[INFJ] INFJs and Details

Sometimes I drop forks in trash cans because my brain thinks they belong there.
Sometimes I am so far in my head that walls in reality seem irrelevant, until suddenly they are very relevant.
Sometimes I will try to work out an elaborate math equation and get the whole thing wrong because of a fucking minus sign.
Sometimes I write things and they make no sense on paper but they were absolutely brilliant in my head.
 
A very concrete reply:

I once worked at Starbucks. I was great with customers. That's why they hired me. However... I could not remember orders. If you don't already know, Starbucks is NOT a coffee house. It is a HIGH VOLUME fast food business with CUSTOMIZED products.

Imagine this: A line of people at the counter. A line of cars in the drive-thru. Mobile orders spitting out of the label machine. Coffee that needs to be brewed every 10 minutes when a timer goes off. An oven with sandwiches warming. Baristas jamming their butts off. A cash register with multiple menus and sub-menus. Supplies that keep running out. Conflicting directives.

Drinks: Hot, cold, iced, blended? What size? What kind of coffee in that drink? Drip, espresso, cold brew, pour-over, nitro? How many shots? What kind of milk: heavy cream, breve, whole, 2 percent, non-fat, soy, almond, coconut? What kind of syrup and how many pumps? What kind of topping? What kind of juice? Scoops of fruit? What kind of tea? Steeped bags, pre-brewed, scoops of matcha powder? How many of each? Or drinks that people make up in their minds...

Ring up. Total. Payment, please.
"No. Go back. I want to use my points."
Arghhhhhhh!
Or "This drink is wrong. Make it over."

I lasted two-and-a-half months. I never became a barista. I never got to the point where I could listen to the next order on a headphone while filling the last order or punching the next one into the register.

High-speed, multi-tasking, low-wage, low-control, rote memory of repetitive details. Nope.
 
Zola said:
A very concrete reply:

I once worked at Starbucks. I was great with customers. That's why they hired me. However... I could not remember orders. If you don't already know, Starbucks is NOT a coffee house. It is a HIGH VOLUME fast food business with CUSTOMIZED products.

Imagine this: A line of people at the counter. A line of cars in the drive-thru. Mobile orders spitting out of the label machine. Coffee that needs to be brewed every 10 minutes when a timer goes off. An oven with sandwiches warming. Baristas jamming their butts off. A cash register with multiple menus and sub-menus. Supplies that keep running out. Conflicting directives.

Drinks: Hot, cold, iced, blended? What size? What kind of coffee in that drink? Drip, espresso, cold brew, pour-over, nitro? How many shots? What kind of milk: heavy cream, breve, whole, 2 percent, non-fat, soy, almond, coconut? What kind of syrup and how many pumps? What kind of topping? What kind of juice? Scoops of fruit? What kind of tea? Steeped bags, pre-brewed, scoops of matcha powder? How many of each? Or drinks that people make up in their minds...

Ring up. Total. Payment, please.
"No. Go back. I want to use my points."
Arghhhhhhh!
Or "This drink is wrong. Make it over."

I lasted two-and-a-half months. I never became a barista. I never got to the point where I could listen to the next order on a headphone while filling the last order or punching the next one into the register.

High-speed, multi-tasking, low-wage, low-control, rote memory of repetitive details. Nope.
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This is why working extrovert jobs that require a high level of sensory input and processing with less in the way of anything going on mentally is best avoided. For me personally it meant that I ended up making mistakes for which I would slow down to compensate only to be bitched at then pushed back into the fast pace only to make more mistakes. I'll never work in food service and retail ever again, even factory work wasn't that bad.
 
Yollie said:
I have heard that INFJs struggle with details. How does it affect the lives of INFJs?
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When I worked as a manager in retail, attention to detail was always my biggest struggle. But I think when you realise it, you can work with that. I was great with a big picture, with noticing things that need improving and I was also able to see if the final solution is 100% ok, but I would focus on up to 90% of the job and then I'd ask someone else to finish off.

But funny enough, when I did have to focus on details, I normally treated it as a "therapy" - I still wasn't great at it, but having to focus on, for example, facing all the products would keep my mind running freely, whilst I knew I'm still physically present. Of course that couldn't go for too long :)

Long story short - details => delegate. At least I was always honest about it :)
 
Roses In The Vineyard said:
For me personally it meant that I ended up making mistakes for which I would slow down to compensate only to be bitched at then pushed back into the fast pace only to make more mistakes.
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Yeah! And get scolded by my boss in front of my co-workers. Then she would apologize in private. And I would say, "I don't take it personally," because I didn't. I knew: It was the wrong job for me.

