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[ENTP] ENTPs: Do you make up stuff for no reason?

Metamorphosis

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I know a number of ENTPs and a lot (not all) of them seem to seamlessly throw outright manufactured information into their stories/conversations. It doesn't even have a purpose most of the time. One said once, "Yeah...I know like 50% of what I say isn't true."

I was having a conversation with a friend the other day about people who will just randomly make up facts and stories and pretend like they are completely true while telling them, and I realized that like 90% of the people we were talking about were probably ENTPs.

This isn't an attack on ENTPs in general, since obviously the mature ones won't have this trait. I am just saying that, in my experience, most of the compulsive liars I know are ENTPs and I'm wondering why this is.
 

Synarch

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This is a toughy and I imagine hard to admit to for many ENTP's. I think we sometimes want so bad to sell our ideas or views sometimes that we do exaggerate, especially because we want to make an idea or thing more interesting. Personally, I consider myself a very honest and open person who will occasionally bullshit about things, especially if I am talking out of my ass about something I thought I knew about but realized I didn't once I opened my mouth. With my friends, they all know I bullshit and I am up front with this, so we have an understanding. They don't mind, don't care, and take what I say with a grain of salt, and I'm free to not have to worry about remembering facts or statistics exactly right. Also, I think this is also a result of our tendency to only have a superficial grasp of certain subjects, if that makes sense.
 

SillySapienne

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This is a toughy and I imagine hard to admit to for many ENTP's. I think we sometimes want so bad to sell our ideas or views sometimes that we do exaggerate, especially because we want to make an idea or thing more interesting. Personally, I consider myself a very honest and open person who will occasionally bullshit about things, especially if I am talking out of my ass about something I thought I knew about but realized I didn't once I opened my mouth. With my friends, they all know I bullshit and I am up front with this, so we have an understanding. They don't mind, don't care, and take what I say with a grain of salt, and I'm free to not have to worry about remembering facts or statistics exactly right. Also, I think this is also a result of our tendency to only have a superficial grasp of certain subjects, if that makes sense.
Um, don't most guys do this?!?!?

I thought it had something to do with having testicles.

:unsure:
 

Synarch

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I do have testicles. Maybe you're onto something.
 

Metamorphosis

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Synarch said:
This is a toughy and I imagine hard to admit to for many ENTP's. I think we sometimes want so bad to sell our ideas or views sometimes that we do exaggerate, especially because we want to make an idea or thing more interesting. Personally, I consider myself a very honest and open person who will occasionally bullshit about things, especially if I am talking out of my ass about something I thought I knew about but realized I didn't once I opened my mouth. With my friends, they all know I bullshit and I am up front with this, so we have an understanding. They don't mind, don't care, and take what I say with a grain of salt, and I'm free to not have to worry about remembering facts or statistics exactly right. Also, I think this is also a result of our tendency to only have a superficial grasp of certain subjects, if that makes sense.

Thanks for the response. It actually isn't a big deal to me when the people I know well do it because I expect it and we all know what the score is. I suppose it does actually make the conversation more interesting, too.
 

kuranes

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I made up a story once about being stranded because my clothes were taken while I was skinny dipping, just to see what the reaction was. I'm not sure why. Perhaps I was tempted by observing phenomenons like L. Ron Hubbard. Telling the truth about his fiction he was just a sci-fi writer getting along, but telling the fiction about his "truth" he became a zillionaire cult leader. ( Not that one becomes a cult leader by having improvised in an awkward situation like that. )
 

substitute

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Yeah. It can be channelled positively like Robert Rankin does in his fantastic fiction, or negatively, into an attention-seeking bullshitting tendency.

I used to do it when I was much younger, I guess partly founded on a deep self-doubt, a total dearth of self-esteem - the basic assumption was that I, as I am, in myself, am not remarkable or worthy of any note or attention, much less any actual respect, regard or interest. So, if people are going to give me their company, then I need to just have interesting stuff to say all the time, stuff that makes them go 'wow' a lot, whether about other people/things or about myself, it was, the way I saw it, the only way for me to be noticed. I pretty severely underestimated however, people's ability to spot the BS haha, and it was a sorta self-defeating thing.

I grew out of it by my early 20's though - well, I grew out of that incarnation of it. I'm still as much a teller of tall tales as Rankin, but I do it now in a way that's obviously not meant to be taken seriously. It's more done now to entertain and amuse, rather than draw attention or admiration for myself.

