• You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community, you will have access to additional post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), view blogs, respond to polls, upload content, and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free, so please join our community today! Just click here to register. You should turn your Ad Blocker off for this site or certain features may not work properly. If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us by clicking here.

[INTP] Are INTPs competitive? ambitious?

Haight

Doesn't Read Your Posts
Joined
Apr 18, 2007
Messages
6,232
MBTI Type
INTj
Winning is only as important or meaningful as your personal investment in the competition. The futility of it all shines through when you analyze just how temporal that feeling of being a "winner" is.
Why do you hate Charlie Sheen so much?
 

INTPness

New member
Joined
Jan 22, 2009
Messages
2,157
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
5w4
I couldn't agree with this more.

-----------------------

And I wonder if competition in NTP types has more to do with play? Like chess, poker, other strategy games, debate, etc. It's all competition, but it's all in good fun.

But when it comes down to being competition in, say, the corporate world or with grades/money/etc. there's not much of a drive.

Least I can see how that applies to me.

I would say I like to be competitive with things that I enjoy, yes. Things that are fun. But, I always enjoyed school (well, college anyways) and had fun at it, so I competed for grades too. Some classes I was very apathetic with, but if some knucklehead started bragging about how he had the best grade in the class and how he always gets the top grade at the end of the semester, I would make sure that he ended up with the 2nd best grade in the class. Usually, I could pull an A-/B+ without much studying, but in this case, I'd study my tail off and end up with like a 99.9% A+ in the class. Get like 1 test question wrong the whole semester. 100% on all the other tests. This fire usually only got lit in me if someone was "egging me on" or trying to show up the other students.

But, yeah, I love to be competitive with stuff that is fun and enjoyable. Definitely.
 

Stigmata

Super Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Feb 16, 2011
Messages
8,779
I hadn't noticed this about you. You seem to keep your hatred under control.

Given the source, I'm not even sure if this is a legitimate observation or you seizing an opportunity to insert in a subtle insult. The uncertainty will cause me to re-read this post multiple times throughout the day, all ending with replaying this very moment in my mind while staring deeply into the spinning blades of my oscillating desk fan proceeds to slice the stale air and returns it back into my face as a cool breeze of concentrated, recycled air.

Why do you hate Charlie Sheen so much?

My Great Grandfather was mauled by a pack of vicious tigers, so his equating his outrageous behavior to having "tiger's blood" reawakened some of my inner demons I thought to be well buried underneath the sands of time.
 

guesswho

Active member
Joined
Jul 9, 2010
Messages
1,977
MBTI Type
ENTP
Winning is only as important or meaningful as your personal investment in the competition. The futility of it all shines through when you analyze just how temporal that feeling of being a "winner" is.

The competition is a lot of fun to me, I enjoy it, I'm pretty much absorbed by it.
I sometimes cross the line though...damage relationships for the sake of the competition :laugh:
 

mmhmm

meinmeinmein!
Joined
Jul 6, 2010
Messages
2,280
their diet may be mostly of plants, occasionally some meat but mainly plants, sort bordering on vegan or vegan.

jock eats lots and lots of protein. lots.
six eggs for breakfast. so big and strong.

C360_2010-09-19%2012-42-53.jpg
 

Rasofy

royal member
Joined
Mar 7, 2011
Messages
5,881
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
5w6
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
what if you met someone with much more superior intellect then you and was more successful? only then would you get competitive?
Usually it depends on how much i enjoy the activity. The field that I'm aiming to be a world-class is financial markets trading. If i met a really sucessful trader nothing would really change, I'd still want to be the best in the whole world.
Even then, You can't be really proficient in every field. I love playing guitar hero but you won't see me doing what some ppl on youtube are capable of. Sometimes it's best to just admire.

it would be more intellectual right? rather then having material things?
Definitely more intellectual, material things are more like ''consequences''.
 

Oeufa

New member
Joined
Jan 5, 2010
Messages
694
MBTI Type
INTP
what if you met someone with much more superior intellect then you and was more successful? only then would you get competitive? it would be more intellectual right? rather then having material things?

