Ask an INTP anything?

[rmrf]

What ranking would you give yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 of how well you embody the perceived notion of the average INTP.

Probably 10. Person who introduced me to MBTI immediately typed me as INTP and said I was an archetypal INTP. Everyone else who I've introduced to MBTI, when they look at the descriptions they immediately type me as INTP

 

[Fluffywolf]

Perhaps it is because of my enneagram, I personally feel like I don't relate at all to the average INTP and that people feel like I am the quintessential INTP through exclusion of information. Rather than inclusion.

In that sense, whilest I am pretty much INTP to the tee, I personally feel like the part which makes me INTP are but the seeds of a tree. And saying I am INTP, is ignoring a rather prominent part of myself. Feels kind of limiting.

I'm not new to MBTI though, but as you can tell I've drifted quite far away from it. I was rather interested in how you would respond to my question, but was hoping for a less boring answer.

 

[JocktheMotie]

I was rather interested in how you would respond to my question, but was hoping for a less boring answer.

I'm glad I'm not the only one disappointed in our representation. I suppose I've only myself to blame.

I will answer INTP questions and hopefully not give boring answers!

 

[rmrf]

I'm glad I'm not the only one disappointed in our representation. I suppose I've only myself to blame.

I will answer INTP questions and hopefully not give boring answers!

As a kid, did you see yourself as quite different to your peers?, if so, at what age? and in what way did you feel you were different?

Do you find day to day external activities e.g housework more difficult than others? A sense of almost acting on the 3D world as an observer?

Did you have a lot of self directed interests when growing up, a topic that was your big thing and you collected heaps of information on? What was it?

 

[RobinSkye]

What ranking would you give yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 of how well you embody the perceived notion of the average INTP.

I'm a lot more artistically involved than most INTPs. Where many INTPs may devote themselves to "hard sciences," I prefer to study other things.

 

[JocktheMotie]

As a kid, did you see yourself as quite different to your peers?, if so, at what age? and in what way did you feel you were different?

Eh. Not really. The primary difference was divergent interests and lack of social need, the latter leading to a reduced collection of experiences which I now regret.

For me, and probably for other INTPs/5s, the desire for collecting experiences and their importance in true understanding isn't realized until it's "too late" for some of those experiences. This is a realization that will haunt you for a while.

Do you find day to day external activities e.g housework more difficult than others? A sense of almost acting on the 3D world as an observer?

Not more difficult. Just harder to care about.

Certain things have very little impact on my awareness and motivation. Housework and chores being one of them however this is the case for a large majority of people, I'm assuming.

Experiencing the world as an observer is indicative of Enneagram 5 so there's probably some overlap, and I won't lie, I find my Enneagram type to be far, far, far more important and powerful when it comes to my makeup than my MBTI type.

Did you have a lot of self directed interests when growing up, a topic that was your big thing and you collected heaps of information on? What was it?

All interests are self directed. It's what make them not a chore. I'm interested in why, of all questions, you'd ask this? From a typology standpoint, it is the polygraph equivalent of asking someone their name to establish a baseline. You liked physics and philosophy and art? Great, we can move on.

 

[rmrf]

I was vague with what I meant.

Everyone has self-directed interests, but was I was referring to was extremely passionate autodidacticism. Tenaciously 'collecting' knowledge about some system based structure, where it is consuming and it's almost all you devote your time and thinking to. When pharmacology was my interest, I'd spend hours everyday reading scientific studies and building a quite intuitive understanding of all the different receptor systems. The interest gradually fizzles out over a few years and then I move onto something new.

Having mild Aspergers, I always as attributed it as just an Aspie trait, which it is, but I think it is also very much an INTP tendency. It is almost as though the INTP personality is a feature of Aspergers, at least it feels this way to me, as all my aspie traits now could be considered INTP traits. This was not the case when I was younger and I still have some sensory oddities

 

[Hawthorne]

How's your relationship with Ne and Si? What are the positives, the negatives?

If you had to generalize, what would you say is the INTP's greatest strength?

