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[INTP] You know you're INTP when...

SolitaryWalker

Tenured roisterer
Joined
Apr 23, 2007
Messages
3,504
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
5w6
Instinctual Variant
so/sx
MBTI and Keirseyan folk typological profiles have been a significant boost of self-esteem for most of our youthful members. INTPs, INTJs, ENTJs and ENTPs are known as the rationals! If you are a 'logical', 'rational' person who is extremely 'intelligent' you are indubitably one of those types. If you do very well on an internet IQ test, you better type yourself as an NT! If you get good grades, did well on your ACT/GRE/LSAT, Goddamnit you're an NT because high scores on those tests are correlated with IQ tests which are infallible indicators of how smart one is and to be smart and to be an NT undoubtedly mean the same thing!

NFs are the idealists! If you are a compassionate visionary who is just like Mother Theresa, Jesus Christ and Buddha who selflessly devotes oneself to the service of others, you are definitely an Idealist type! In fact, if you score an NF on your test, it goddamn means that you're as magnanimous as Buddha, Ghandi and Jesus!

Those posts are based on nothing but Keirsey's foundationless speculation who published a two volume book not in psychology, but in self-help mysticism. Surely we may observe the traits he is describing in some people, but they are greatly exaggerated and he made an untenable assumption that because some people have the personality qualities in question, all people who are somewhat similar to such individual do have them also. For example, Albert Einstein was an INTP who was very aloof, extremely intelligent and unkempt. John Smith, 19, devoted member of INTP Central with 30,000 posts is unkempt and aloof, therefore he is extremely intelligent!

Lets try and use Keirsey's methodology to contribute to his list of 'INTP' personality categories. To protect myself from the charge of using type-bashing to demean large-groups of persons, I'll pick on a type that I've claimed to be a member of for a long time.

You know you're an INTP when...

-Your IQ is 160 yet 90% of your forum posts are one-liners and you haven't read a book in over two years.
-You received poor grades or flunked out college, yet you are extremely intelligent and your MENSA membership attests to this fact.
-You've never had a full time job and have been fired from most of your menial labor positions; you attribute this to the inherent stupidity of your co-workers and supervisors who failed to understand your more 'rational, superior way of 'doing things''.
-You cite your INTPness as an excuse for not being able to hold down a job, get the grades in college or maintain relationships; after all Einstein was an INTP who did not do well in conventional structured educational and work environments, his idiosyncratic personality also caused him problems in relationships. You proudly exclaim that the same could be said for many other great minds of history such as Newton and Leibnitz, who of course, were INTPs through and through just like yourself.
-When someone challenges your views on the forum, you post 'LOL, TL;DR, SENSOR! INTJ!' or ignore them altogether. Sometimes you might deluge the critic with countless links that are only somewhat relevant to the discourse.
-You have over 10,000 posts on INTPc and are a proud member of the High-IQ subforum.
-David Keirsey is your favorite psychologist and you become irate when someone suggests that Einstein was not an INTP.
-You regard Chris Lagnan as a paragon of intelligence.
-Metaphysical speculations fascinate you and when you aspire to support a conclusion of yours, you embark upon an extremely abstract thought-experiment that borders on unintelligible. Most of the time you are unsure yourself of what you're talking about.
-When someone asks you to explain your views further, you deluge the audience with technical jargon, lengthy words and appeals to dated, controversial and often irrelevant theories in the sciences or philosophy.
-You see yourself as impeccably 'logical' and when you criticize the input of someone else your response features only one word, 'illogical'.
-You're always prepared to enter a 'debate' on virtually any topic and consider yourself extremely knowledgeable about a wide range of issues. You proudly quote Paul James's characterization of INTPs as 'jacks of all trades'.
-Most of your conversational contributions contradict the views of another person, you're eager to disagree with them even if you can offer no substantial criticism of their position.
-You believe that INTPs are superior to all types and praise Ayn Rand's works for offering you opportunities to become well aware of this fact.
-You see yourself as a non-conformist, extremely autonomous and independently minded. The idea of INTPs engaging in 'SJ-like' behavior makes you indignant and you disregared the thoughts of any critic who points out that INTPs display herd-mentality on INTPc.

Social psychologist Robert Cialdini argued that most people are inclined to imitate persons who are similar to them rather than those who are different. For example, a student who is negligent will not want to imitate a straight-A student who sits in the front of the room, but will be much more inclined to imitate another slob who sleeps in class right next to him.

"We frequently think of teenagers as rebellious and independent-minded. It is important to recognize, however, that typically that is true only with respect to their parents. Among similar others, they conform massively to what social proof tells them is proper." (Cialdini, Science and Practice P.123)

Replace teenagers with INTPs and their parents with 'conventional people' and you have a model of a judicious assessment.

