The thing with ENTP's is: as great as they are they also have other 'well known' tendencies (e.g. the vagabond-ness mentioned above, prolonged immaturity, emotional distance, saying things we interpret as insulting, wandering eyes, unreliability).
One thing I have been told is that I'm full of seeming contradictions.
I can be very silly and immature when the mood strikes me, but, I can be more mature than those around me, if I see that the situation is spiralling more and more towards unproductive chaos, and no one is taking up the reigns to attempt to set it right. When others are panicking, I'm more likely to be calm. If everyone is calm, for a prolonged period of time, my boredom will drive me to shake things up.
I may not always answer to every single person's want/need for maturity in a given scenario (impossible to meet everyone's need, so I don't really try), but, I'm not blind to my ways, and when I'm acting out, I know full well what I'm doing, and why. It's pretty easy to stop it, you just have to request that you need "serious" from me - and I wouldn't ever not give it, if a person is genuinely asking that that is what they need at the moment.
As for the "interpreting as insults", I am very vocal about my observations. If I find a quirk in an observation, I'm likely to say it out loud. And, I'm often sarcastic in my delivery. It's to add flavour to the observation. Others may place a value judgement on it, when there was none, as it doesn't automatically mean that that is my position, or that I'm opposed to it. I'm just observing out loud - not necessarily making a judgement on the thing.
My curiosity may make me take interest in other people and things with seeming vigor (wandering eye), but, I'm not unreliable. I'm unpredictable, perhaps, but, I am not unaccountable. I'm actually much more consistent than my F-friends in certain matters where their support or opposition to the thing is due to their own personal value/outlook. I.e., they will support a person for whom they feel affinity towards, and bash another, or, fail to stand up for another, whom they do not like. I'm more likely to equally support or oppose a person given that the situation warrents it, not my personal value attached to that person.
As for the emotional distance, it is not on purpose. I am grateful to those that can reach me, that part of me, and help me navigate it, understand it. Emotional distance would mean I know my emotions and am keeping it from you; that's hardly ever the case, at an emotional level. It's more like, I'm not even aware of it myself - and in those moments, I like when someone walks me through it. Calls me out on it.
with entp i imagine the lack of Fi is noticeable, and it's a form that infjs with Fe often rely on to truly trust another person.
This. With an INTJ, he felt that I was not serious or sincere because I wouldn't ever divulge me, my personal feelings, but, appeared to be very warm on the surface. I have discussed this elsewhere, but, very often, I look at emotional things from a 3rd-person perspective rather than a 1st-person perspective......which makes it seem like I'm distant. And, just like an INFJ trusts Fe more, so do I. If someone nitpicks at me to divulge "what do
you want?
You feel?" (Fi-angle), I find it quite frustrating and step away more and more.
I like ENTPs a lot. Unfortunately, they have very short attention spans and have a lot of friends that easily distract them.
I'm pretty close to a few select people. When one of them turns out to be a socially distracted and friends around with anyone that has a brain, it makes me wonder if I'm unimportant and just one of the throng.
I'd echo what Synarch said. I really like my alone time, and will give up social interaction to be alone. Not necessarily because I don't want to spend time with them, as I wouldn't commit to another social event in their place. I just want to be alone. Also, I am very protective of my inner circle and only a handful ever reach that. And, they earn my undivided attention and loyalty. Everyone else is situational.
And, I was discussing this with someone else on the forum, but, I think this ENTP attention then lack of attention hits those that I communicate with hard, is very stark in its absence, because when I'm focused on something/someone, I'm intensely focused on them. The other often will feel that, for that moment, they have my intense, undivided attention. And, they do. As such, when I move on to the next, the other feels a sleight because it seemed to them that I was *so* interested in them, and, now, it's complete absence (are they not important anymore? Interesting anymore?). No one can stay intensely focused on one thing forever, and one shouldn't expect that out of an ENTP as well. If the person is someone I respect, I value, I come back, always. If you're important to me, I'll come back.
And, another thing to note is that, this "intense focus" is not something special that I'm giving to that certain person, this is how I approach all things that have held my interest. So, it's a false impression that somehow it was such an unique and profound connection, which is most of the times, not the case. It's just my default mode of absorbing things. I zone in on something, intensely, and, then the next and the next. And, so on. The unique and profound connections, its evidence, are not found in the intensity, but, in the gaps in between. In the hesitant calm (sometimes awkward doubt) with which I subsequently handle the person/thing.
He's very very witty, and he seems to like the fact that no one gets his jokes except for me. (ie when no one gets it he just looks at me and says to everyone, "see, he gets it."