 

[Cygnus]

From the earliest point in life you can remember, what was your most innate outlook on life and the world?

 

[theBoredOne]

What's your advice to stay motivated and fight laziness? How to avoid being a wasted potential?

 

[rmrf]

From the earliest point in life you can remember, what was your most innate outlook on life and the world?

When I was about 10, I had a slightly solipsistic phase. I was on holiday at the Cook Islands and pondered what does it mean for this to be 'real'. The sand and ocean I was looking at was nothing more than permutations of matter and energy, creating responses in my nervous system. It is impossible to truly experience material reality, it is all just responses to my environment created by my consciousness, the sand, sky, water is all just synapses firing in my visual cortex.

I never accepted solipsism, but it was around that age where I began to embrace a very naturalistic view. I wanted to define what I was seeing with objective rules. I wanted to find laws and structures to explain the natural view I observe. I was an atheist for as long as I can remember, essentially it was my 'default' setting, it was around ages 6 or 7, I began questioning what it meant to have a 'God' and whether such an entity were possible. I never could make the leap of faith, and while I now eschew the arrogant 'internet atheist' perspective, (I admit from ages like 9 to 15, I was an 'internet atheist') I still cannot truly comprehend how people believe in God, how they can integrate it into their perspective of reality, but I accept others have different beliefs and have no interest in arguing about it.

My outlook on life has more or less remained the same. There is no universal meaning of life, per se; it is what you make of it. I also had the philosophical question of the 'specious present' come up, e.g, while I'm typing this sentence now, is it actually 'happening' or am I remembering it some point in the future, like when I was writing the above paragraph, it felt real at the time, but now it's from the (albeit recent) past. When I was really stoned with some of my friends about 3 years ago (age 16) I recall this quote "This night, this moment, this conversation, it feels so real and intense now, but I know that in a few years, it will be only a hazy memory, a few fragments. Is it happening right now or am I reminiscing from the future". It's the only conversation I now remember from the night.

Around age 12, I began getting really into chemistry. As I was learning about atomic structure, the periodic table, organic molecules, it almost scared me the fact that I am nothing more than a complex arrangmenet of molecules; atoms attracted to each other by opposite spins and the electrostatic force.

Sorry for this reply being a little bit fragmented, but these are some examples of how my outlook of life developed and different ideas I Ti-Si'd about as I was growing up.

As for the other questions, I'm a bit busy right now, but will hopefully answer them later tonight.

If anyone has more questions, keep them coming. I've enjoyed doing this thread.

 

[JocktheMotie]

How's your relationship with Ne and Si? What are the positives, the negatives?

Balancing the two is going to be very important for growth.

It's important for the INTP to understand that Ne in the second position does not just mean exposing oneself to novelty, they must do that terrible thing called engagement. It's important to engage with new systems and ideas, new activities, new interests, and try to actually manifest something new or interesting rather than just absorb. Ne people can be generalists and that isn't necessarily a bad thing until you're so general you're just average.

Si, also, there's safety in the familiar and while that's nice and all, there's a tendency to just stay there. It's easy. It feels good. There's this sort of, Ti-Si-Fe feedback loop of pleasantry and nostalgia that can be similar to a medicated stupor. My advice? Let Ne win more than Si, and you'll be okay, and won't be bored. But it's okay to indulge every once in a while for a pick-me-up.

If you had to generalize, what would you say is the INTP's greatest strength?

The good ones will have insight. A combination of knowledge and "sense" about things that cuts through the superfluous to find essence. The great ones will find out how to use it.

 

[rmrf]

What's your advice to stay motivated and fight laziness? How to avoid being a wasted potential?

I wish I had the answer. I struggle with apathy and lethargy a lot. I have work to be done, and often just don't do it. The short answer is to just get off your web browser and do what needs to be done. It's so trivial in theory, but in practice, there is a sense of inertia when it comes to exercising will. Aim to find a job/education that intellectually stimulates you, especially when there is a 'playful learning' aspect to it, as INTPs (or at least one's like me) will struggle to do anything if it's too boring.

