The Gamma INTJ

The Armchair Expert

The Socio-Sexual Hierarchy describes patterns of behaviour of the following types:

0. Sigma: The Lone Wolf
1. Alpha: The Leader
2. Beta/Bravo: The Leader’s Right Hand
3. Delta: The Competent Co-worker
4. Gamma: The Special Boy
5. Omega: The Outcast

The enumeration from Alpha to Omega can be understood as ranks in the hierarchy, whereas the Sigma is considered to be a very independent individual outside the hierarchy. Alphas are the leaders, and Betas/Bravos act as their right hand. Deltas are competent individuals, who quietly perform their duties. Omegas are total social outcasts. And the Gamma behavioural pattern can be summarized as follows:

The Gamma, in terms of…

• Status
  • has the most undeveloped potential.
  • is low status, but not a complete social outcast (like the Omega).
  • is often overweight and unattractive.
  • had to deal with a lot of rejection in his childhood and youth.
  • is convinced of himself that he could have been wildly successful if he really tried, but he almost never tries, because of his fear of failure.
• Intellect
  • has over-average intelligence, but usually is not as smart as he thinks.
  • is a subject matter expert and often obsesses over hobbies.
  • uses his intelligence to justify his actions and passivity.
• Behaviour
  • is dishonest with himself and others. He constantly tries to fool himself and others, but fails to do so.
  • postures by writing walls of text (“Actually, …”) on social media and by email under the assumption of his own intellectual superiority.
  • declares himself the victor of an argument that he’s about to loose and then just disapperars.
  • is unable to judge other people or to discern their motivation, but thinks he can read their minds.
  • often projects, i.e. alleges others of bad intentions, which he is guilty of himself.
  • is fundamentally passive and never really tries to achieve anything, which he then can excuse as he “didn’t really try”.
  • is conflict- and failure-avoidant and retreats into his own delusion bubble instead of dealing with the issue.
  • can be disruptive to an organization (if he’s not properly managed).
  • likes to create rules, so that he can hold other people accountable.
  • is often solipsistic (“What about me!?”).
  • think he’s witty or charming when quoting from famous movies, TV series, or books.
• Women
  • is totally unattractive to women.
  • is highly romantic and believes in big gestures. He thinks the more he likes a woman, and the harder he tries to make proof of it (with big gestures), the more he “earns” the woman’s attraction.
  • is either totally invisible to women or, when he’s approaching them, has the same effect on them as kryptonite.
  • fails to understand women, despite his own feminine thought patterns.

Everybody knows a Gamma, and many young men with over-average intelligence at least occasionally display some Gamma tendencies and behaviour. Women often utter the intention of slapping a Gamma, because they’re acting in such annoying ways.

The Gamma (at the lower end of the hierarchy) often mistakes himself for a Sigma (outside the hierarchy). However, Gammas are quite common, whereas Sigmas are extremely rare.

The Myers-Briggs type indicator is unrelated to the Socio-Sexual Hierarchy and, thus, orthogonal to it. Every Gamma could be an ESFP or an INTP, and so could every Delta or Alpha. However, the INTJ, which is one of the rarest types, often has the image of a villain, a mastermind, or an evil genius. This perception of the INTJ type comes close to various depictions of Sigmas in various Sigma Grindset memes one finds on YouTube. Likewise, many non-INTJs think of themselves as INTJs. So both the Sigma SSH rank and the INTJ Myers-Briggs type are probably self-“diagnosed” way too often—especially by Gammas, I suspect.

I stumbled upon the following description of the INTJ personality type (as referred to as “the Architect” here):

Another Architect [INTJ] tendency is to search for self-respect through intangible intellectual victories rather than engaging in material challenges. When Architects turn their wit and intellectual prowess primarily to theory, commentary, and opinion, they tend to impress, and that inflates their sense of themselves. However, this focus on philosophical output may cause them to miss opportunities to flex their mental muscle through learning, creating, and solving real problems. No matter how insightful, clever, or correct, Architects who are “all talk” build little – other than the laurels on which they rest.

Source: Passive Punditry from 16personalities.com (behind a paywall).

Even though the behavioural patterns of the Socio-Sexual Hierarchy and the Myers-Briggs type indicators are orthogonal, this particular behaviour ascribed to the INTJ has much in common with Gamma behaviour:

• The Gamma’s “victories” are imaginative rather than material. Winning an argument on social media, let alone declaring himself as the victor of a lost argument, doesn’t impress anybody, and neither improves the Gamma’s situation.
• Being smart on the Internet only inflates their sense of superiority: While rising in their own perceived hierarchy, they fall further down in the social hierarchy.
• Instead of developing their potential by actually learning and doing things, they just feel smart and stagnate. The Gamma remains the Special Boy of his mother and elementary school teachers.

Like the “Passive Pundit” INTJ, the Gamma needs to step out of his delusion bubble. Nobody cares, if you win an argument on the Internet. If you think of yourself as “outside the hierarchy” because you refuses to compete, you’re probably not a Sigma, but just afraid of the reality and your own shortcomings. Try something that’s way out of your comfort zone, just to demonstrate to yourself how bad you’re at it in the beginning. Build up from there by actually improving yourself. This kind of progress will not just inflate your sense of superiority, but be a real reward—both psychologically and materially.