INTJ Weaknesses Examined

According to 16personalities.com, INTJs display the following weaknesses:

• Arrogant
• Judgmental
• Overly analytical
• Loathe highly structured environments
• Clueless in romance

As an INTJ myself, I will try to discuss these different weaknesses and expand on it, adding on to other weaknesses INTJs have.

Arrogant – INTJs tend to be arrogant, especially at the earlier stages of their life when their exposure to more intelligent groups is limited. Once they find more intelligent peers (if they don’t, they will likely remain arrogant for the rest of their life), the INTJ will respond in one of two ways. The INTJ will humble themselves, and stop treating others as if they are much more superior, and will only consider themselves superior in the regards they know themselves to be (which may be most things still). Or they will deny the discrepancies to keep their ego intact, losing themselves into worlds where they are superior, leading to them developing issues such as workaholism or gaming addictions. INTJs even have books on the link between their type and narcissism too. INTJs will be inwardly arrogant, but they won’t directly tell you how much better they consider themselves to be than you. Unless the INTJ is younger/more immature, they would rather imply it passive-aggressively or not imply anything at all. Why risk having ego damaged?

Judgmental – Less developed INTJs tend to assume a lot, because their dominant introverted intuition has subconsciously analyzed many different patterns before, although the problem is that it may be an incomplete analysis. This leads to intuition that is unrefined and prone to being wrong, especially with more complex situations like those involving people matters. It’s akin to learning the mechanisms of a pond before stumbling upon a river and finding out the same principles don’t apply. The problem with this is that INTJs apply their auxiliary extroverted thinking too soon when it comes to matters that they think they already have a firm understanding of, when they would be better off making sure that they know all the details before making a judgement. This could easily apply for many personality types, but can be particularly troublesome with an obstinate INTJ who is convinced that their understanding is correct as it is.

Overly Analytical – INTJs tend to over analyze a lot of things which is helpful within the logical realm of theories and ideas but it falls short when applied to the real world, especially with people. Not every human act can be explained easily, and this will annoy the INTJ who wants an explanation for why things happen. This can also lead to quick judgements to relieve themselves of the pressure of finding out the real reason behind an act, or the possibility that there was no big reason.

Loathe highly structured environments – Contrary to what most would expect, INTJs tend to actually heavily dislike school. INTJs like learning a lot, but they would rather direct their own education rather than having a separate body telling them what they need to learn. The added factor of socialization within the school environment is also painful as it serves as just another distraction from their learning, forcing them to learn how to navigate the politics of multiple people being involved in a structure. However, just because many INTJs dislike school, this doesn’t mean that they won’t play the “game” and try to win by getting the best scores possible. For INTJs, their future vision of what they can accomplish by winning the “game” fuels their desire to withstand adversity. However, the weaker their vision as a result of completing a task, the less likely they are to invest time within it. This is also applicable for most people, but especially amplified for the INTJ who spends most of their time in their head.

Clueless in Romance – For the younger INTJs, this is especially true. They will have no idea when anyone is interested. But after being caught off-guard a few times, they become acutely aware of when people are interested in them. However, after that, the INTJ is practically clueless. Their humor is very different from most other types, their flirting is abysmal, talking can be a chore at times and they aren’t often aware of social cues and people’s feelings. It can be a disaster without an understanding partner that doesn’t judge immediately or without strong personal growth from the INTJ. As INTJs are less than 2% of the population, it may not be a surprise that this type is not in abundance.

My additions:

Weirdly Emotional – This depends on whether the INTJ has a “hot” or “cool” personality. The INTJs with a cool personality tend to remain more detached and analytical while the hot INTJs will be more in tune with their emotions. This can lead to them feeling emotions more greatly but also arising poorly, leading to an emotional reaction that is often more than it should be. INTJs with hot personalities tend to have more associations with their tertiary introverted feeling. Whether any personality type is hot or cool also seems to be more associated with their enneagram type.

Just Weird – INTJs spend a lot of their time in their head or on the computer/phone gathering information. For someone who is generally very detached from the world, this can lead to them developing a very niche personality that will deviate greatly from the norm of the social groups they have access to. Pair that with their natural unwillingness to talk to many people, they can become very closed off from others and hide their real selves as a result. They can fear showing what they really think due to being ridiculed, although it prevents them from finding out who would actually appreciate those thoughts too.

Self-Doubting – INTJs are so self-doubting about themselves, they are the most likely out of all the types to try researching their own weaknesses. They have to know what’s wrong with them and how they can get better. This self-doubt can be transparent when they speak because they are willing to show their level of certainty or lack of it, which can come off poorly in the workplace and in relationships because other types would prefer certainty in their explanations.

Too Serious – Younger INTJs often don’t know when people are joking, at least immediately. They will generally take many things at face value because of how often they take themselves seriously within their own thoughts. INTJs have high opinions of themselves in relations to others, “armor up” for social interactions and are constantly analyzing what people are saying, all of which leads to their solemn outlook when dealing with the external world.

INTJs have a lot of work to do when it comes to their weaknesses, but a well-rounded and mature INTJ will generally become a powerful force to be reckoned with if they are able to master these weaknesses.