By Rob Dinh

The Mastermind & the Protector

How I get along with ISFJs as an INTJ

Space Cadet. That’s what you call me. And if I remember correctly, it’s because I’m spacey. I didn’t know what ‘spacey’ meant at first, but I figure it’s how I seem to be living in my own world up in the clouds. Well, in space. Fair. A lot of that space is empty too, I honestly don’t know what’s going on in my head. It does feel like there’s a lot going on though. I’m like Homer Simpson thinking of a monkey playing cymbals. Except the monkey isn’t doing anything, and I’m not doing any thinking… I guess Homer and I have a lot in common, come to think of it. There’s background music though, techno and anime BGM as you might guess.

‘Cadet’ though. Yes, I like that. A young budding military on duty adhering to an order he believes in. In uniform too. Bet I look hot in it. Holding myself to a high standard (whatever that means but everyone admires it). Acquiring a very particular sets of skills. Skills that make me a badass and respected across the land. I wield three swords. I don’t sleep, I wait. I am a space cadet and the next Hokage. You best believe it.

As I googled ‘Space cadet’ for writing this blog, I very recently learned that it’s a derogatory slang for one who deals with reality in a way consistent with being under the influence of (or “spaced out on”) drugs. One who forgets, daydreams, or otherwise is distracted from reality more often than most. Damn, did you know that? Wait — have you known that?? Were you ever gonna tell me?? You think I’m a flaky, lightheaded, forgetful person?? So I’m not a hot future Hokage with very particular sets of skills? All of that time together, I sat by you when you wanted company during your alone time. I listened to you blabbering on about work and family drama. I kept in all the dirt you’ve been so proud of digging out of others. I pretended to be friends with people you sent me out to get a read on. We were the dynamic duo. We were the best friends sitting in jail saying “Damn that was fun.” Fucking space cadet??

You know what? I don’t need you. I don’t even realize when you’re around. I tune out when you gossip about whatever I don’t give a shit. I keep dirty secrets because I know I’ll forget them. Don’t care! And those people are actually cool, okay. That’s how I get free blunts. Our relationship isn’t real. It never was, nothing is. Existence is arbitrary. Time is a circle. We survive and reproduce to keep the show going. The show that is consciousness reflecting itself through us as separate beings. Why would it emerge into lowly meat bags like us? It‘s caused nothing but loneliness and suffering. I don’t know, dude. I don’t know what makes you think I’m a space cadet.

Meh. Forget all I said. You know we’re still buddies.

Night Diner by Klegs

I’m just so used to you telling it like it is. Like that’s cool, it’s great. Sometimes, you’re funny with it. Sometimes, it’s like doomsday is coming. Even then, you still make it sound kinda funny. There’s that mix of dry and observational sarcasm that only you and a number of other ISFJs know how to artfully slide into the conversation. It soothes me, it’s listenable. No matter how brutally honest, you’re not forcing it down my throat. You’re not trying hard to make a point. Truth just is, it’s not there to hurt anyone. Water’s wet and fire burns. If someone has a problem with that, they can’t be helped. Like I’m not gonna fight it. I know I’m spacey, so what?

That’s the thing that’s wrongfully misunderstood by the MBTI community. They think of you as this people-pleasing Mom carrying a tray of cupcakes who gets stepped on for the sake of harmony. That’s false. From what I’ve seen when things get *disharmonious*, when someone is throwing a tantrum or crying a river, you get the hell out of the way! Can’t get stepped on if you’re not in the way! Peace and harmony? More like peace the fuck out. In fact, you’re pretty good at not being part of any problem. Many times you end up standing next to me, enjoying the circus that’s happening with some buttery popcorn.

Things can get really spicy and emotional, and you don’t get caught up in it. Of course you’d help if the situation really matters. That’s just being a decent person. When you give advice, you don’t beat around the bush. A lot of the time, it’s just common sense. That can be such a weird concept to many, but you actually have a good idea of it. You’re a truth bearer setting people free, in theory. Again in theory, truth in itself doesn’t hurt anyone. What matters is how it’s interpreted. It’s how it reflects on the human beings involved. It’s how the information is received, and how people follow through with it. And I believe out of all the types, ISFJs are the best at delivering the message.

