Courtship: A Special Problem For The Analyst (INTj)

The following article by David DeAngelo still represents an old favourite of mine as it uncannily seems to describe INTj males when it comes to their Achilles Heel – initiating romantic relations.

Despite the long-range strategy for how they think a relationship will play out we seem to lack the short-range tactics for actually getting things off-the-ground in the first place. Of course I’m generalising this to all male INTj types.

Some male INTj types that I know, young and old, have proved me completely wrong, especially the ones that got “hooked up” with a partner in either an academic or work environment.

For the rest of us here’s that classic article by D. DeAngelo to indulge in… with my conclusions at the end.

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Why Very Intelligent Men Fail with Women

The Ten Reasons Why HIGHLY INTELLIGENT Men Fail With Women… AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT…

I’ve been teaching men how to become more successful with women and dating for several years now… and one “problem scenario” just keeps coming up OVER AND OVER… and OVER and OVER and OVER again…

…and it really amazes me.

I’m going to refer to it as “The Genius Failure Paradox”.

“The Genius Failure Paradox” is the tendency for UNUSUALLY intelligent men to have very LOW levels of success with women and dating.

After contemplating this particular paradox, discussing it, and working on it for an awesome amount of time, I’d like to share my thoughts about it with you.

I assume that if you’ve read this far, then you see probably yourself as smarter than the average guy.

You know that you’re a little different than other guys.

You probably realized at a young age that you saw things differently, and thought differently than others in school…

And you’ve probably realized that your smart mind gives you an advantage over others in many areas of life…

Your smart mind gives you a particular type of advantage that can be very, very powerful in life: YOU’RE USUALLY RIGHT.

Smart people get used to being “right”, because they usually ARE right.

And when you’re RIGHT more often than others, you can get ahead in many situations.

But unfortunately, this smart mind of yours can actually be WORSE than USELESS when it comes to a key area of life:

WOMEN AND DATING.

By the way, I did say WORSE than useless.

It can actually be like having a hammer when you need to tighten a bolt. If you use the tool you have for the job, you’ll most likely make the situation WORSE.

Of course, it’s hard for a smart guy to even IMAGINE a situation where his smart mind could HURT his chances for success…

But trust me, this is one of those situations.

So relax, open your smart mind, and let me share with you the ten reasons why smart guys fail with women… and what to do about it.

Reason #1: They’re wrong, but they can’t or won’t see it or admit it.

I mentioned that smart guys are used to being RIGHT in most situations.

And what do most smart guys do when they come across a situation where they’re WRONG?

They find a new situation… one that fits their strength. They know they’ll be right next time, so they just walk away… knowing that it won’t be long before they’re right again.

(OR they let the “problem situation” destroy them… more on that later.)

Well, the BITCH about being wrong when it comes to women and dating is THERE’S NOWHERE TO RUN AND HIDE.

There’s no quick “I’m right” around the next corner to make you feel better.

It only takes “failing” with a few women in a row for a smart guy to see the pattern… and realize that something isn’t working.

Solution? Think harder.

A smart guy just assumes that his logic must be good… so he just keeps thinking harder.

But when no success comes, it really starts to become mentally difficult.

Accepting that you’re wrong is a VERY hard thing for a “smart guy”.

Accepting that you’re not only wrong, but you have NO CLUE WHERE TO EVEN START is even more difficult.

Ultimately, many smart guys come up with the following logical conclusion:

I AM A SMART GUY, THEREFORE IF I CAN’T FIGURE OUT HOW TO BE SUCCESSFUL WITH WOMEN AND DATING, THEN THE PROBLEM MUST NOT BE SOLVABLE OR WORTH SOLVING.

Try that on for a self-defeating idea.

Reason #2: They’re blind and arrogant.

In short, many smart guys refuse to accept that a good, solid, workable answer could come from someone “dumber” than them, so they discount any idea that comes from an “obviously less intelligent person” before trying it.

Let me ask you a question:

If you were going to be walking across Africa on foot, would you rather have your guide be the guy on this planet with the highest I.Q., or a caveman who lived a million years ago that had an I.Q. of about 50… but who grew up being chased by lions and all kinds of animals that wanted to eat him all his life?

It’s an interesting question.

Now, hopefully you’d like to have the guide who isn’t the smartest guy around… but who has escaped from many, many dangerous situations with deadly animals…

But now let me ask you:

If you’d like to learn how to be more successful with women and dating, would you take advice from a guy who isn’t very intelligent, but who knows how to attract women?