So long as I can deem myself competent, I'm happy. When I suck I strive to improve myself to the point where I no longer suck but it's an internal thing. If someone's better than me it doesn't bother me, but I do like it when I'm the best.
 

ScorpioINTP

New member
Joined
Jan 19, 2011
Messages
346
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
6-5
I'm competitive mainly with myself. It bothers me when I feel like I'm not improving in some area important to me. I don't like competing with others much but I see it as a necessary evil. The reality is, you have to compete some. You have to compete for jobs. You have to compete to get into a good college. Companies compete against each other. If your company falls too far behind another company, the company goes out of business and there goes your job.

Although I'm not the sort to deliberately enter competitions, I do find myself comparing myself to others too much. I can't stand it when others get ahead of me when they've seemingly put in less effort. This is especially true in areas of importance to me. I don't have the competitive drive to reach the very top but I guess you could say I'll compete just enough to reach a decent position.

You're an INTP again? :shock:

I have a competitive streak and I will echo being competitive with myself (high standards...which leaves me feeling like a failure most of the time). I am only really competitive in sports, games of skill, head to head etc. But I don't consider myself competitive cut throat type when it comes to work/business etc.

I am definitely a carnivore and don't eat many veggies, so I am not sure how you can type diet.

In general, America has a "winner take all" mentality.
 

knight

New member
Joined
Jan 24, 2011
Messages
406
MBTI Type
entp
Enneagram
9
Winning is only as important or meaningful as your personal investment in the competition. The futility of it all shines through when you analyze just how temporal that feeling of being a "winner" is.

+1
 

xisnotx

Permabanned
Joined
Sep 24, 2010
Messages
2,144
I can definitely be competitive. Once there is something I want to do I can literally go days just consuming myself entirely with that task. Basketball, poker, even board games like risk...these are things that I have spent a lot of time on. I think I do it to prove to myself that if I really wanted to be good at something...anything...I could do it. (Which isn't true) If I define "good" as "better than most" then I can be absolutely ruthless when it comes to achieving what I set out to.

The thing is..I don't define "good" as "better than others" a lot of the time..so to an outsider I definitely could see how I could come off as non-competitive..despite almost always working hard (just not on things people think matter..lol)
 

FDG

pathwise dependent
Joined
Aug 13, 2007
Messages
5,903
MBTI Type
ENTJ
Enneagram
7w8
They can be competitive, especially in the intellectual and financial realm (not so much material). Examples: Paul Wilmott and Warren Buffet. An INTP teacher of mine was national bridge champion.
 

Fluffywolf

Nips away your dignity
Joined
Mar 31, 2009
Messages
9,581
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
9
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
That's a tough question for me to answer, so I'll split it up a bit.

- When gaming I am very competative. I like competative games and I like winning at them.
- At work, within the company, there isn't much competition going on. I already do most of the work anyways. xD
- On the market. Business to business. I am casually competative. I respond to signals on the market when it's needed, but as much as possible I try to follow a unique path and try to differentiate from other companies rather than compete with them. So that's where my excess thought goes into.
 

Such Irony

Honor Thy Inferior
Joined
Jul 23, 2010
Messages
5,059
MBTI Type
INtp
Enneagram
5w6
Instinctual Variant
sp/so
You're an INTP again? :shock:

Well I'm not 100% sure, there's no way to definitively prove it but it does seem to be the best fit type for me of the 16.

I know not everyone on the forum thinks I'm INTP and in some ways I'm atypical of an INTP but if you assigned me to one of the other 15 types, I think you'd find I'd be an even more atypical representative.
 

Eric B

ⒺⓉⒷ
Joined
Mar 29, 2008
Messages
3,621
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
548
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
For some reason, I have an image in my head of INTPs as sloth like, moving when necessary, slow sometimes. their diet may be mostly of plants, occasionally some meat but mainly plants, sort bordering on vegan or vegan. how off am I? are Intps competitive? what does INTP competitiveness look like?
This is the mix of the Interaction Style with the conative temperament. Interaction Style, which is basically a social skills temperament, is Phlegmatic, or a newly discovered one, called Supine. These are both very passive, from both the introversion, and perceiving, of the INP preference.
However, the conative (Keirseyan) temperament is about action and leadership. NT is both pragmatic and structure focused, and this is where the type's competitiveness comes in. This is actually the Choleric temperament, (though Keirsey said it was Phlegmatic based on a different method of correlating them to the ancient ones).