Stranger Crush by Taro-K

Maybe you picked up on this, so you’re tailoring your communications with me. It’s gotta be thanks to my laidback and no-nonsense personality, you get to drop that Fe veil down and talk straight with me. I don’t know, I’ll just take the credit. And you get to give your honest opinion about my shenanigans without repercussions. Yes, that porn stache never looked good, nor were any of my hairstyles. I don’t care. Getting a raw reaction from you made it all worth it. I’m at peace with you thinking that whatever I do is a bad idea. And with Extraverted Intuition-Extraverted Feeling, you’ve looked at how things turned out for others. So that critique of yours might be valid… and I’m gonna try to disprove you anyway. Between us, we know it’s all shits and giggles.

Sometimes brutal honesty is needed, sometimes diplomacy is. Sometimes it’s just not worth it, and best to let the world burn. Whichever way is most beneficial in the long run depends on the context. I know you’ll do your hardest to be as sincere as you can, unlike some folks who get off from delivering the brutality and not the honesty. Many times over we’ve made poor decisions because we jumped to conclusions missing critical information. You have the panoramic view to properly assess the full situation. What are the factors and who are the characters? How does this situation fit in the grand scheme of things? What are the ripple effects of these actions? What can be done for the betterment of the community? We’re messy conscious beings. We end up in messy spots. Your worldly curiosity gives you the power to help.

NeFe is what fuels that curiosity. Our lives are intertwined in this reality tapestry, and you like seeing where each of our threads came from and where they’re heading to. You want to see how this whole mesh looks like, its colors, structures, and material. You observe all of this from afar. Like literally physically taking a step back, standing in the far corner to see the whole thing without your shadow in the way. You want to see how it could all be better fabricated, how its kinks could be ironed out, and how you could be part of influencing the making of it.

"My mode as a writer is to layer different perspectives: the scientific, the philosophical, the political, the journalistic. When you layer them you get a really wholesome, interesting picture."
Michael Pollan

This mess that is society, in my opinion, is a circus. It’s a playground where I was given one chance to play. I’m promised a big prize at the end after I go on these adventures experiencing all that this playground has to offer. So yes, I too observe that same mesh standing at the far corner. We share the same view. We’re both in the shadows ninja-lurking and scanning what’s going on out there. It’s how we know what’s common sense. We join various subreddits, pick up random interests, build a network. For myself, I’d like to have an idea of how to navigate myself around. With Introverted Intuition-Introverted Feeling, I see myself as one of those threads. I foresee where they go, so I can choose one I like.

I’m the main character in my own a video game where I get to choose to do side quests. Being an INTJ makes me an introvert that FOMOs. “Why FOMO in the first place? Look at you. Every month you come with a new bruise, a band aid, or a gauze pad. How are you not dead yet?” I recall you asking. I’m a lone wolf on his hero’s journey. When it comes to people, I just want to know if they wanna tag along on my journey. At best, they become part of my pirate crew. At worst, respectfully, we don’t have to waste our time. It’s just potential drama I don’t need, ya know?

Well, no. You don’t know. You live for the damn drama. You’re always eavesdropping in conservations! Basking in the juicy dirt. Secretly wishing the beef escalates. You just love being in the know; bonus point if nobody knows you are. To you, life is like trashy TV. Literally Reality TV, it’s more than guilty pleasure. Yeah, about that whole curiosity thing and the power to help society I mentioned above…I’m not kidding. You wanna stay current with Internet beefs, and the latest on so-and-so just so you can be a step ahead of them.

It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there, especially in the office. Word gets around, so I should appreciate that you’re willing to spill the beans to me. So thank you for filling me in. I’ll be honest though, most rumors you’ve shared to me I’ve barely paid attention. I don’t care much about being in the know, except that it gets me on my moral high horse. I’m too good for it. No way I’m not gonna stoop down to the same level as those people. Especially Karen. I’ll tell ya what, that bitch had it coming.