There’s something about being smart that makes some guys unwilling to accept input, ideas, or instruction from anyone who isn’t either as smart or smarter

Well, any SMART GUY can see the folly in this particular approach… once it’s examined closely.

If you’ve been making this mistake, then you need to STOP IT. Stop being an arrogant bastard, and open your eyes.

Look around.

Learn from some “dumb” guys… and let them teach you how to get what you REALLY want.

Reason #3: Poor Social Skills.

It BLOWS MY MIND how many smart guys I meet that just don’t GET IT when it comes to basic social skills.

It’s as if they have logically reasoned that social skills are for lower beings who need to play games… and not worth the time it would take to learn them.

In fact, I believe that there are a lot of smart guys running around this planet who don’t even have “social skills” and “be a cool guy that people like” in their “MENTAL MODEL” of what it could possibly take to be successful with women and dating.

Social skills are just that… SKILLS.

They’re not social INFORMATION.

They’re not social THEORIES.

They’re social SKILLS.

And you don’t get them by THINKING about them. You get them by GETTING them.

Excellent social skills are the foundation for good communication with other humans… and if you don’t have good social skills, you dramatically lower your chances for success with women.

Reason #4: They psych themselves out.

Smart guys do something that fascinates the hell out of me…

They come up with all the reasons why everything WON’T WORK when it comes to women and dating.

They actually figure out why what they would like to do will probably fail…

They use their amazing creative imaginations to imagine all kinds of horrible pictures and scenes… and then they use those imaginary outcomes to create negative emotions… which ultimately stop them from having success with women and dating.

THEY DON’T EVEN TRY.

Now, if you’ve thought something through and come up with a good reason why it would fail, it makes sense to not do it, right?

I mean, why would you want to do things that are going to fail?

It’s sound logic, but HORRIBLE thinking when it comes to the REAL WORLD… and success with women.

Because smart guys don’t UNDERSTAND women, and they don’t UNDERSTAND what it takes to be successful with women, they are working with bad figures. They’re wrong before they even start figuring!

Using your mind to come up with all the reasons why things won’t work in this area of your life leads to ULTIMATE FAILURE.

You must learn to overcome this habit if you have it.

Reason #5: They seek only “informational solutions.”

What does a smart guy do when he runs into a problem… or he needs to figure something out?

He looks for INFORMATION to help him solve the problem.

MORE INFORMATION is always the answer.

Information is the friend of a smart guy.

Got a strange virus on your computer? Just hop on the internet and search for how to eliminate it.

Don’t know how to change the alternator on your car? No prob. Just buy the manual and turn to page 147.

Don’t know the definition of a word? Open up your dictionary.

MORE INFORMATION solves the problem.

So what do smart guys do when it comes to overcoming a problem with women?

They want MORE INFORMATION.

They think the answer lies in learning just ONE MORE TECHNIQUE… or one more magic concept.

Well what if there were a situation in life where the “get more information” strategy actually made things WORSE?

How would you even know that it was making things worse?

Now, I don’t want to suggest that learning more about how to be successful with women is a bad thing. It’s not.

But if you have a problem that is EMOTIONAL or PHYSICAL in nature, then reading five million theories on it probably isn’t going to help you very much.

You need to get out in the real world and try some stuff!

You need to look at the REAL problem… the ROOT of the problem.

When it comes to women and dating, there’s a very good chance that you have MORE than enough “information”.

Smart guys often use “more information” to distract them from TAKING ACTION.

I’ve heard this referred to as “Creative Avoidance”.

Nod silently if you’ve ever figured out a creative way to avoid facing something in your life.

Good, thank you.

Reason #6: They focus on logic instead of emotion.

NEWS JUST IN: Women don’t feel ATTRACTION for men who make them THINK.

Women feel ATTRACTION for men who make them FEEL.

So what do most smart guys do when they first meet a woman?

EXACTLY!

They get into a LOGICAL CONVERSATION.

I’m shaking my head right now…

Smart men try to engage women in LOGICAL conversations and interactions because that’s where THEY feel comfortable… not knowing that they’re SHOOTING THEMSELVES IN THE FOOT by doing it!

Get this: A monkey sitting at a typewriter will type the collected works of Shakespeare before you will make a woman feel ATTRACTION for you by engaging her in logical conversation.

