But in fact, it’s often best used in well-planned bursts, rather than as a permanent, always-on mode.

To avoid the risky downsides of this kind of activity, consider using a system that helps you avoid productivity exhaustion.

Filed in: Ni /42/ | Control /110/ | Productivity /119/

For years I have toiled under the illusion that I have no favorite film. People would ask me what was my favorite film, and I’d hem and haw, and it was frustrating to never have a good answer.

Recently, I was sorting my favorite foods and thought, “I should do this with film.”

The Good News

I found out I have a favorite film! That’s a really neat feeling.

The Bad News

I wasted a LOT of time thinking I did not have a single favorite film.

Turns out, all I had to do was this:

• List my favorites
• Compare them with their neighbors in the list
• Move them up or down

So, what I thought I was looking for was “a single favorite”.

But what I should have been looking for was “a list of favorites, ordered and sorted over time.”

My Favorite Film

My favorite film is All the President’s Men from 1976.

My Top Favorite Films

My top three favorite films, ordered:

• All the President’s Men – 1976
• High and Low (Tengoku to Jigoku) – 1963
• North by Northwest – 1959

You can say I really like procedural films with a strong sense of momentum, a dark tone, some way-too-innocent protagonists who wise up quickly, frequent changes in setting, and a winding plot.

Some Less-popular Films that Made My List of Favorites

Here are some favorites that aren’t super-mega popular with film geeks:

• The Quiet Earth – 1985
• Rat Race – 2001
• The Changeling – 1980
• The Hudsucker Proxy – 1994
• Russian Roulette – 1975 (Canadian film)
• Bandits – 2001
• Moving Target – 1988 TV Movie
• Sleuth – 1972
• What About Bob – 1991
• Meteor – 1979
• Bad Day at Black Rock – 1955
• The Eagle Has Landed – 1976

Lessons Learned

I ended up with a list of over 100 favorite films, which I didn’t expect. I might publish it after I think about it for a while. Some lessons picked up along the way:

• Ranking things is a really easy way for me to find a single “top favorite” item.
• It feels really nice to learn just how many things I like. It’s fun to scan the list.
• When you like a hobby a lot (watching movies), it will probably be hard to just pick one, unless you do some listing and comparison.

And finally:

• Pick one, but also,
  • pick a lot.
    • Do both.

Filed in: Therapeutic Practice /144/ | Interests /111/

I wrote the title of this blog post in the last post I wrote and wanted to offer a striking example.

One really good example of this principle of “the importance of deploying our heroic perspectives” orbits the question of survival itself.

I am referring to the deeply impressive experiences of Genrich Altshuller as written in a Salon article.

From the article:

It was in the naval patent office that Altshuller first discovered the tenets that would lead him to TRIZ, discerning a common pattern of solutions to technical problems across a diversity of fields. The first thing he did with his theory, however, was find a new way to put his foot in his mouth. Concerned over the dismal state of the Soviet Union after World War II, Altshuller and an associate, Rafael Shapiro, wrote an earnest letter to Stalin.

“They wrote a letter that stated that the country was in ruins after World War II, and that there were not many resources to recover it,” says Fey. “He suggested to use TRIZ. Of course he had to prove this, so Altshuller put together a graph of innovation, and found there were two valleys in the graph. One was in 1937, with Stalin’s first pogrom, and the other was in wartime.” In 1949, Altshuller was arrested, interrogated and tortured. Finally, he “confessed,” as had so many other “dissidents” before him, and was sentenced to 25 years in the infamous Vorkuta labor camp, at the northern tip of the Ural Mountains, above the Arctic Circle.

“He was in jail because, No. 1, he was Jewish,” says Bar-El in his thick Israeli accent, “and because it’s against the law to make the Russian people creative.”

OK, so he was in trouble and sent into slavery. Enter the hero…

Stalin’s most brutal despotism, though, couldn’t dim Altshuller’s creativity. Until his death in 1998, Altshuller burned as brightly as any of Edison’s filaments, and often in just as rarefied an environment as a vacuum; much of his work was done while he was imprisoned in the gulag.