Boku No Hero Vacation by Taro-K

OK fine. Not all of you are into gossip. There’s an infinite variety of ways you like to spend your time, most of them are things anyone can easily pick up, are logistically feasible, and doesn’t require insane dedication. It’s funny that the community calls you boring, when I’m kinda thinking you’re actually the one that gets bored easily. It’s not FOMO. We’re not doing anything life changing (or threatening) here. It’s whatever enables you to, uhh, unpretentiously nerd and geek out. Be it playing video games, building crafts, etymology, cooking, music, psychology, read books and comics, the history of bread, the list goes on. That includes vibing with friends, spotting plot holes, and laugh at ironies. If I can try to encapsulate who you are, you’re someone who understands life isn’t simple, yet low-key follows a cheesy basic mantra.

That kind of approach makes you really good at giving life advice. You listen first and know how to mediate. You’re like a social engineer or a casual psychoanalyzer. You’re objective and look out for the big picture. These are your gifts. You find what makes sense out of the nonsense. Real magic is discovering how the magic trick is done. Introverted Sensing-Introverted Thinking breaks problems down to the fundamentals and offers suggestions. It examines the situation from square one and excavates out until it finds how things started turning sour. It checks how things add up and come together. You analyze it all down to the nuts and bolts to develop comprehensive longterm solutions before anyone realizes there’s a problem.

Everyone carries their own beliefs and perceptions, but we can’t get anywhere if we can’t all agree. As an introvert, you’re not gonna waste your time arguing with people. Instead, you’re building a perspective objectively weighing all the factors. Complex problems require complex solutions. That’s why it takes a lot of thought, and why it’s best to look at problems from afar. The processes, systems, and people involved all deserve thorough fair considerations if we want to really fix things. We need crystal clear understanding of what’s going on before we risk making things worse. It takes time to craft up something helpful. It takes time to verbalize your thoughts effectively. We can applaud those who face issues head on. It’s honorable, but there’s a high risk of cloudy judgement and regress, getting caught up in the moment and lose the big picture.

"Basketball’s so much like life: if something’s going great, you wait a minute, it will change. If something’s going bad, you wait a minute, it will change. So I try to play things on such an even keel, knowing that things are going to change. You take the good with the bad; you don’t get too excited, you don’t get too down and sometimes that’s the hardest thing in the world to do when you’re in the midst of it, but that’s the best way to handle it."
Tim Duncan

All that’s wrong about the ISFJ stereotypes stems from bad understanding of the cognitive functions. Much of the MBTI community project their bad traits onto other types. Also, it doesn’t take many brain cells to figure that personality tests and type descriptions are flawed and incomplete. We can allow to have mental tendencies for efficiency, but we’re more than just one type. We’re complete human beings. Living is a whole brained activity. We can configure our brains to process information through a variety of cognitions which we see most situationally fit — some of us are better at it. Maturity, intelligence, and upbringing matter much more in defining who we are than type.

Let’s say we’re purely our types as INTJ and ISFJ, for simplicity’s sake. We would barely have any overlap in our thought processes since we don’t share any cognitive functions. In other words, our awareness live in very different parts in our brains. We would look at the same thing but interpret it very differently. While there are thousands of thoughts flying across our brains at once, we just can’t be aware of everything in it. To be conscious of all of them takes a high level of mindfulness and meditation. And ain’t nobody got time for that, we’re trying to survive here. We need to respond against danger quickly. We rely on what’s familiar and instinctually act on whatever pops in our minds. And that’s on top of what taints our perceptions such as our personal experiences, hardwired beliefs, cognitive biases, repressed subconscious, and internalized trauma.

We’re in a whole type grip, not just some inferior function grip. The truth is we’re sensors, intuitives, feelers, and thinkers all at once. There’s an infinite combination of ways to experience reality as it’s happening right here and now that our little brains cannot handle. Simplifying reality efficiently, not accurately, has been our surviving strategy as a species. We have evolutionarily developed heuristics and mental habits. For many generations our ancestors have managed to survive relying on certain cognitions that have worked for them. We’ve inherited these and through our own personal growth and neuroplasticity, we’ve developed our own thinking patterns. My cognition happens to most closely resemble that of the INTJ; and ISFJ for yours. We’re just evolutionary products of our environment.