When you start a logical conversation with a woman you’ve just met, you are basically taking out a NEON SIGN that says “I don’t get it when it comes to women” and putting it on your head.

Typical “logical” conversations include talking about work, family, school, and jobs… discussing politics, religion, weather… and anything that has to do with math, science, or INTELLIGENCE.

On the other hand, if you start talking to a woman and you say “OK, so tell me something… Why is it that all women say that they want sweet, nice guys… but they all date sexy, selfish bad boys?” (and then make fun of any answer she gives) you’re having an EMOTIONAL conversation.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, keep reading. You need more help than I thought.

Reason #7: They’re not used to the challenge of the moment.

Smart people usually have time to THINK about things.

If you’re taking a test, you can sit there and work out the answers.

If you have a math problem, you can work on it until you’ve figured it out.

If you’re trying to fix something, you can keep working on it until it’s fixed.

Smart guys are used to being able to take at least a LITTLE bit of time to prepare and show off their “good sides” in most situations.

Not so with women…

If you don’t know what to do at every step along the way, you’ll be shut down very quickly.

Women have an AMAZING “He doesn’t get it” radar system.

Women have all kinds of subtle and ingenious tests that they throw at men to separate the “get its” from the “don’t get its”.

And if you don’t get it, then you’re going to fail one of these tests VERY quickly.

But the worst part is that you won’t ever KNOW that you were being tested… OR that you failed.

Smart guys aren’t used to dealing with complex EMOTIONAL and COMMUNICATION challenges in the moment… and especially the “women and dating” kind.

One of they keys to becoming more successful with women and dating is learning to handle all of the tests that women throw at you effortlessly.

But before you can learn how to deal with the tests, you must first learn how to communicate on an emotional level, how to demonstrate that you have fundamental social skills, and how to keep your cool in the moment.

Reason #8: They think that doing “nice” things is the “smart way.”

OK, let me ask you a trick question:

If I told you that you were going to have a date with the supermodel of your choice, which of the following would you choose as a “smart” way of preparing:

1) Find out what her favorite type of flowers are, and show up with a dozen of them so she would be “wowed”.

2) Learn about her favorite travel destination so you could discuss it with her.

3) Find out what her favorite type of food is so you could take her to dinner… and she could see that you cared enough to choose something that she enjoyed.

OK, time’s up. Which did you choose?

Now, I already mentioned that this was a TRICK question.

The answer is NONE OF THE ABOVE.

But WHY?

These three options all seemed logical, right?

I mean, why WOULDN’T you want to show up with her favorite flowers?

Why WOULDN’T you want to talk about her favorite places to travel?

Why WOULDN’T you want to take her to eat her favorite foods so she enjoyed herself?

Go with me here…

Smart guys think that they’re being CLEVER when they do things like buying a woman her favorite flowers… and bringing them to the FIRST DATE.

Right?

In their minds, they’re thinking “I’m going to be the guy who is thinking ahead… and I’m going to show up with the flowers that I KNOW she loves… and she’s going to see them and like me more because of it”.

Makes sense… good math, right?

Well the one teensy-weensy mistake that these “smart” guys make is not realizing that it doesn’t actually take a smart person to think like this!

In fact, ANY jackass can figure out how to kiss a woman’s ass.

And guess what?

WOMEN KNOW THIS!

And guess what else?

EVERY WUSSBAG DOES THIS STUFF.

An intelligent guy, in his proud arrogance, will think he’s being such the charmer by using this “thoughtful” approach…

…and the woman he is chasing will interpret it as just another Wussy who’s trying to MANIPULATE her.

Ouch. Another blow to intelligence.

Reason #9: Always needing to be the expert.

Have you ever met a smart guy who always needed to be “right”?

Have you ever met someone who would actually argue with you about something they knew nothing about… and make a fool of themselves because they just couldn’t shut their “smart mouths”?

Over the last few years helping guys improve their success with women, I see this one pattern over and over again…

Smart guys don’t like to be “beginners” at ANYTHING.

They don’t like the idea of screwing up… especially if others are watching.

They want to maintain this “smart guy” image of themselves… so they try to always be “The Expert” at whatever they do.

Instead of saying “Hey, you know what? I’m a beginner at this… how do I do it? What should I do first? What next?”… and instead of being totally OK with screwing up, making mistakes, and making a fool of themselves in front of others in order to LEARN…

…they won’t risk embarrassment, failure, or others thinking that they’re beginners… so they wind up ultimately FAILING.