We frequently think of INTPs as rebellious and independent-minded. It is important to recognize, however, that typically that is true only with respect to conventional people. Among similar others, they conform massively to what social proof tells them is proper.
 
Last edited:

ZPowers

New member
Joined
Feb 11, 2010
Messages
1,488
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
5w4
-You believe that INTPs are superior to all types and praise Ayn Rand's works for offering you opportunities to become well aware of this fact.

You mean the eloquent Ann Coulter? Maybe if I ran Wal-Mart or Goldman Sachs.

I mean, if you call Immanuel Kant, the guy who argued for the categorical imperative perception of morality, "the most evil man in history", you might be a crazy bitch. INTP or no.
 

thisGuy

New member
Joined
Mar 14, 2009
Messages
1,187
MBTI Type
entp
but that is the nature of the beast.


a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
 

MacGuffin

Permabanned
Joined
Apr 19, 2007
Messages
10,710
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xkcd
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9w1
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
…when you skip reading the tl;dr OP to make your own post based on the title of the thread alone.
 

tcda

psicobolche
Joined
Nov 17, 2009
Messages
1,292
MBTI Type
intp
Enneagram
5
ok if we're playing that game

- when you oppose both Kantian metaphysics and Ayn Raynd because you're a dialectical materialist.

(actually "Randroids" are much more common on the "INTJforum" (aka IXTJcentral), which I left, than INTPc, which I also left).

EDIT - you klnow you're INTP when you missed the irony in the OP because you were too lazy to read it properly and made a knee-jerk reaction ebcause it violated one of your principles, but then went back to read it out of cuiriosity, saw the irony, and edited your post, but leaving the original and the edit so that it would contradict itself and therefore show a "process" of reasoning rather than a finished coherent logical argument.
 

ken888

New member
Joined
Mar 3, 2010
Messages
16
Those posts are based on nothing but Keirsey's foundationless speculation who published a two volume book not in psychology, but in self-help mysticism.

umm..how about you explain it with examples from keirsey's written work why it is foundationless speculation. because if not you making a claim.


Lets try and use Keirsey's methodology to contribute to his list of 'INTP' personality categories.

keirsey's methodology? you mean he invented it? we need to know the source in which you got it from.



"We frequently think of teenagers as rebellious and independent-minded. It is important to recognize, however, that typically that is true only with respect to their parents. Among similar others, they conform massively to what social proof tells them is proper." (Cialdini, Science and Practice P.123)

Replace teenagers with INTPs and their parents with 'conventional people' and you have a model of a judicious assessment.

We frequently think of INTPs as rebellious and independent-minded. It is important to recognize, however, that typically that is true only with respect to conventional people. Among similar others, they conform massively to what social proof tells them is proper.


so you're basically saying that people's behaviours are context dependent.
 

StephMC

Controlled Mischief
Joined
Mar 2, 2009
Messages
1,044
MBTI Type
ISTP
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9w8
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
Hahahah.... I love it. Freakin hilarious :D
 

ZPowers

New member
Joined
Feb 11, 2010
Messages
1,488
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EDIT - you klnow you're INTP when you missed the irony in the OP because you were too lazy to read it properly and made a knee-jerk reaction ebcause it violated one of your principles, but then went back to read it out of cuiriosity, saw the irony, and edited your post, but leaving the original and the edit so that it would contradict itself and therefore show a "process" of reasoning rather than a finished coherent logical argument.

I do realize the OP was supposed to be taken with a grain of salt (I mean, you can tell from the title alone it's based on that bit by one of those awful redneck comedians {not to say the idea itself isn't amusing, I just dislike Jeff Foxworthy}) but will not be editing my knee jerk reaction.

Also, don't necessarily take my original post as an endorsement of Kant (though I like him far more than Rand), I was just noting how absurd it is to call him "the evilest man in history" (it would be equally absurd if I said the same of Rand). Not Hitler? Stalin? Genghis Kahn? Caligula? Elizabeth Bathory? How about a killer or criminal, at least?
 

tcda

psicobolche
Joined
Nov 17, 2009
Messages
1,292
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intp
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5
Also, don't necessarily take my original post as an endorsement of Kant (though I like him far more than Rand), I was just noting how absurd it is to call him "the evilest man in history" (it would be equally absurd if I said the same of Rand). Not Hitler? Stalin? Genghis Kahn? Caligula? Elizabeth Bathory? How about a killer or criminal, at least?

You're right, it was absurd.

I love Ayn Rand for the lol-factor, there few authors who you genuinely could not parody, but she is one of them.
 

lunalum

Super Senior Member
Joined
Dec 20, 2008
Messages
2,706
MBTI Type
ZNTP
Enneagram
7w6
Instinctual Variant
sp/so
You know you're an INTP when...

