People writes:

PJMA is not really a fighting art. This is confusing to me, even though it seems interesting overall.

It is. It’s just not your fighting art. We introverts love our past experiences, so you may have to build some room for new stuff.

Look, I hate to say it but INTJs can be just as shallow as anybody else when it comes to the world of comparative sensation. We love our Se (extraverted sensing). Everybody’s got these extraverted psychological function-stances to deal with. And the extraverted stances tend to be really shallow. It’s fun most of the time. But if we’re glued to this kind of thinking, it can lead us down a really deceptive garden path where we make a lot of assumptions and take a lot of really silly positions.

Try this with another INTJ: Start talking about which martial art is most effective. Then bring up weapons. At some point, bring up guns and watch as you leave “effective fighting martial arts” in the dust. Then bring up special units, tanks, jets, missiles. Then bring up power politics.

Now ask yourself: If handguns exist, do we really need physical striking arts? If missiles exist, do we really need handguns?

This is the shallow thinking I’m talking about, when it comes to sensational power projection. It’s porn. You can turn any old sensational thing into porn by taking away real context. The minute you move out of actuality and into theory, you’re in a different world and you have to recognize that or your thinking can get sloppy fast.

The goal of PJMA is to recognize that differential, harness it, and work down from theory into the design of practice.

I once had an INTJ martial arts instructor who taught me one of those “top five most realistic, effective martial arts” martial arts. And here’s how that went:

• We danced and rolled around with each other doing sets of moves and comparing hypotheticals.
• I was mainly supposed to study on my own at home.
• At some point he’d say, “see, I just choked you out.”
• But he didn’t choke me out because he didn’t carry insurance.
• And I didn’t want to be choked out. I’ve been choked out before.
• So we nodded our heads and moved onto another pretend scenario.
• I mean what do you want! We’re theorist INTJs. This was our reality. It was a tacit agreement. We were both OK with this. We were learning theories, ideas, movement strategies. At some level, it was helpful, and the rest of it just was what it was.

Depending on how things are where you live, it’s usually either an arrangement like this or it’s a sport, like the way you can treat MMA or Judo or BJJ or wrestling or TKD as sports…games are generally an area that the martial arts community manages pretty well.

PJMA simply gives you a framework from which to say, “OK but what do I actually need, and what can I do about it?”

By focusing on the end goal (the justice framework / concept) we’re able to be flexible with the means and adjust as needed. This is how you open up those twin axes I wrote about earlier.

And from that same point of view (what end do you need) it’s OK to goof around and say “I pronounce you choked out” or to literally choke someone out. That question becomes less of a groaner. I always saw a lot of value on both sides of the groan (i.e. only learn if you can be deadly serious vs. play around and have fantasy fun while learning a bit), and one thing that PJMA will do well is argue for people on both sides of the groan.

Are you bullish or bearish?

I don’t really trade on that market-scope sentiment either way, so I’m not the best person to ask, I think.

• I like to be bullish and I like to see things working out well. This is a simple but powerful framework for me.
• I’m really grumpy when I’m a bear, so I would rather formally manage bear-risks with a framework. I don’t like being a grump or a doom-prediction guy. It just doesn’t feel very nice to me anymore and it doesn’t make for great conversation either.
• Therefore I look for bullish outlooks and it’s kind of my hobby to identify them.
• When people take their money and leave the market for extended periods, I can identify (I’ve done that before) but I probably am not going to do that (I regretted it).
• Always protect your capital. Your framework should manage this for you.
• This is not financial advice, it’s just what I do. You do you…but please take stock, measure things, see what works best for you.

(I’m not the best trader in the world or anything…just out there tryna make a buck…)

Can you recommend a stock?

I don’t pick stocks, sorry. Right now I don’t tend to hold any single security longer than a week, maybe two weeks. For some interesting securities to research, you might check out @StockDweebs …and again, don’t take this as investing or trading advice.

A lot of INTJs who are value investors tend to be short-term bearish and I find that they’re pretty easy to spot on Twitter, so if you, too hear index funds calling your name, arise and discover your kindred. Warning: A lot of sarcasm can be found here.

Are you sensitive to specific foods? I think a lot of INTJs are.

I used to be way more sensitive to foods than I am now. I’d say the higher my life pressures, the more sensitive I become. Something like that. I’ve done gluten-free, dairy-free, low sugar, sugar-free, AIP, and those are just the sensitivity ones.

Least favorite was AIP. If you’re going to do that one, it’s important to iterate really fast, and ask yourself how well it’s working on an hourly basis. I didn’t do this and by the second day I was so frigging frustrated with everything. Man, food matters a lot.

But all of those diets require a pretty savvy grocery shopping trip along with serious cooking skills, and I have to thank my amazing wife for always taking such good care of me.

Are you safe from the California wildfires?

Thanks for asking! Yes, we are OK. October is still to come, and that’s been a dicey month in the past, but we are ready to go if the evacuation notice arrives.

You’re into ham radio. Do you help with the fires at all?

Not really these days. I’ve helped in some little ways in the past, like sending message traffic along to people who need it. It can be pretty stressful TBH. I almost hate to say it, but having used a ham radio in emergency conditions, I now associate activity in ham radio with emergencies, and that’s kind of annoying. It’s almost painful. Knowing I might lose my home, neighborhood, etc. in the middle of the night, while sleeping, was extremely scary. Thinking about things that are related to that perception also tends to raise those stressful feelings. I think of:

• Ash sitting on my ham radio gear
• Smoke in the air
• No power unless I’m running the generator
• The sound of generators running throughout the neighborhood
• Business activities disrupted
• Information never as up-to-date as you hope
• Running to the gas station late at night to avoid lines
• Carrying a toolbox / tool bag around with you for extra preparedness
• Weird questions from people who know you’re a ham radio person
• A dark home
  • Dark bathrooms are the worst, IMO

It’s just not that great.

For this reason I look forward to exploring even more of the the fun parts of the ham radio hobby in the future, to kind of balance things out. I don’t want to nope out because of some stressful experiences; I know there’s a lot to love about it.

I don’t think I was even close to being an essential emergency communicator. I did train some other people on emergency comms though, and that worked pretty well.

If you don’t have a ham radio though, keep in mind that in a lot of countries, US included, you can get one just to listen to, and you don’t need a license, and you might hear interesting things there that you won’t hear anywhere else. I have also been surprised at how useful local FM broadcast radio is during an emergency.

Filed in: Interests /111/ | Thinking /70/