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Designing a Better World

Monday January 4, 2021

Happy New Year everybody! I’m excited to be moving into this new set of days, and away from the previous set of days.

The end of 2020 brought a lot of reflection for me. As I reviewed my recorded milestones and resolutions, I realized that 2020 was an absolutely pivotal year for me in lots of aspects.

The Subject Made a Promise

I also realized that I’ve made a lot of personal promises to the world. “I’ll change this way, I’ll support these people, or do this thing.”

And that’s kind of the introvert’s thing, or the thing that introverts always find themselves doing: I’ll respond, I’ll change. The subject eclipses the object. (This is a huge positive in some ways, but a catastrophic blind spot in others)

No sooner does a problem come up, than the introvert looks within themselves for a solution. We INTJs have just the right inner vision, or plan, or suggestion, or book, or whatever it is.

In return for this energy, I then ask specific things of the world at large: Help me to become a healthier, more fulfilled person, help me to reach these goals I have, help me to…etc.

This back-and-forth seems to help me build various inner contracts. Covert contracts, maybe. “I deserve better,” or “that was a lucky week,” or whatever it is—it’s all based on a subjective estimation of my inputs vs. my “profits”.

But I can’t deny this urge I now feel, looking outward.

The world needs to change. That group, “out there”. Not me, not you, not even us! Well, maybe us, in part, or as a component. But definitely that, too. That other thing.

The Object is Pressed Upon, in Turn

Maybe I shouldn’t even call it “the world.”

“The universe.” Everything needs to change.

And not only that, everything will change. Reflecting on this certainty of change is where my perspective seemed to shift from “terribly subjective” to “possibly wonderfully objective”.

Since change will come, and since we can measure change and have some inputs on its energy, this means we will likely have significant inputs on the design of the future, if we wish to use them. (Which design? Well, there are many different scopes here, so no satisfactory example can be given right now)

Can the future be designed?

I admit that my belief has changed radically in this area. I firmly believe that we can, and should, work to design the future. I have a lot of regrets, looking back on a past in which I thought things were already figured out for us.

And I’ve mentioned elsewhere that this is a trap for INTJs: Resting on our dominant Ni, perceiving, watching, telling, warning—but not acting, not creating, not doing as much as we could, or maybe should. After all, Ni is good at making us believe that nothing truely can be done. You just watch—those forces are already in motion!

(This is pure bullsh**, in part, and especially to the degree that it hyperbolically celebrates, strokes, our subjective perceptive gift of future-intuition)

Nowadays, part of my work here on this blog, and everywhere I work, is to design a better world. I believe I’ve discovered, used, and even created, some good tools for this. These tools act. They change things. They yield more control.

Control over the future, that is. This thought became the key to shifting my mindset. That future stuff wasn’t, and isn’t, inevitable!

The Tools, The Methods, The Outcomes

I will start building more of those tools, and sharing more of them. No tool will be too small, but a lot of larger-scope tools will be designed as well. Some of them will seem laughably vague, or grandiose. That’s OK, because of the “I’m not done yet” rule.

A lot of you out there, INTJ or not, are more than capable of designing a better world with me. I want to invite you to do so.

It’s a new year, and this is a big deal: Let’s design a better world. We’ll conceptualize awesome outcomes, watch some of our plans fail, watch some succeed, and learn and grow some more. We will do things that have never been done before.

It’ll be fun! It’ll be creative. Open-ended, and hopefully rather wild.

(Do you want to start today? As a simple exercise: Think of a scope, and pick some design parameters. That ought to be open enough to allow just about any change you’d like to see…)

Well—more soon. Let’s have an awesome 2021!