“Altshuller was in the labor camp along with many other representatives of the intelligentsia,” says Fey. “He realized that in order to survive, not physically but mostly spiritually and mentally, he had to ask these people to teach him. Every night after they went back to the barracks, they would teach him: physics, math, art history, literature, whatever was available. This allowed these people to survive longer than they would have without Altshuller.”

Altshuller was saved by a strong perception of the things that would yield to him the energy needed to continue his life.

In this case I’d offer that it’s safe to say Altshuller was an NT, likely NeO* TeO* TiD/O* ENTP.

Such an individual needs gobs of new information—but—an information feed in order to survive? I would offer that the increased supply of information of a given quality would increase their chances of fighting for survival, in that it ignites a powerful psychological reward loop within the individual.

From that information they build mental models, they build metaphorical comparisons, and they continually organize the emergent thoughts into new systems.

In such a case I would also guess that—even though the article doesn’t mention it—Altshuller’s stay in the camp was dramatically more comfortable than it would otherwise be for an NT personality, especially one caught in SF perspectives like Fi* or Se*.

Zlotin, who worked with Altshuller in Russia for nearly two decades, relates his surprise at discovering Altshuller’s vast knowledge of Verdi operas: “I said, how do you know these? You had time to go to opera? He said, ‘Never, but my neighbor in the barracks was the world’s best specialist on Verdi’s music, and he would sing me all his operas at night.’

“For Altshuller, this camp was first a place of education,” Zlotin says in his heavily accented English. “He studied 14, 16 hours per day, and in this way he had huge knowledge in pretty unexpectable areas.”

Part of my work involves teaching lots of people—including through this blog—that they have a hero inside. The hero is some combination of things.

Unlocking the hero means unlocking energy that was not hitherto available, and which may otherwise be cut off.

Cutting off? Yes, the severance and death-related processes.

Unlocking? Yes, the emergence and life-related processes.

Heroic processes work above the arctic circle in a slave camp, they work in the vacuum of space, and gosh darn it, they work in your kitchen or bedroom or wherever you find yourself overpowered, lamenting the recent loss of a loved one, or the collapse of your career plans, or whatever else it might be.

Filed in: Energy /120/ | Therapeutic Practice /144/ | Control /110/

Scaling Functional Perspectives of Cognition

I’ve been playing with scaling modifiers to the new cognitive function extensions. The scaling modifiers are * and /.

Why these symbols in particular? Well, I already added plus and minus; My intuition tells me it would be fun to add all the other little calculator buttons, too, and this has been fun to think about.

Some people think you have to discover some hidden truth, and THEN you go adding in the symbologies.

But that’s boring. It’s more fun to reverse that process, and see what happens.

Here’s the Scale-up side:

• O* would be the perception of the outsized potential of a given functional perspective, in a given context.
• D* would be the intensive command to engage the tools of a given functional perspective, in a given context.

And the Scale-down side:

• O/ would be the perception of a massive overengagement of the functional perspective, or a perception that its engagement must be massively decreased in order to achieve a good outcome.
• D/ would be the intensive command to disengage the functional perspective.

Examples:

• NiD/ expresses e.g. your single-outcome perception role is massively overdone given the problem we need to solve here, so stop being such a prophet of doom.
• FiO/xh expresses a question like “why is your skill at deploying relativistic relational logic so precious to you that it seems to prevent you from getting a good outcome in this situation?”

This last example is a big part of what keeps good people in cults, I’ve found. Which made me think about the way strong and overused functional perspectives keep people stuck to things, stuck in things, and stuck on things.

Attaching a formal language to this could act as a grosso modo method of measurement and help offer control that could, potentially—and as an example here—help people to leave harmful cult enviornments.

Advanced Levels, or Making it All Easier

One funny thing about hitting the advanced level in personal study, or even in a lot of formal disciplines: Quite often, nobody pops up and tells you when you’ve arrived.

It may be that your first perception of the advanced level is a deep feeling of frustration with your work. That’s expected, in a way, but it’s also kind of a shitty trophy to receive. Congrats! Here’s a feeling of frustration. Wear it proudly!

Others might also have a difficult time telling you what to do when you get there.