INTPs (or at least me) tend to become avoidant when bossed around or organized by others, so having others organize you isn't a good strategy. Put your goals, to do lists, objectives, into writing, imagine there is an ESTJ in your head bossing you around. It all comes down to just fighting the laziness, doing the work, and the more work you do, the more momentum is gained.

Record your thoughts and ideas, if you come up with something interesting when musing to yourself, write it down, make a youtube video, keep a record of your Ti-Si, we come up with great ideas and thoughts all the time, but most stay in our heads. All thoughts eventually evaporate away if kept inside, which is a sad waste. Find ways of getting your ideas out and expressing yourself.

The irony about INTPs is that they are bored almost all the time, yet possess the ability to make almost anything interesting*
If something is boring, think of how you could make it interesting.

How's your relationship with Ne and Si? What are the positives, the negatives?

I've been meaning to do an essay about INTP functions and how they manifest subjectively for me. I will give you a detailed reply about this at some point, as this is a good question.

If you had to generalize, what would you say is the INTP's greatest strength?

A playful curiosity that leads to a unique and deep learning style. INTPs can truly 'know' the gestalt of how something works, then as they learn new facts about the system, the facts are encoded intuitively, so rather than simply recalling the discrete piece of information, they modify their understanding of the system as a whole, so that they can recall the fact synthetically. They can have 'encyclopedias' of facts about a system, without it even feeling like memorizing, because they can intuitively 'guess it' when it's required. This approach is flexible and promotes creativity. It's a unique cognitive style that has its pitfalls but with the right conditions gives us minds like Einstein. Despite it not being in the first four under MBTI, in socionics, LII (the sociotype complementary to INTP) has Ni as a Demonstrative Function, this I believe plays a part of the holistic understanding of systems, as they are able to have Ni 'within' Ti. I need to articulate this idea better, as I fear I'm not expressing it as clearly as I'd like to.

 

[EJCC]

Background: my INTP dad has a Pinterest(!), as do I. He mostly pins interesting and thought-provoking art/photography.

Anyway. INTP dad sent me this the other day, via Pinterest, with no explanation:



... and I'm not sure what to make of it. How much should I read into it? Is it just supposed to be general INTP life wisdom?

 

[Red Herring]

Background: my INTP dad has a Pinterest(!), as do I. He mostly pins interesting and thought-provoking art/photography.

Anyway. INTP dad sent me this the other day, via Pinterest, with no explanation:

View attachment 17066

... and I'm not sure what to make of it. How much should I read into it? Is it just supposed to be general INTP life wisdom?

That would depend on the context. Did you recently talk to him about being unsatisfied with your life situation?

Also, you could always just ask him directly

 

[Mal12345]

Background: my INTP dad has a Pinterest(!), as do I. He mostly pins interesting and thought-provoking art/photography.

Anyway. INTP dad sent me this the other day, via Pinterest, with no explanation:

View attachment 17066

... and I'm not sure what to make of it. How much should I read into it? Is it just supposed to be general INTP life wisdom?

It's a profound meme that's been floating around Facebook for a while. People who enjoy profound thoughts like to share it with other people who enjoy profound thoughts.

 

[EJCC]

That would depend on the context. Did you recently talk to him about being unsatisfied with your life situation?

Also, you could always just ask him directly

Thanks for this, RH.

I hadn't, but he worries about me. Like all dads do, I guess. Especially when their daughters don't talk about their feelings all that much.

I mostly wanted to gauge whether this was the sort of thing that would make sense out of context. And it sounds like it isn't.

Kind of an awkward way to reach out -- via Pinterest! But ok.

 

[Red Herring]

Thanks for this, RH.

I hadn't, but he worries about me. Like all dads do, I guess. Especially when their daughters don't talk about their feelings all that much.

I mostly wanted to gauge whether this was the sort of thing that would make sense out of context. And it sounds like it isn't.

Kind of an awkward way to reach out -- via Pinterest! But ok.

Yes. My guess would be that there is a context he saw but that isn't as obvious to you as he assumed it to be.