Now, we can combine all your letters to find your full cognitive specialty: INTJ! By combining the four Scopes—IJ, IP, EJ, and EP—with the four Objectives—NT, NF, ST, and SF—we derive the sixteen different facets of cognition, each with its own unique strengths and specializations, which all the other types depend on. And each comes with its own particular weaknesses as well, needing the support of other types who are strong in those areas. Only with all sixteen types combined can we enjoy and benefit from the entire spectrum of zoomed in and zoomed out perspectives, collective and individual focuses, usefulness and meaning, things as they are and things as they can yet become. A deeper understanding of each type leads to better use and appreciation for all types of cognition.
As an INTJ, your entire cognition revolves around your unique combination of these cognitive variables: the IJ Scope focusing on universal principles, and the NT Objective seeking the use of things as they could be. This unique combination prompts every thought, motivates every action, counsels every judgment and inspires every worldview. It sums up the end goal of everything you pursue, the result of the things that matter the most to you in your most private heart.
Every time you’re faced with any decision, any thought or feeling, any experience or person or anything, your mind naturally races through four cognitive steps. The order of these cognitive steps depends on your unique Scope and Objective, as you subconsciously focus first on the things that matter the most to you. You’re probably so used to thinking in your own order, all the time, that it may seem like the only natural way to think. This makes it all the more amazing that people of differing cognition approach the same world so differently, each offering something unique and powerful to share.
As an INTJ, your first cognition step is to consider how the thing you’re thinking about demonstrates yet another side of universal Principles. You turn inward to reflect on the conceptual connections (Ni, or introverted iNtuition) that show how Principles apply to the situation at hand.
Secondly, you use these Principles as a guide as you form opinions and decide on Action. You look outward to determine what opinions and Actions will be most useful and beneficial (Te, or extraverted Thinking).
Thirdly, you turn inward again to consider the meaning and significance of the results of your Actions (Fi, or introverted Feeling). You reflect on the details of the situation in order to evaluate how your Actions impact the dignity, value, and meaning of everything and everyone.
Fourthly and finally, you compare what you Observe outside (Se, or extraverted Sensing) with the useful Data you’ve gathered, in order to understand the motives and character of people, including yourself.
And then the cycle starts over: Your Observation of people’s character reflects back on your growing understanding of Principles, causing you to form new connections via Ni (introverted iNtuition) about how Principles apply in daily life, as your fourth step feeds back into your first, over and over. You may go through this entire cycle of cognition many times in a single second without even noticing.
Observation is your fourth and final cognition step because it’s what you focus on the least. This makes it the weakest of your cognitive steps. You live, think, and make decisions based on your keen awareness of universal principles, and while principles tend to be magnificently simple, their applications in life are usually very complex. Perhaps nothing in life is more complex than people, their complicated mixtures of motives, dreams, and secrets, so it can be surprisingly tricky to apply principles to people! And when you do manage to correctly judge someone based on your natural comprehension of principles, you’ll usually find that they surprise you yet again with unexpected new sides to their complex character. This is most especially true when judging yourself! Beware of simplistic judgments of your own character, especially negative judgments. And this is nothing to be embarrassed about. Every type has a weakness, just as every type has a strength that may appear almost superhuman to other types.
Healthy IJs provide complex and comprehensive answers to even the most baffling of life’s questions. Healthy EPs, on the flip side, are naturally able to see right to the core of people with speed and surety that might seem reckless to others. IPs delve deep into probing questions that others might never even think to ask, while EJs can accomplish long lists of tasks with precision while other types would be struggling to even get started. All the types need each other; this is why we call them the Type Heroes! Each approaches the same world from such a different angle, and each supports, guides, and teaches every other. By seeking out and learning from other types, especially types that think very differently from you, you can grow stronger in all your cognition steps.
And usually the best way to grow more reliable and strong in all your cognitive steps is to focus on your first step. This is the step that your mind naturally prioritizes first anyway; it’s what you care about the most, even when you might feel like you shouldn’t. As you focus on paying attention to your first step, you’ll find that all your other cognitive steps grow sharper and stronger as a result, almost automatically. When it comes to cognition, play to your strengths and your weaknesses will grow to keep up.
It’s when people focus too much on trying to improve their fourth step directly that they tend to become defensive, depressed, and discouraged about it, often neglecting their strengths and falling into denial that they even have a weakness. Some such people try to cover their weakness by inadvertently posing as a different cognitive type, in order to act like others who don’t share their weak area. Yet this usually results in only a parody of the type they’re trying to become, attempting to gain the strengths of another type without first mastering their own. You can develop all the strengths of all the types, but you cannot do it by trying to fight or suppress what you naturally want most. Let your first cognitive step be your focus, let yourself be you, and then you’ll be free to grow to become everything you want to become.
Focus on your strength of deftly understanding universal Principles; as you do, your weakness in correctly Observing the complexities of people will grow stronger of its own accord. And remember, when you judge people simplistically, you can always learn from your mistake and find new and complex demonstrations of how Principles apply! Beware of getting down on yourself about Observation; enjoy seeing how Principles apply in daily life, and then you’ll learn how to better put those Principles to use in powerful, groundbreaking new ways.
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