It seems to me that a lot of energy is wasted because we teach each other to think of “Advanced” as “difficult,” without spending much time on why advanced is difficult.

Advanced levels are difficult because they present more subjective problems, for one. Here’s an example:

• There is more pressure on the individuals to go deep, because many of the superficial, objective parts are now in the practitioner’s past. They must now
  • Explore the subject matter in more depth
  • Explore the given context or setting in more depth
  • Formulate depth-based judgments about what to do next

Depth is difficult because it involves things like reconciliation loops and a willingness to self-contradict. It’s also extraordinarily difficult to communicate from a place of genuine depth, not only because of the time taken, but because there is a subjective weighting factor in determining how others can metabolize a depth-based conversation. In other words: I could explain this to you, but is it worth the trade-off?

In some cases, yes, it’s worth it via contract, compact, or other means.

But in many cases, the explanation is left undone, and the student who was ready to go advanced was left to think “just as I thought, they don’t know the answer,” or worse, “there’s no point in going this deep—after all I’m pretty good at it and I can’t perceive any of the value this person claims to have perceived clearly.”

It would be nice to develop better tools to communicate this level of depth; as it stands now, language leaves a stunning inequity here that robs us all of the progress we ought to be able to make together.

And THAT would be truly advanced progress.

Academic Math

Academic math has recently been changing in character. It seems to have transitioned from deeply qualitative theory to something more akin to opportunistic application.

Some have described this approach as stringing together “black boxes” which are “assumed to work”.

Here you can watch someone “very important”, who communicates from Ne*, Ti+ functional perspectives, lamenting this change:

His sentiment is mainly NeO* as he chases after subjective psychological mandate. We all must deploy our heroic perspectives.

But it’s also a clear sentiment of SeO/ and TeO/ in a hesitant way. The cards are already laid out; the river has been crossed. You can read the resignation on his face—in regard to those functional perspectives, at least.

Let me do some spitballin’ here.

Math has come down to earth. It probably will do more grounding in the near future. You’ll see more math in your home environment. You’ll be able to set your home cooker to make or print you a formulaic steak, and you’ll know your favorite formulaic patterns by heart.

That’s right, I’m talking about direct formulaic inputs! It will be an amazing convenience and ordinary people will be tripping over themselves to learn some more of that math.

Even backwater types will be playing twangy music in the background in their videos instructing you on their home-recipe formulaic inputs for your next competition-level, single-shot .25 caliber AI-assisted duck hunt.

(Who needs a shotgun anymore, with this kind of access to precision?)

This is all going to bug pure-logic theorists, which is great, and sure, kinda terrifying too, but IMO it will lead to a resurgence of theory later, with a much more expansive space where subjective-organizational TiO* inputs will feel like rainfall in the desert.

Math may even transcend itself in 20 different ways with this kind of metamorphosis happening, for all I know.

Expectations:

• We will see more S types in academic math.
• If you’re an INTJ who’s interested in math, now may be a terrific time to onboard yourself and find yourself taking leadership roles later on.
  • This does depend a lot on the role, environment, etc. Always start with math at a deeply subjective level and work outward from there. Basically, my advice would be SeD/ and TiD* for a lot of you INTJs out there who are really passionate about “being a mathematician” as opposed to doing math. That’s fine, but it’s also a trap.
• Math comes home.
• Outcomes ought to be really cool and fun. I look forward to a LOT of this.

OK, that’s enough for now.

Filed in: Intuition /62/ | Sensation /40/ | Interests /111/

A lot of people act as if keeping a lot of web browser tabs open is sloppy behavior. Or at the very least, amusing behavior. I don’t blame them; it’s become a bit of a cultural meme.

In the Google Chrome browser, you’ll see a laughing face icon if you open 100 tabs or more.

What’s a Tab, Really?

Personally I think this laughing face is a visual representation of a problem with the way we think about tabs.

Or: The way we don’t think about them.

To a lot of people, open tabs are “interesting stuff” maybe, or “stuff I forgot about”. The tabs themselves? Just tools. Memory-hogging tools even.

Our fears easily take over, and tell us they’re all clutter.