Contrasts by Klegs
Contrasts by Klegs

We live in our own simulation. We couldn’t agree what color that dress was, and we fought each other over it! A trigger warning would’ve been appreciated for how that damn picture got us down to our survival instincts. Well at least that’s my take for why some of us take our personality type so seriously. We’ve suffered too much to have our reality questioned. Validating them helps us cope. We want our warped sense of reality to mean something. What we see has to be real. Treating our cognitive functions like they’re superpowers (just to get by) makes us feel a little special. And if we have to, we do a lot of mental gymnastics like calling ourselves rare, misunderstood, and shit on other types.

Equating Introverted Sensing with memory, routine, and nostalgia is too simplistic. At the dominant function, Si is much more dynamic. It’s a high fidelity microscope that looks at the underlying elements to piece together a big picture. Gotta get the basics down to be able to do complex fancy things. Gotta learn how to crawl before you run. Gotta sow the seed right for the tree to blossom. This is an attitude that welcomes growing experiences, opposite of being stuck with the old ways. Si is about developing and progressing. It may take some time especially about subjects you don’t know much about, but you don’t let things stagnate. You’d rather see how they unfold, constantly looking to reconcile with what you know. See what changed and what didn’t, form patterns that’ll fit future possibilities. Often times, you criticize how nonsensical traditions can be.

Think of memory as a recollection of information. It can be any kind of information. Logical, emotional, anecdotal, conceptual, anything. It’s data you need to look inward for. Our minds can only process what they know. Introverts particularly create internal experiences with those recollections, meaning forming new information out of old information. That’s imagination. It’s the product of memory. Introverted Sensing is detailed colorful 4K imagination that you get to experience and re-experience vividly. We have trillion dollar industries focusing on aesthetics because it directly correlates to creating fun experiences. Who doesn’t like fun? Fun truly is found right under your nose, well inside your head technically.

Book Of Imagination by T1na
Book Of Imagination by T1na

More technically, memory is a past experience that has become an abstract context influencing the present. Me having Introverted Intuition also means I value recalling my memory too. Like you, I look inward for past information. It’s just not detailed information, it’s not even in 240p. Imagine a beautiful Monet painting, but smudged to hell that all the colors blended into an ugly gray-brown that you can’t make anything out of it anymore. That’s me. That’s the explanation of my spaciness. Well I can adjust my antennas and tune my receiver to enjoy some clear pictures in my memories. But it’ll take a while and a lot of focus to filter out the noise. That’s how I introvert, being alone immersed in my head so I can listen and align my emotions at the right frequencies. My goal is to compose, using these frequencies, an internal harmonious symphony. I can scan a wide range, but I have my favorite presets. I may be “whatever” for a lot of things. But for the few things that matter, they matter a whole lot. And for the few things that I remember, I remember every detail.

Otherwise for most of the time, the kind of memories I hold are themes, narratives, and trends. The thing is that they don’t change frequently nor vary drastically. There’s a few common nodes and presets that cover all possibilities. Like Christmas. Jesus has almond eyes in Korea and he’s dark skinned in Brazil. Japanese Santa Claus is just Colonel Sanders in a red fuzzy suit. They play “Let it snow” in tropical Singapore and in Australia where December 25th is the first week of summer. No matter where you are, some representation of a bearded old man in a red suit, a tree with white stuff on it, and “Let it snow” is all we need to present the idea of Christmas. And I predict that in 20 years, Christmas is gonna follow those same criteria. Minute details don’t matter. I reflect on my past days, and it all blends into ugly gray-brown. And it’ll be ugly gray-brown in the future. No matter what color tomorrow will bring, it’ll blend into ugly gray-brown. That’s the highly touted power of my Ni.

