ISTJ produces care for comfort and health; ENTJ produces intuitive optimism and foresight. At first there is respect, trust and sympathy.
In terms of the mechanism, ISTJ's second position, "force that pushes through", lands in ENTJ's sixth; ENTJ's second, "intuition that calculates ahead", lands in ISTJ's sixth. The sixth is a place you produce with a little effort, and it feels good when the other fills it lightly. The ease of resting together comes from this way of entering.
The moment it relaxes, the conflict begins.
ISTJ calls them a swindler; ENTJ calls them vindictive.
The anarchist and the bureaucrat
ISTJ: system and collective; ENTJ: individual and gain. ENTJ's freedom contradicts ISTJ's rule-bound worldview; ISTJ sees ENTJ as an anarchist, ENTJ sees ISTJ as an oppressive bureaucrat. ENTJ refuses correction in business, ISTJ criticises the risky ventures, and neither yields.
But the first position does not reach. ISTJ's "logic that builds order" is ENTJ's seventh, which they let pass; ENTJ's "practical logic" sits in the same place for ISTJ. What the other values most, you know, and make light of. And the "emotion that moves the room" ISTJ wants most is ENTJ's third; the "ethics of distance between people" ENTJ wants is ISTJ's third. It comes when asked, and does not last. Good as a place to rest, thin as a place to lean on. That is the shape of the illusionary relation.
Asked for punctuality and explanations, ENTJ answers with vague promises, delays and excuses, and ISTJ reads that as deliberate sabotage. ISTJ's alternation of carrot and stick, ENTJ feels as abuse.
The observation says a chronic lack of ethics accumulates and the illusion turns into real conflict. The conditions for lasting: outside plans, distance, compartmentalisation, and crisis.
How each sees the other
ISTJ → ENTJ
Optimistic, and they see ahead.
They do not keep the rules.
They escape with vague promises.
ENTJ → ISTJ
They care for you.
Oppressive.
The carrot and the stick are unpredictable.
What has been recorded
SCENE 01The truck
An ISTJ and an ENTJ teamed up in a freight-truck business; the ENTJ bought it with the family savings and the ISTJ ran it. No profit came, each suspected the other of embezzlement, and the ISTJ dismantled it before the ENTJ could take it back. Everyone lost, the record says.
SCENE 02The theatre buffet
During evacuation, an ENTJ girl ate luxuries from the theatre buffet on her grandmother's money and invited classmates. The ISTJ grandmother paid the swelling bills, broke her health, and sent the girl home, the record says.
SCENE 03The dinner-time call
A husband who calls friends during dinner and leaves as soon as he has eaten. Treating the house like a hostel and choosing the social circle over the family, the observation says.
Love, living together, work, family: scene by scene
ConversationRespectful at first.
RomanceThe honeymoon is short.
Living togetherThe house becomes a hostel.
WorkYou can team up given outside plans.
FamilyTemporarily united under crisis.
If you keep going
Do not correct
ENTJ refuses correction in business.
It does not last unless the carrot and stick stop
ENTJ feels it as abuse.
Compartmentalise
ENTJ keeps a separate house; ISTJ does not investigate.
For these two
How to meet ── In a place of rest
A relation in which you need not hurry. A trip, a hot spring, a long holiday. It is not found in places where people are hurrying.
Approach ── Do not invite; just be beside them
The less these two move, the better. An active approach breaks the place of rest. Spending the same time in the same place is itself the way closer.
A date ── Hot springs, naps, a long breakfast
A day of nothing. No plans. These two are no help when in trouble, so pick a day with no trouble.
Gifts ── for ISTJ, A new idea; for ENTJ, Feeling
For ISTJ: A book in a genre ISTJ would not choose, a first experience. Something that opens possibilities. For ENTJ: A letter, something handmade. Something without practical value, for the practical one. What ENTJ thinks they cannot receive.
PROne thing for this relation
A relation with time that need not hurry, so tools for resting.
The form of escaping with vague promises and delays.
I end up suspecting embezzlement
The same course as the truck record.
It became a conflict
The illusion turns into real conflict, the observation says.
What is ISTJ and ENTJ compatibility in love?
The honeymoon is short. More under "Love, living together, work, family: scene by scene" and "If you keep going".
Do ISTJ and ENTJ work well together?
You can team up given outside plans. More under "Love, living together, work, family: scene by scene" and "If you keep going".
This pair is the illusionary relation, one of the sixteen. How the relation itself arises, and how to tell it from the others, is on the relation page.
The two Model A's: what talks to what
ISTJ on the left, ENTJ on the right. Each shows where the eight elements sit; lines connect the same element. Where each line starts and ends decides what happens in this relation.
Lines connect the same element in the other person's structure. 1–2 (strong) 3 (role) 4 (vulnerable) 5–6 (wanted) 7–8 (capable, indifferent)
1 → 7TiISTJ's 1 (leading) Ti (introverted logic) sits in ENTJ's position 7 (ignoring). ENTJ can do what ISTJ is good at but does not value it. ISTJ feels slightly unappreciated.
2 → 6SeISTJ's 2 (creative) Se (extraverted sensing) sits in ENTJ's position 6 (mobilizing). What ISTJ produces naturally is what ENTJ has been waiting for. The most comfortable flow.
3 → 5FiISTJ's 3 (role) Fi (introverted ethics) sits in ENTJ's position 5 (suggestive). ISTJ is weak here and ENTJ wants it. A gap neither can fill.
4 → 8NeISTJ's 4 (vulnerable) Ne (extraverted intuition) sits in ENTJ's position 8 (demonstrative). ENTJ quietly covers ISTJ's weak point. For ENTJ it is nothing.
5 → 3FeISTJ's 5 (suggestive) Fe (extraverted ethics) sits in ENTJ's position 3 (role). What ISTJ asks for is ENTJ's weakest point. The more ISTJ asks, the smaller ENTJ gets.
6 → 2NiISTJ's 6 (mobilizing) Ni (introverted intuition) sits in ENTJ's position 2 (creative). ENTJ constantly supplies what ISTJ wants. Where ISTJ relaxes.
7 → 1TeISTJ's 7 (ignoring) Te (extraverted logic) sits in ENTJ's position 1 (leading). ENTJ's main field is one ISTJ does not care about. Little friction, little interest.
8 → 4SiISTJ's 8 (demonstrative) Si (introverted sensing) sits in ENTJ's position 4 (vulnerable). ISTJ could protect ENTJ's weak point but is not inclined to. Will if asked.