“Oh no, I’m some kind of data hoarder!” We reach for our most disastrous-sounding fear words.

Opening Tabs is Productive Effort, Even if You Think it’s Lazy

But: I’m here to tell you that opening tabs is work. And I think our minds recognize that—subconsciously, if not consciously.

Quite often, opening a tab is the result of research effort. For example, finding a book you read a long time ago, after finally remembering the title, or something other than the color of the cover.

Even if this is a comic book, or a children’s book, your subconscious mind may know its value better than you do. And the processes you used to find it may have been the same mental processes you use as part of your work day!

A new tab can also represent organizational work. Maybe it’s a workspace, like your favorite online code editor, mailbox, or the set of websites you need to review before you start your upcoming training.

Plus, a new tab can represent super-important progress on a big project that you know you’ll tend to put off again if you close the tab.

In this case, the tab that stays open does so because of analytical effort on your part. You analyzed your own behavior and kept the tab open based on probabilistic outcomes. Go you!

Tabs are Milestones

In some ways I think you could call tabs milestones and you’d have a better idea of what tabs represent, and why they are so hard to close.

Milestones involve positive emotion. They represent a path forward for you. Maybe that path forward involves re-reading that book you enjoyed, and getting your enjoyable lifestyle back into gear. Or maybe it involves completing the training that will surely lead to a promotion at work.

Keeping the tab open is important symbolically at the very least—the already opened tab is a symbol of part of you that is open, improving your life, or loving life, or seeing things in a new light.

A long strip of happy milestones along the top of a browser is, then, more like an accomplishment.

I think we should be proud of our tabs in a lot of cases. And browsers should help support this constructive practice and emotion. A laughing face doesn’t really help, and it may even hurt!

Tabs are Tombstones

After a while, the milestones often turn into symbolic tombstones. The act of closing the tab represents a form of death—but it’s more like death due to giving up, or turning away, than death due to natural causes.

Tombstone tabs involve negative emotion. Do we need more negative emotion in our lives? Do you? I don’t. Maybe this is why my tabs stay open longer.

The act of “closing tabs” can quickly become something like a mass-funeral. Sometimes we do the work to try to save tabs from this death.

Many of us have used third-party software or browser extensions to preserve the tabs we have open, and transition them to a specially-designated database of our own, for example.

Why do we try to preserve the tabs? Because open tabs are milestones along a longer journey, maybe. A journey that we don’t want to end. Likely for good reason.

So of course, this process is painful and it’s no wonder we put it off.

Preserving What’s Happy, Avoiding What’s Sad

With the tabs themselves representing THIS much sunk cost and emotional content…is it any wonder we humans can rack up so many open tabs, and feel so avoidant about closing them?

I think it’s only natural to find that tabs add up over time, even when we are constructively focused, and despite any fears about a loss of attention span.

This tab stuff is work! It’s progress! We all want to keep our happy progress, and prevent tab death.

Maybe more browsers could help us out with that part.

The problem of tab-tension, to say nothing of the false dichotomy of “reasonable tabs vs. too many tabs” is an embarrassing result of slow evolution in software design. The fact that humans feel blame for the resulting behavior is 100% wrong and unnecessary.

The browser can have its tabs back, and even the whole tab model back, but I want to keep my progress.

Filed in: Therapeutic Practice /144/ | Essays /52/ | Productivity /119/ | Energy /120/ | Feeling /64/

Here are some new cognitive function extensions I’ve been working on. The latest version is also symbolic:

This model helps to catalog the cognitive functionality that anyone can access. It’s not really about what “type” you are, though it can help you transition from standard personality type to knowing yourself even better.

The four symbols are:

• Spiral: Intuition
• Circle: Sensation
• Waves: Feeling
• Triangle: Thinking

The underline represents introversion, while the overline represents extroversion.

The carat symbol indicates whether information is being directed / organized / created (upward arrow) or observed / taken in (downward arrow).

The plus and minus indicate more about the nature of the use of the function (more below).

Here’s the older version of the graphic, with the letters, for ease of reference:

In terms of presentation this is really rough so far, but that’s mostly because it’s a fairly detailed model and it’s still first steps here.