"This says… 'Bomb.' I don’t know if that is a noun, a verb, or an adjective describing my outfit."
Adrian Mallory, from Space Force

Ask me how my weekend was, I’d shoot out the thousand yard stare. Inside my head, I’m starring at an ugly gray-brown wall doing my best to answer how I feel about it. “Uhh, good.” I mean, I guess my weekend was alright. By then I’ve searched across the very edges of that wall. I’m too spent to evaluate what I want for lunch. Just surprise me. Am I hungry, you ask? Scanning my timeline of when where and how I was hungry and not hungry. Tallying up all of the data, I feel ugly gray-brown again. I do feel lucky that I spent more of my time full than famished. Biology says my body needs food in order to live. So after that round of thorough analysis, my cautious opinion on that matter is: “Uhh, sure.”

It’s shit like this that makes me value routine. I need routine! How did they come up that INTJs are allergic to boring routine? No, this is strategic! Routine is the product of efficiency. Routine is often the most straightforward and effective way to reach my goals. Routine becomes habit, giving me fewer decisions to make and more time in space. Get an INTJ out of their groove and see how irritated they get. I’m focused on something right now. I don’t want to think if I’m hungry, what to eat, and where to go. Just shove the damn calories in me. Get me what I got yesterday, like all the other days before. Killing my vibe, bro. Can’t you see you’re distracting me off my vibe here? I had the frequency and you made me lose it. All of my pairs of socks are black so that I don’t have to waste mental energy in matching them. Nobody’s gonna know, and neither will I. Seriously, who’s the boring one here?

Curiosity by T1na

When I get out of the house, it’s phone-wallet-keys. If something distracted me out of that sequence, I’ll forget something and won’t realize until after I walk out and lock the door. Everyday I make my coffee by pouring 60 grams of water heated at 85 degrees Celsius every 45 seconds. I set up my last burger bite where all the meat juice and melted cheese gather down at the toastiest edge piece. I feng shui my day-to-day so I can spend more time at peace with my ugly gray-brown state of mind. I’m just trying to get by and optimize my living experience like everyone else. Everyone has some kind of routine. We all need some sense of structure and control, so we can blissfully play in between. Peace is different for everybody. It’s built, not given. Who cares how boring or exciting that is. If someone doesn’t like how we do things, that’s on them.

The irony about being future-oriented is that my goal is to look forward of looking back. I hope to be gray reminiscing the good old days. I hope to have that moment where I genuinely feel that I did pretty good being a human. I hope to savor my last days imagining the ending credits scrolling up the names of those who influenced me, while playing highlight reels of my most badass moments. Where else will I look by the time I won’t have much to look forward to? I’m already doing this now! Yes I’m nostalgic, and it’s a privilege to be! They’re memories of times I’ll never get back. They’re shining moments in the midst of my ugly gray-brown world. That’s the root of my FOMO. I don’t want my life to look like a whole single uninspiring color. If it’s gonna have to be ugly gray-brown, then I want it to be a blend with millions of colors. I wanna make meaningful memories to tune back into and re-experience all the feels.

Siren's Call by Taro-K

Extraverted Feeling is widely misunderstood as reacting to other people’s emotions, discarding the self for the group, and wielding that empathy superpower. Well, I’m highly sensitive of feelings around me. Locking eyes with someone is too invasive. I’m scared of running my own business because of what the Yelpers would say about me. I shut down or do my best to be invisible when I sense bad vibes. Culture and chemistry are important criteria for where I’d like to work. If the social environment is like a puzzle, my Fi is a piece trying to find its place in it. It can even change its form to better fit in. If you’re a social chameleon, I’m a shapeshifter. I figure what mold to model myself into. I’m not so sure about the whole sticking to my values thing. Like I don’t find it right as an American to be pushing my Western beliefs onto other people. When I travel, I pretend as if I actually lived there doing regular stuff. Don’t travel like a local, blend in and live like one. You bet I’d be paying attention to the local culture and traditions.

Building my sense of identity is what draws me to the far corners of society and subcultures. It’s a curious case of studying my given existential space. I spend my whole existence trying to fit and thrive. So if I sense my presence isn’t welcomed, it hurts! That’s why I’m a champion for the misfits and misunderstood. Empathy to me is creating an internal experience that closely matches what others are going through using my emotional palette of a million colors. Having worldly knowledge and emotional intuition enables me to get into people’s shoes. That’s what it means for me to understand, by willing to get on the same frequency and share the suffering. I’m not a sociopath. Though sometimes, I can understand someone’s situation but I still don’t see why they’re being little bitches about it. And I can stretch my empathy to very imaginative levels. So if I still can’t emotionally meet where they are, it’s hard to be compassionate. They must be hiding something, they’re not being real with me.