So for INTP's, there is a pull in two directions, with the social temperament pulling him to be passive and easygoing, and the conative temperament pulling him to be aggressive and strict. So what happens, is the social level is what appears on the surface, yet underneath it, there is this competitiveness that comes up when he feels someone is crossing some sort of boundary. (It could be his own personal boundaries, or if he sees something he thinks is stupid and needs to be challenged).

A type like ENTP openly looks more competitive because of the extraversion. The Sanguine (ENP) and Choleric blend together into a very aggressive mix. So they will be quicker to approach a person or situation for competition. The INTP is like a subdued version of this, not approaching nearly as fast; so it is more reactive.
 

quidtimeam

New member
Joined
Jan 4, 2011
Messages
25
MBTI Type
INTP
I think that Fe can supply very powerful competitive motivation, but Ti makes it less apparent, and somewhat distorted. I know that when I am very competitive about something, my solipsistic Ti can bring me to assume I have more control over events than I actually do, and I can be very hard on myself if I lose a golf match, my main competitive sport. Ti makes me overanalyze everything I did wrong throughout the course of the round, and its detached, internalizing nature often puts me out of touch with realistic expectations. Fe then often throws tantrums or directs very negative emotions at myself for not playing perfectly.
 

quidtimeam

New member
Joined
Jan 4, 2011
Messages
25
MBTI Type
INTP
As far as ambition, it is pretty wavering. Healthy INTPs spend a lot of time gathering insight and information, then act in some grand creative enterprise, though they will still need to spend a lot of time gathering and reflecting even while that plan is operational. I'm writing a novel, and where an INTJ might do research and then write straight through, I research somewhat casually and recreationally through out the process. There has to be a close unity between the goal and the journey.
 

skylights

i love
Joined
Jul 6, 2010
Messages
7,756
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
6w7
Instinctual Variant
so/sx
lol!

case study 1: dad - nearly carnivorous. often heard saying "is there more meat?". ambitious in the sense that he fought his way through competitive schooling to earn a prestigious degree from a highly-respected institution. not particularly competitive otherwise, but he'll whip your ass in trivia on his pet topics. pushes himself hard to improve in the things he cares about.

case study 2: brother - primary food group is chicken. not competitive but enjoys being intellectually superior (or so he claims (but he really is damn smart)). also pushes himself hard in the things he cares about.
 

Xyk

New member
Joined
Mar 27, 2011
Messages
284
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
5
I'm really not competitive at all. At least not enough to exert any sort of effort to make myself better than anybody else. I'm sitting in the third quarter of my senior class at a very competitive high school and don't feel a need to try any harder. I did still get automatic admission to one of my chosen colleges. Even in personal endeavors, I feel no need to be the best. I have a decent level of competence in the piano, the sax, the guitar, and the ukulele, as well as musical composition and poetry. But I'm not the best or anything and I'm pretty okay with that.
 

Spamtar

Ghost Monkey Soul
Joined
Sep 1, 2009
Messages
4,468
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
5w4
Not in the traditional sense of being competitive

In general winning doesn't really bother me much. I will repeat the mantra of this thread that the main competitor of the INTP is his/her own self.

If someone is "depending on me" (or even more important is a precedent/addresses a slippery slope involving key values)I generally will use willpower to force myself to win.

Higher values ( intellectual questions, debate or serious impact) pursuits are of much greater importance than the physical (sports) [perhaps with fucking as an exception to that rule].

For example I am pretty disinterested in competition when it comes to billiards although I like to play. I have to force myself by pure willpower, against my mostly aloof nature, to be focused at winning at gambling or even fist fights.

I really hate to say this about myself [and by inferance, my type] and if I could change this I would; but in "important" matters, desire not to lose (avoid punishment) is in general a stronger even hardwired motivator than avarice for a gratification (reward seeking). Despite this I use willpower to act in the opposite of my nature by having a policy not giving into fear/punishment and instead avoid giving those who punish me what they want and only giving positive response in reply to positive treatment.
 
Top