-Your IQ is 160 yet 90% of your forum posts are one-liners and you haven't read a book in over two years.

Your true IQ is below 100(or at least below Mensa level), yet almost 100% of your forum posts are clever, concise one-liners, and you take over two years to read one book.

-You received poor grades or flunked out college, yet you are extremely intelligent and your MENSA membership attests to this fact.

You have received poor grades, yet you are extremely intellectually curious and your social networking site of your preference attests to this fact.

-You've never had a full time job and have been fired from most of your menial labor positions; you attribute this to the inherent stupidity of your co-workers and supervisors who failed to understand your more 'rational, superior way of 'doing things''.

You've never held a menial labor position, and attribute this to the inherent authoritarian/submissive mentality and "less-thinky, more-worky" way of functioning that is forced upon the workers.

-You have over 10,000 posts on INTPc and are a proud member of the High-IQ subforum.

You have only a little bit of posts on INTPc, yet determined to score high enough to get onto the high IQ subforum, just to make fun of it from the inside-out.

-you become irate when someone suggests that Einstein was not an INTP.

You become frustrated when someone states as fact that Einstein was not an INTP and says nothing further to support this claim.

-When someone asks you to explain your views further, you deluge the audience with technical jargon, lengthy words and appeals to dated, controversial and often irrelevant theories in the sciences or philosophy.

When it is necessary to look into technical jargon, lengthy words, and appeals to dated or controversial theories in order to explain your views further.

-Metaphysical speculations fascinate you and when you aspire to support a conclusion of yours, you embark upon an extremely abstract thought-experiment that borders on unintelligible. Most of the time you are unsure yourself of what you're talking about.

Umm... I'll leave this one untouched, in order to not spiral into one of those abstract thought experiments that I don't even understand :D


Also:

You know you're an INTP when...

you write a very long and complex thread that criticizes INTPs, among other things

or...

you playfully critique that thread by taking it apart and revising it a bit in order for it to make more sense to me and see if these variations will lead more INTPs to be able to relate ;)
 

tcda

psicobolche
Joined
Nov 17, 2009
Messages
1,292
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intp
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5
- When you can go for months without feeling a single emotion or giving a fuck about anything, and then be epicly manipulated by just one smile or tone of voice.
 
Joined
Apr 23, 2009
Messages
1,992
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ENTJ
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8w9
- When you actually think/want to take control over your dopamine system.
 

ajblaise

Minister of Propagandhi
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
7,914
MBTI Type
INTP
- When you do actually take control over your dopamine system.
 

Craft

Probably Most Brilliant
Joined
Jan 8, 2010
Messages
1,221
MBTI Type
INFJ
Enneagram
5w7
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
- when your not arrogant and assfully proud of belonging into a mundane categorization of a personality theory.

- when you don't care about foolish feelings of superiority .

- when you value personal growth for the sake of a better and less arrogant person.

- when you dismiss pride and see what's more important or effective in life.

- when you realize that your only human.

- when you smirk at people who blindly believes some theory and groups up flaunting their 'superiority'.




(manipulation online)

really more of what I believe should be the mindset of any type. ..

sadly, not everyone is wise.
 

yvonne

A passer by
Joined
Mar 1, 2010
Messages
534
MBTI Type
INfP
Enneagram
5w4
When it is necessary to look into technical jargon, lengthy words, and appeals to dated or controversial theories in order to explain your views further.



Umm... I'll leave this one untouched, in order to not spiral into one of those abstract thought experiments that I don't even understand :D


Also:

You know you're an INTP when...

you write a very long and complex thread that criticizes INTPs, among other things

or...

you playfully critique that thread by taking it apart and revising it a bit in order for it to make more sense to me and see if these variations will lead more INTPs to be able to relate ;)

LOL

- when you dismiss pride and see what's more important or effective in life.

- when you realize that your only human.

also this :D
 

yvonne

A passer by
Joined
Mar 1, 2010
Messages
534
MBTI Type
INfP
Enneagram
5w4
i think Ps should try to be more proud, though, especially when they manage to accomplish something like a J would :)
 

tcda

psicobolche
Joined
Nov 17, 2009
Messages
1,292
MBTI Type
intp
Enneagram
5
i think Ps should try to be more proud, though, especially when they manage to accomplish something like a J would :)

This is not a joke to make to INTP's (at least not a pretentious one like me). :tongue: INTP value their competence above all else I think telling them they are inherently less likely to accomplish great things prob won't go down well (one thing is when they say it about themselves another is being told it by someone else).

Ok maybe I'm just projecting.
 
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