"I prefer to win titles with the team ahead of individual awards or scoring more goals than anyone else. I’m more worried about being a good person than being the best football player in the world. When all this is over, what are you left with? When I retire, I hope I am remembered for being a decent guy."
Lionel Messi

That “F” in ISFJ is about managing social transactions like we’re in some sort of industrial complex of emotions. It’s about behavior governance, not just sensitivity to others’ feelings. It’s the actual moral compass pointing people at the direction of what’s right. Think of adhering to common decency, social contracts, and best practice standards. Or showing how we should treat each other fairly and respectfully, not kissing our little booboos. You too are free to call people out for being little bitches if they don’t meet those standards. It’s not like they’re that high anyway. But you can be really hard on yourselves for being the ones setting the example. Having this function doesn’t automatically make you a sweet guardian angel. You can judge harshly if someone’s being an asshole, and it might be projection if I were to call you out. Or you’re too jaded to even care, and have learned to laugh at the bullshit. Not much of an angel here. Nobody’s getting cookies.

To understand others, you don’t have to experience things for yourself like I do. You can figure it out using your head. Asking questions and tracing connections, formulating an elaborate schema with all that you know about humans. This can be a mix of scientific literature, street smarts, your own experience, and trash TV. Out of that spaghetti mess emerges great insights ready for anybody who wants to listen, I know I do. You know how someone is genuinely smart rather than trying to be smart? Like they take the time to observe and not allow emotions get the better of them. They have a high sense of self-awareness and are great at witty jokes. That’s how I look at you. Unlike that fake two-face stereotype, I find you refreshingly genuine. You understand there’s no silver bullet to life, and that we’re trying our best. You’re not being wishy washy, you’re just honest about not having clearcut solutions for complicated problems. I don’t sense you trying to be something else, you’re real with me. You’re the first to admit you’re not the most qualified. That helps me trust you. That and you being the more logical one out of us two.

Commission Quiet Day by Taro-K

That image of you always self-sacrificing for the sake of others is misconstrued too. Actually I find most ISFJs to be pretty self-preserving. Over extending yourself doesn’t add up when you tend to prioritize your own comfort. I get it, I had a Jesus phase too. Again, you just aim to be decent and not making situations bigger shit shows than they already are. Being logical means you don’t let your ego influence your thoughts. Everyone including you will be fairly considered. There’s nobody being put above or below others here. No judgement will be made until logic is sorted. Others follow a personal code. You follow a pragmatic philosophy. Like your own twist of the scientific method that involves memes and assigning nicknames to people you’ve never talked to. You figure what easy adjustments people can do to make their lives better. It’s always the small wins for you if I may add. Shooting for low effort, but making defining effects. Efficiency right?! Or productive laziness?

The point of everything I wrote here is to highlight that I fit the popular ISFJ stereotypes better than you do. Ask my friends, I’m an angel. My heart is so pure. I’m everyone’s big brother. Think a little more, and you can see how you possess some of those leet Mastermind INTJ traits. The ISFJs I know have their futures planned out. They’re in leadership strategizing and moving pawns around to improve chemistry and productivity. They’re big picture logical idealists who are ruthlessly authentic. There’s a lot we can relate here. I hope my described experience above resonates with you in some way. That under the pragmatic cerebral mind, there’s somebody who FOMOs wondering what little adventure they could embark on. We’re each other’s cool side of the pillow. In contrast, I think through about my FOMO ambitions to ensure I can realistically achieve them with practical means.