New Suffixes

There are two new letter suffixes:

D: Directive use of the function (upward carat or arrow). Involves directing, cueing, or otherwise emphasizing changes that are to be executed.
O: Observant use of the function (downward carat or arrow). Involves observing, noting, or otherwise emphasizing things that are observed/sensed/perceived.

In this model, “Judging” functions T and F can be used for perception, and “Perceiving” functions N and S can be used in judgment (directive) tasks. I feel this more accurately describes the use of these functions in normal conversation.

There are also two other suffixes, the plus and minus:

+: Positive or constructive use of the function. Emphasizes things you should do or will do for positive effect, or that are happening / will happen / have happened for positive effect.
-: Negative, critical, or destructive use of the function. Emphasizes things that should not be done, or will not be done, or that are happening / will happen / have happened for negative effect.

Question Symbols

Since questions come up a lot in speech and thought, I’ve designated ‘x’ as a question mark substitute (borrowed from Gregg Shorthand). The x is written in lowercase unless it is denoted as subscript, in that case it would be capitalized. Here are question-type-specific notations:

• Questions as to the name or label of something/someone: xa
• Questions as to how a thing is, or why it is: xh
• Questions as to the properties of a thing (size, weight, color…or meaning, if coupled with N functions): xp
• Questions as to where a thing is: xr
• Questions as to when a thing happened/happens: xn

Where is my car? SeO+xr

Why did your friend come so late? TeO-xh

What is the meaning of this black feather on my pillow? SeO-xh

What is the meaning of life? NiO+xp

What could life possibly mean? NeO+xp

I went by mom’s house today and found this old cassette recorder. I think it will fit our plans perfectly. Do you like it? SiO+ —> SeO+ —> NiO+ —> FiO+xh

There is a lot of room for argument as to which functions are used here. I think of this as more of a Lego-like language, or a language for inspiring more questions about people, instead of a precise replication language. So you could even simply say that the example here concerns an issue of NiD+xp, or what we ought to do to achieve a future outcome. But it would be even better to actually ask the subject about that—to what degree does that conclusion seem true to the subject?

I’d rather use the terms to ask questions or stimulate thinking, than to delineate sides in an argument. Each viewpoint may have its own unique leverage. Hold your models lightly…

For Best Use

• Think about some sentences or types of statements that a friend or coworker says a lot. How do those statements show a functional position? Are they Directive, or Observant? More plus, or more minus? Which function and attitude (E or I) do they seem to indicate? What might this say about their preferred way of looking at life, or making decisions?
• Write in your journal and review what you’ve written. What functional positions are reflected?
• Which functional positions seem interesting to you?
• Which functional positions seem to irritate you, if any? Which do you struggle with at work, or in relationships?

Below I’ve written up the entire group, providing examples where possible:

- Ne: (Extroverted Intuition)
    - Directive D+/-
        - + Get everybody to contribute their ideas. No idea should be considered unworthy or dumb!
        - - Don't do it the old-fashioned way unless you want old-fashioned results.
    - Observant O+/-
        - + Air traffic can be compared to fish swimming in a river.
        - - You're stuck on all these old ideas. Let some creativity in!
- Ni: (Introverted Intuition)
    - D+/-
        - + Buy this stock today and you'll likely triple your money by this time next year.
        - - CONCEPT (Contingency) Don't rent an apartment within earshot of that railroad track or you'll hear trains all night.
    - O+/-
        - + CONCEPT / Future: In the future people will live more like animals, but in a good way.
        - - METAPHOR / Now: The person running the hot dog stand is a real snake.
- Se: (Extroverted Sensation)
    - D+/-
        - + Jump up and down a few times, it'll get you warmed up.
        - + To be an impressive person in this group I ought to wear a really new set of clothing.
        - - You'll be misunderstood if you frown like that while dancing to happy music.
        - - Don't speak so quietly. People will never notice you.
    - O+/-
        - + The loud music makes me feel alive.
        - + This food is fresh.
        - - This cassette player is old.
        - - That person is getting all the attention by laughing loudly; everyone is looking at them.
- Si: (Introverted Sensation)
    - Directive D+/-
        - + Emphasize our traditions in your talk to the new employees.
        - - Don't ignore my important dates and family traditions or we can't be together.
        - - Don't put those two foods together, that's disgusting. PB&J has no "A" for apples.
    - Observant O+/-
        - + We used to sit under this tree and eat those yummy pastries together, remember?
        - - That's not how things are done around here. We have been in the business for years, so don't argue until you know the ropes.
- Te: (Extroverted Thinking)
    - Directive D+/-
        - + Count your calories and you'll lose weight. Measurement yields control.
        - + I should start that project today so I have enough time to finish it by the end of the month.
        - - Nobody does things that way anymore. It's totally dumb.
        - - Stop completing your work so late.
    - Observant O+/-
        - + Using the new system, our profits went up by 20% and we did 30% less work!
        - - You made us late again. How is it this hard to get to work a few minutes early?
- Ti: (Introverted Thinking)
    - Directive D+/-
        - + When you get to Level 2 of the game, go into the first door on the right and push on the right side of the bookcase.
        - - Stop telling that person you disagree with them, if you want them to like working with you.
    - Observant O+/-
        - + If you take two away from a group of three, you get one. 
        - - It seems like a dumb idea to walk on the oncoming-traffic side of the road if you don't want to get hit by that oncoming car.
- Fe: (Extroverted Thinking)
    - Directive D+/-
        - + Always thank the person who introduced you before your speech.
        - - Ditch that loser and move on with your life.
    - Observant O+/-
        - + Everyone on the team is united under the noble principles of our cause.
        - - That person has horrible breath and wears tacky clothing.
- Fi: (Introverted Thinking)
    - Directive D+/-
        - + You should talk to people and get to know them better, even if you know they could hurt you.
        - - Don't accept public praise and rewards that you privately know you don't deserve.
    - Observant O+/-
        - + I value relationships that are co-creative. 
        - - I don't like it when people make fun of others who are in vulnerable situations.

Note: This model does include plus and minus, which I think I’ve mentioned before are also used in at least one Socionics model, but the use there has varying characteristics and I am treating my pluses and minuses here as distinct. Kind of like the way the letters can mean different things depending on the model, even if the models use the same letters.

Filed in: Publications /44/ | Productivity /119/ | Ti /30/ | Control /110/ | Fi /35/ | Ni /42/ | Fe /20/ | Se /25/ | Feeling /64/ | Socionics /7/ | Ne /17/ | Therapeutic Practice /144/ | Thinking /70/ | Sensation /40/ | Te /36/ | Si /19/ | Intuition /62/

Cherie writes,

I was reading about your view of interests and hobbies. I know some of my friends don’t like hearing this because they are so dedicated to everything, but I don’t like spending money on hobbies, especially new ones.

I wanted to call this point out a bit, and underline it: I agree!

Sometimes it feels like there’s a LOT of social pressure to upgrade one’s approach to a hobby.

There’s also internal pressure. I think INTJs can really understand this vulnerability with a bit of awareness. For one, we may find ourselves in the passionate-ESFP zone with hobbies:

• Assess and compare the sensory quality of hobby gear: Quality of build, appearance, feel, sound, etc.
• Compare yourself against others; Become the best in the hobby, yourself
• Make an impact on other people
• Use impactful gear to show you aren’t going to be f***ed with; strut your stuff

Even in really geeky hobbies, there’s all this amazing gear. You name the hobby, and there’s the high-end of it which, yes, hobbyists are buying into.

And then there’s the passionate-INTJ zone backing this up, like:

• Don’t get caught being dumb; make smart choices from the start so you don’t regret it later
• Research the best gear to buy, don’t just buy from whatever ad pops up
• Buy gear that will easily match up against the future contingencies you see with your Ni-vision
• Maybe buy a couple more just for contingency reasons

Personally, I’m very familiar with this way of looking at hobbies. And even though I still find myself thinking this way, it has also lost a lot of its appeal to me.

