Jaime -

NO! No to "killing"! :-(

Unless you do it yourself as a grand ceremonial hiri-kiri. *That* could be most entertaining. 8-D

Still -- I'd rather not.

Yes! Yes to an invitation! How about that instead?

I'd like to share what I've noticed.

Most of us who begin this type journey start from vastly different places.

The people I run into (online anyway) often start by taking an assessment of some kind. So that's a doorway, an "opening." Perhaps it's an initiation rite.

And we get letters assigned to us as part of this initiation -- license plates of a sort. And we walk around wondering about these license plates: "T?" "I?" "J?" "S?" What IS all that? How can a letter say so much? And then we try to make sense of it.

It seems to me a lot of fuss tends to get made over that last letter in the code: J or P. Especially by beginners. It seems like a really powerful paradigm that Explains So Much. So many of us get hooked there, and try to explain the mysteries of the universe through this simple framework.

The first book I read by Otto Kroeger really made me sit up and take particular notice of J & P. And Otto (who's now a friend) gave me a piece of advice in one of his books I shall always treasure, about J's needing "moan space." When somebody adds an item to my "do list," I need space to moan about it before I take it on. If you're going to give me something extra to do, you have to put up with my griping a bit before I allow it to become part of my agenda.

So there's enough truth in J/P to make one think we could do away with everything else in the code and simply lock onto those two letters.

Ten Years Later.

J or P -- whuh? I don't really do J or P. J stands for Judging; P stands for Perceiving. We all do both.

All the "truths" I associated with J & P now have major flaws to them. J and P have somewhat fallen away -- partly from learning more, partly from real-life experience, partly from being open to hearing what my elders had to say (the wise people who have gone before me on this type journey).

I no longer have Otto's books on my bedside table. I avoid Tieger's stereo-typing methods. I'm even disquieted by Keirsey's generalizations about some of the temperaments. All these resources have shortcomings and traps. :-(

Ten years out I am a huge fan of Berens and Nardi and Beebe. That's where the cutting edge is at. (All that other stuff is *decades* old. Mostly.)

So -- do you want new technology or old technology? (Do you want an iPhone or a dusty Apple II? :-P)

I highly recommend the following three books:
tinyurl.com/3lp9ex

tinyurl.com/6j77yw

tinyurl.com/4k8nbq

(FYI: those are Amazon links, and my affiliate info is supposed to be embedded in them.)

Two of the books are written or co-written by fellow INTJ Dario Nardi. Dario is organizing the upcoming APT conference in Dallas next summer. He is doing some amazing work on correlations between type and the brain at UCLA. I saw a preview of it at a conference in March, and got very excited by it.

He's younger than me, so I consider him a colleague. (And I inspired the cartoons in his book.) But we've both benefited from the guidance of wise elders -- people who've been working with type for over 30 years (wow).

And I notice we are ALL on this same path together. Some of us recently went through our rite of initiation and are beginning the journey. Some of us are several years along. Others of us are running ahead, watching the path unfold even as we walk on it (another wow).

If we "killed" everyone who started at the beginning, nobody would be left to take the journey!

My invitation to you is to stay on the road and keep walking. The problem I witness all the time is people who get lazy and quit traveling. They just "squat" where they are and refuse to move. Others fall off the road, or become pirates or bandits and prey on the idealistic pilgrims. Some entice you to go down other roads, or insult the value of the road you are traveling on. Sirens may seduce you off the road and send you to hell while promising heaven.

There are lots of ways someone's type journey can go wrong -- and lots of ways the journey can go right!

I imagine an ethereal Jung relaxing at the end of the path, beckoning us toward him, smiling and welcoming us with open arms. It feels lovely to stroll toward his approving smile, and to honor his spirit by the walking.

And.... having said all that.....

thank you for being open-minded. Thank you for allowing me to influence you. I truly appreciate being "heard," and having the opportunity to share some views "from the edge."

You are a worthy fellow traveler and I welcome your companionship on this journey. Let us walk together for a time and be enriched by one another's company. Shall we?