Campfire by Elisa Moriconi

To answer how I get along with ISFJs as an INTJ, it’s tempting to say that it’s because we wholly compliment each other. And if we allow ourselves to see, we actually have a lot in common. When we realize we’re so much alike, it’s easy to see how you can be so candidly straightforward with me. And how I can be so open to you. We both can drop our respective veils and be our true selves together. We’re both grounded in our own ways. Plus we value the strengths we provide for each other. There’s a yin-yang thing going on. A playful back-and-forth of “be and let be”. The difference hinges on if we think first on our own interest or the community’s. These don’t have to be entrenched dichotomies. Sure a few of us won’t ever see eye to eye. But most of us are aware of our tendencies and strike a healthy balance. And the best of us can merge ourselves as individuals with the collective. We know how to unify both our logical and emotional thoughts, and enjoy both the content and context of our experiences.

I don’t believe I’ve reached that state of one-ness. All I can say is life has been a bitch. I’ve been beaten enough by it to the point I’m now appreciating it. And I feel lucky for it. Now at the age of 38, which puts me at midway realistically, I’m just glad to be at a place where I’ve done all that I’ve set out to do. Younger me would be proud of me, and I hope older me does too. For once I have no idea what future adventure is in store for me. And that’s OK. Actually that’s great. With all of the accomplishments I’ve accrued over the years, I don’t FOMO as much anymore. I’ve chilled out on being so future-oriented reaching my goals. I don’t have to be as much of an INTJ. Really I just stopped giving a shit, like how old people stopped giving a shit. That helped me end my suffering and being more honest with myself. I’m out of survival mode and am happily embracing my ISFJ side. Life’s gotta continue to tenderize my ass anyway. Best way to experience is to relax my butt cheeks and let it work those kinks. I’m looking forward to this stage of my journey. Maybe with this upgraded simulation, the best has yet to come.

A Desirable Future by Chris-Karbach
A Desirable Future by Chris-Karbach

Truth is just an agreed and accepted perception. When you think about how we’re trying to form it, it makes sense people would be so invested. It ties in deeply in how we view the world. If Extraverted Feeling was you adhering to social norms, Extraverted Thinking is me adhering to logical norms, or truths as best as we know them. So for me, relaxing my butt cheeks means I’ve learned to not be so anal about the truth. I was taught that Pluto was a planet. Somebody’s gonna disprove Einstein one day. Logical norms change, they progress. What makes sense now will be a mistake in the future. There’s no certainty, only data models and perspectives. That’s how I started to see logic as a means of building one new step at a time for us to walk on and move forward. That’s how truth started to be magical to me. It’s another adventure.

"I’m a human being who cares about my planet, who cares about people, who cares about the reality of our children’s future. The same way I needed a mentor, the same way I needed someone to motivate me, that became my reality. I want to be that source for Merry, I want to be that source for Dewey, who feel like no one can hear or understand them. And all they need is the tools to understand how to be great or either how to apply themselves. I started that effort when I was 16 with the idea that most influential role model for a child is a child."
Usher

Reality around me started to look more fun. The trees, the stars, the animals, people. There’s a math that connects us with one another somehow, whether it’s the global supply chain, evolutionary biology, or food culture. Rather than taking what life has to offer, I’m now appreciating it for what it is; what this puzzle always has been. I mean, a lot of it is just stuff, people, and animals. But it’s really cool. It’s the longest running show, much longer than the Simpsons. And I’m pretty confident One Piece will end before it does. I have so much to catch up. I’ll skip on what’s going on with the Kardashians…But did you know there’s people who’s spatial concept of the future is behind them, and the past in front? That we’re closer relatives with a tuna than a shark is? And guacamole is an anglicized word from an Aztec language that means testicle sauce?

Younger me wouldn’t have spent any time learning about things that didn’t serve his individual goals. I’m still like this now. My goal now is to give back. Building a deeper connection with others by learning about the world has helped me find my place in this reality puzzle. The happy version of myself looks like an old sage ISFJ Protector watching out for his community. Meaning to me is found by investing in the other life threads in this tapestry. I’ll honor those that helped me by paying it forward and help keep the show going. I hope to be a support watching our future unfold as a society. Whatever wisdom I’ve gathered from my experiences, it’s best for someone else to make good use of it. There’s no reason to keep it all in. I’mma start giving out life advices and telling stories of my mistakes. Who knows if it’s actually good wisdom, to be honest. I’m just a dude who has no place to judge for humanity. I’m here for the good vibes and memes.

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