I wanted to share an experience that I think demonstrates why…or how…

Here, I Just Upgraded Your Hobby for You

A while back I was participating in an online EDC community. It was fun to share little items, pocket stuff I enjoyed bringing along on a hike or on a trip or whatever.

And one of my relatively new hobby rules is like this: I go cheap and broad with new hobbies, rather than expensive & deep.

So instead of buying the best item in a category, I’ll buy a few good-enoughs at 1/10 the price, and explore how they work differently, learning the ins and outs and the leverage points of each. I found that I like this better overall.

I often find that I like the color of cheaper items better, or they fit my hand better, and they are otherwise good enough or even overkill for what I’m doing.

This led to me sharing a photo of some EDC items, including a knockoff pocket knife. It’s a really pretty blue color and I enjoy it. I also liked that I scouted it out online, like a hunter, finding that perfect medium—the right color, an amazing price, and well-reviewed by a few people who knew the topic deeply.

I got some nice comments from the community, but then really soon after that I received an offer—someone said they wanted to send me the expensive, proper, branded version of that very knife! It’s not cheap, not by a long shot, but they said they had an extra that they would be happy to part with.

In the mail, a few days later, I received TWO branded pocketknives, and a very nice pocket flashlight. And not used at all, but shipped direct from an online store, and in complete original packaging, with a receipt. This person spent a lot of money on a stranger. I was grateful. (I told them I’d pay it forward, and I did)

The Mystery of the Internet Patron

But then it got weirdly complex, thinking about what happened.

What IS it about this situation? It started to bug me.

It was a really nice gesture. But also, thinking about it as I sat with all this brand new, expensive gear in my lap, I had to conclude—it felt VERY awkward.

I could tell that the person who sent me these things was very passionate about their hobby. They clearly wanted other people to also reach, or see, their passion-pinnacle.

But for me it wasn’t that kind of interest.

I have to say that the passion I felt from this generous person went a bit beyond normal and into the creepy zone.

Not that they themselves were necessarily acting super creepy.

But that it reminded me of my own creepy-passionate aspects.

And memories.

Can You Give Away A Passion for Free?

That was it!

It reminded me of this time. Way back, years ago. I moved to a faraway country, and I knocked on tens of thousands of doors.

(Not to brag, but: I can mimic the sound of a 1990s Japanese doorbell running out of its final few seconds of battery power.)

(Well—and I can also mimic the sound of a Japanese housewife being sketched out by the sight of a tall American in a $1 necktie, soaked from head to toe in typhoon moisture and happy to be off the road for now, sorry, moving on to the next door)

I was out there making free offers. With passion.

I’d offer to give people free books out of my backpack, teaching them the mysteries of the universe that science had missed.

And if they didn’t want the free book, how about this free English class?

Or how about a free prayer…?

Well—free for now. From me, it’s free. Yep.

But later, truth be told, if you really get passionate, there’s some really amazing stuff you can spend money on.

Personally I ended up spending 10% of my yearly income on that particular passion project, and even more money than that, as I explored many sub-hobbies within it…for years…

Passion Energy Makes Me Want to go Cheap Sometimes

Passion energy is really amazing. It feels like it ought to be more infectious than it is. It also feels like it should be free.

Here, try some! Isn’t it great?

But it’s kind of scary, too. It can lock you up with backlogs full of meaning or conflict to dissect later on, not to mention the resource-consuming energy highs and energy lows.

So I think that’s why I end up going cheap, for fun. If things don’t have to be that serious, then I don’t want to send my future self any kind of signal that overdoes the passion and makes everything just way too much.

I think that’s also why I abuse this blog a bit, in the sense that I aim for a less-than-passionate outcome.

Quite a few readers have sent me ideas for improvement, awesome suggestions, feedback. All appreciated—they tell me about your interest, for sure.

And yet I have to admit I don’t wanna summon the level of energy required. Not that I’d hate the outcome. But…you could say I don’t want it to be that passionate of an activity.

I want it to be cheap, broad, shallow in its own way.

I’ve probably come to be terrified of passion, at a very deep level. Or at least, key aspects of passion. It’s serious biz.

How about you?

Filed in: Interests /111/ | Relationships /78/ | Energy /120/