MORE NEWS JUST IN: It’s OK to be a beginner.

Reason #10: They can’t deal with fear and other emotions.

A smart guy’s STRENGTH is his MIND.

His WEAKNESS is often his EMOTIONS.

Smart guys are often IMMOBILIZED by FEAR.

Totally stopped.

FROZEN.

And since many smart guys aren’t comfortable dealing with things they’re not good at, they just repress or RUN away from fear.

Many men would rather DIE in lonely isolation than admit that they don’t know how to deal with their emotions… or, GOD FORBID, ask for help!

Hey, I went for YEARS like this.

I know what it’s like.

But the reality is that any guy can learn to handle and even MASTER his emotions (even fear)… if he just takes the time and effort to learn HOW to do it.

If this is you, then do yourself a big favor… take the time. Take the effort.

Don’t worry about what anyone else thinks of you… it doesn’t matter.

What matters is you doing the things that YOU need to do FOR YOU.

…I think the reason why I’m so fascinated with “The Genius Failure Paradox” is because I have had to struggle with all of these issues for a lot of years of my life.

Now, I’m not saying that I’m the smartest guy on the planet…

But I don’t think mamma raised no fool.

And it always bothered the hell out of me that even though I was so good at figuring things out, I couldn’t figure WOMEN out.

Something tells me that you know what I’m talking about.

Well, after beating my head against the wall for a few years… trying all kinds of crazy “logical” stuff… I finally got the “bright” idea to start studying guys who were “naturally” good with women.

Of course, I found out that you could be both NOT SMART, and VERY SUCCESSFUL WITH WOMEN at the same time.

I also learned that you can be SMART and VERY SUCCESSFUL WITH WOMEN too.

By carefully studying what the “naturals” did with women… and learning how they “thought” about the topic, I began to realize that success with women wasn’t entirely LOGICAL.

Much of what I learned was very tough for me to accept… because my logical brain just didn’t want to buy into it.

One thing I saw was guys pushing women away from them… and having the women then chase them in response.

Made no sense at all.

I saw guys tease beautiful women and make jokes about them to their faces… and then watched those women become “little girls” in response… unable to maintain their composure, and therefore unable to maintain their manipulative power…

It took me quite a long time, but I continued to learn, test, and refine what I was learning until I personally figured out how to approach women in any situation… get any woman’s number I wanted anytime I wanted… date any type of woman I wanted…

…and most importantly, GET RID of that “empty” feeling that I carried around my whole life because I didn’t know how to attract women.

And once I got this area of my own life together, I decided to help other guys get this area of THEIR lives together.

The ultimate result of all this time, effort, and energy is my free Dating Tips Newsletter.

And I’d like to invite you to sign up.

It’s free, there’s no obligation, I’ll never share your email address with anyone, and you can easily remove yourself anytime with no hassles (and no, I’ll never pull any of these tricks where I send you a bunch of unwanted junk email when you try to remove yourself).

Of course, it even gets better than that…

In addition to my free Dating Tips newsletter, I also have a killer downloadable eBook that you can download right now and be reading in literally MINUTES from right now.

It’s JAM PACKED with dozens and dozens of specific strategies for overcoming fear, approaching women, getting phone numbers and email address from women quickly, great inexpensive or even free date ideas, and how to take things to a “physical” level smoothly and easily.

To sign up for my free newsletter AND download your copy of my online eBook, just go here:

Free Dating Tips Newsletter and Download eBook

And I’ll talk to you again soon.

Your Friend,

David DeAngelo

Copyright 2007 David DeAngelo Communications Inc., All Rights Reserved. “David DeAngelo” and “Double Your Dating” are trademarks used by David DeAngelo Communications Inc.

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My Conclusions:

And now for a quick summary of the ten points given in relation to INTj males.

Again, a generalisation using my own experiences as a reference point that other INTj males can probably relate to.

For everyone else it may just be yet another useful/useless insight into an INTj mind.

Reason #1: They’re wrong, but they can’t or won’t see it or admit it.

INTj males in a stressful social situation can come across arrogant as a solution to the problem of anxiety because we can retreat into the comfort zone of our ego functions which essentially want to know how things work and explore the possibilities therein. As strong maverick leaders we can be very stubborn to the opinions of others since we probably believe in learning the hard way through our own mistakes which will be of more value in the long-term to our displeasure in the short-term.