Yet, when I put in my two-weeks notice, you should have seen her face: It said, "What? No! Don't go." Like I would stick around for more of that abuse.

I saw the big picture. I could tell what was wrong: Understaffed at peak hours. Unused second register. In need of one more barista station. Lack of separate pay and hand-out windows. Only one lane and register for drive-thru. Brewing schedule impossible. Coffee going down the drain. Poor inventory management. Too many new products introduced and never dropped. Phony principle of "dignity and transparency."
 
Wyote said:
Sometimes I drop forks in trash cans because my brain thinks they belong there.
Sometimes I am so far in my head that walls in reality seem irrelevant, until suddenly they are very relevant.
Sometimes I will try to work out an elaborate math equation and get the whole thing wrong because of a fucking minus sign.
Sometimes I write things and they make no sense on paper but they were absolutely brilliant in my head.
Click to expand...
Lol I really share that last one..
 
I will spend all day doing a task because I can't seem to get it to my Invisionning of detail,

I also start a project and by the end of the day I have 30 projects going

I've leaned up on a electric fence 3 or 4 times because I didn't catch that it was electric

I've put gas in Desiel motors on a couple occasions because that person asked if I would go put gas in There vehicle . I'm cloud 9 not coming down I heard gas auto pilot engaged.

I break alot if shit turning it the wrong way
But I am also good at details as long as I am interested in what I am doing. If not I'm auto pilot and probably didn't catch 1/4 of what was said to me . I will go act on a single word .one time at work a guy played a trick on me because he knew I would drift off alot . Well he caught me doing just that and ran up handed me a mouse trap and a hammer and said hey man the boss asked you to bring these to him and hurry ...so without thought I turn and go find the boss hey man I got here as fast as I could Blake said you wanted me to bring these to you. He looks confused and says what the fuck do I need a mouse trap and a hammer for.. well I thought you were gonna catch the mouse and bonk it on the head or something. Idk I didn't question your motive ..
 
Zola said:
Yeah! And get scolded by my boss in front of my co-workers. Then she would apologize in private. And I would say, "I don't take it personally," because I didn't. I knew: It was the wrong job for me.

Yet, when I put in my two-weeks notice, you should have seen her face: It said, "What? No! Don't go." Like I would stick around for more of that abuse.

I saw the big picture. I could tell what was wrong: Understaffed at peak hours. Unused second register. In need of one more barista station. Lack of separate pay and hand-out windows. Only one lane and register for drive-thru. Brewing schedule impossible. Coffee going down the drain. Poor inventory management. Too many new products introduced and never dropped. Phony principle of "dignity and transparency."
Click to expand...

This is why on some of the jobs I've worked people would quit after only a day or so and they were usually older, a lot of these jobs in general are emotionally and mentally damaging.
 
I believe that "details" is connected to an "in the moment sensory input" weakness. For me especially audio input is often "repelled" by my brain like water by a lotus petal.

Visual (mental images, symbols and text) and maybe tactile input is easier, so all my crutch-systems building to deal with the concrete world revolve around these (mental images, texts, counting systems or other (similar to what @Daustus said), and items or notes I put into annoying directly my path as an concrete obstacle in order to not forget said item or detail are basically roundabouts to try to deal with these weaknesses).

It helps me walk for a short while, but I will never be able to run a marathon or master a parcour.
 
Details are like my arch-nemesis. I recognise that I can't get by in life without dealing with them, but every time I have to focus on them for too long it gets me depressed.

Emails are a perfect example. I re-read, re-read, and re-read again what has been written and my brain functions in such a way that I think 'yep, i've got the over-arching point here' and I can miss essential details like date and time of next meeting. People who write needlessly wordy emails make this task a great deal more difficult.

Of course this is a little exagerrated because I manage to get by, but it is a frustration to watch so many others just do the same task with such ease.
 
I get carried away by details when doing creative things. I like world-building so I think about how things like magic or alternative technology would work. Then I think about what sort of trade goes on in the world. Then I think about what sort of seafaring ships they use or if they use ships at all. Then I end up making an entire map. Then I think about what kind of paper and ink the map would be made of and what sort of education the map-maker has and what the accepted scientific view of the world is. Then I think about the various philosophies of the people.... So on.

I get excited by new ideas but also overwhelmed. Often times I quit a project because my reach exceeds my grasp. Then I shame myself for being too dumb to not be able to magically sort everything out all at once in my head. I never learned a proper way to manage it so have a slew of unfinished writings and drawings with good ideas that eventually unravel into incoherent messes.

I'm getting better at it, though, I think. The management, that is. I try to let myself brainstorm however I need when an idea strikes and then prune when I go back. I am just so used to giving up that it's not yet habitual for me. I hope to change that!
 
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