Reason #2: They’re blind and arrogant.

Following on from the first point we then give the impression we are aloof and detached as we gradually get more and more uncomfortable. The only comfort seems to come in the form of introspection where we usually retreat somewhere and start analysing and reliving the situation which we had detached from at the time.

Reason #3: Poor Social Skills.

As “social stress” increases our generally infantile social skills get progressively worse until we eventually revert to a reclusive silent state and lose all need to interact and make an effort with people socially.

Reason #4: They psych themselves out.

Within say 20 minutes of entering a social environment and spotting a potential woman to catch the attention of we usually become our own worst enemies. That impulsive spark of subjectivism that made us initially feel “she looks nice/hot/fit/attractive/beautiful” or whatever then becomes a passing whim as we fall back into our comfort zone of objectivism.

Reason #5: They seek only “informational solutions.”

Every time we fail to get any results we retreat back into the world of theory planning our next move or aversion strategy to avoid future situations for a while.

Reason #6: They focus on logic instead of emotion.

Of course we’re cold and antipathic by nature as anesthetic types. That’s our natural disposition. We’re warm and empathic usually through action rather than words. I’ll always remember that time when I used my individualism to full effect when I bought a gold coloured rose on one St. Valentine’s Day and literally brought a tear to the eye of a receptionist I liked.

Reason #7: They’re not used to the challenge of the moment.

Following on from the last point… after I presented the rose I immediately lost my way and didn’t seize the moment by thinking to ask if she wanted to go for coffee or something. Another opportunity squandered which lead to a further period of intense frustration since us schizothymic types don’t get depressed per se.

Reason #8: They think that doing “nice” things is the “smart way.”

I clearly remember planning the whole rose thing in my mind and executing it perfectly acting like a complete gentleman because I felt it was “smart”. I later realised that I had I been more of a “jerk” in the sense of actually asking the girl out we wouldn’t still be reflecting on this subject today.

Reason #9: Always needing to be the expert.

This web log is a testament to this. Treating the whole “settling down” problem as a thing that needs analysing to death until a solution is found.

Reason #10: They can’t deal with fear and other emotions.

I would imagine most INTj males can’t handle letting their emotions get the best of them which we usually keep under strict control. Therefore we miss opportunities everywhere to simply chat and discover a suitable romantic partner. Schizothymically speaking I wouldn’t be surprised if the love of a woman could potentially drive an INTj male insane because he couldn’t bring himself to express it and seal his fate by “retiring” from the philosophical game.

What is Schizothymia?

Schizothymia is an affective disorder often associated with cyclothymia for it’s lessened severity as a schizophrenic affect disorder, much as cyclothymia is classed as a less severe bipolar mood disorder.

A schizothymic personality consists of an affect that is cold, withdrawn or indifferent to the point of psychopathy in intimate interpersonal interactions, but is also able to achieve a relatively warm, open, receptive & sociable affect in some other specific situations.

The separation of which, the personable from otherwise, is not governed by normally warranted stimuli for the change between the two temperaments, but rather is idiopathic, arising from no interpersonal source, and can be solely traced to the psychology of the individual in question.

Schizothymia. (n.d.). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved September 13, 2007, from Reference.com website: http://www.reference.com/browse/wiki/Schizothymia

So what does all this mean to me specifically?

It generally means that I’m as cold as ice waiting for a miracle that will never come. Also, knowing about relationships from a Socionics point of view is a prime example of Always needing to be the expert as a solution to the problem of social anxiety.

Schizothymia is simply an excellent rationalisation (i.e. a well thought out excuse) to justify a life of austere bachelorhood. On an optimistic note however, the honest identification of this affective disorder as a personal problem marks a step towards growth and change.

Since we can’t fight fire with fire we shall have to melt my icy mask with I.C.E. i.e. the method of Identifying Confronting and Eliminating your irrational fears of rejection and emotional conveyance.

At the end of the day would you rather have cyclothymia?

No way!

I’d rather have intense frustrations rather than cycles of grandiosity followed by dystopia.

Schizothymes have too much strategy and not enough action whilst cyclothymes have too little strategy and plenty of action.

The synergy, or greater sum of both equates to RESULTS.

Two line summary:

Don’t let your inferior just react (Extroverted Sensing) function keep you from getting immediate results.

Be BOLD, act on impulse and MAKE AN IMPACT on that woman you want a romantic relationship with.