I think what changed was that I shifted the perspective through which I look at life and my interactions with other people, from worrying about what was being made of me, less worrying about my own image, to being more focused on other people's responses and what it said about themselves, their needs, the atmosphere and stuff at the time, so that I could summon from within myself whatever was needed to make any situation 'right' or 'complete'.

So... yeah, I still make stuff up, but it's in good natured fun and stuff.
 

SillySapienne

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Nah, I've seen a lot of women who do it, too - they just express it differently.
Lol, my sister is one of them, she does it all the time, (she's an ESTJ), but she does not express it differently.

She is kinda testosteroney, though.
 

Synarch

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The feeling / belief for the subject matter has to be there. Like, I think I could be a great salesman if it was a product I believed in. Sure, I might tell you that ShamWow could soak up a bathtub full of water and you might suspect (correctly) that I was exaggerating, but the belief would be absolutely honest. I think with ENTP's you will find that this happens more with things they're interested in.
 

Little Linguist

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Ehhh, I knew someone who was an ENTP/ESTP and she was like that. I couldn't stand her ass. It was like water and electricity. I certainly *hope* not all ENTPs are like that. :shock: But I doubt it. :)
 

Synarch

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I used to do it when I was much younger, I guess partly founded on a deep self-doubt, a total dearth of self-esteem - the basic assumption was that I, as I am, in myself, am not remarkable or worthy of any note or attention, much less any actual respect, regard or interest.

...

I grew out of it by my early 20's though - well, I grew out of that incarnation of it. I'm still as much a teller of tall tales as Rankin, but I do it now in a way that's obviously not meant to be taken seriously. It's more done now to entertain and amuse, rather than draw attention or admiration for myself.

See, now I feel like you're bullshitting about your personal development and self-actualization. :)
 

substitute

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...additionally, sometimes I'm not sure whether I'm making it up or not. Like, when it's not the 'entertain and amuse' mode going on, there are other sorts of motives I can have for it...

Again, the need to 'be' or 'provide' whatever's needed at the time; if somebody comes to me wanting some information, I'm loth to have them go away unsatisfied. In fact, my background knowledge, sorta jack of all trades as it were, sort of gives me enough of an understanding of so many things that pretty much most things people ask me (within reason), I either know the answer or can figure it out with a bit of thought. I might seem to 'make stuff up', but if it's checked against published authorities it almost always turns out to be true anyway... I've basically on the spot collated everything I know in a sorta interdisciplinary thought exercise and figured it out... that's what I was doing, figuring it out, as opposed to making it up in the pure sense - though my figuring out of course goes on externally, so...

I guess at the root of it all for me is a desire or drive/need to 'be' or provide the 'missing piece' of whatever puzzle is currently being pondered. That in itself comes from the drive to make a difference, to improve things, lives, situations... though it's often put down to other, less flattering motives, which can be hurtful...

Synarch - LOLZ ;)
 

Metamorphosis

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...additionally, sometimes I'm not sure whether I'm making it up or not. Like, when it's not the 'entertain and amuse' mode going on, there are other sorts of motives I can have for it...

Again, the need to 'be' or 'provide' whatever's needed at the time; if somebody comes to me wanting some information, I'm loth to have them go away unsatisfied. In fact, my background knowledge, sorta jack of all trades as it were, sort of gives me enough of an understanding of so many things that pretty much most things people ask me (within reason), I either know the answer or can figure it out with a bit of thought. I might seem to 'make stuff up', but if it's checked against published authorities it almost always turns out to be true anyway... I've basically on the spot collated everything I know in a sorta interdisciplinary thought exercise and figured it out... that's what I was doing, figuring it out, as opposed to making it up in the pure sense - though my figuring out of course goes on externally, so...

I guess at the root of it all for me is a desire or drive/need to 'be' or provide the 'missing piece' of whatever puzzle is currently being pondered. That in itself comes from the drive to make a difference, to improve things, lives, situations... though it's often put down to other, less flattering motives, which can be hurtful...

Synarch - LOLZ ;)

That describes a friend of mine SO well. :D

He stated once that he wasn't sure which part of his facts were made up and which were true, sometimes.
 

substitute

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Ha... yeah, my mom calls me a 'utility person', like a utility belt, or utility van, but a human version - potentially useful for most things you could need a human for lol which goes well with what my ISTP calls me: all-purpose nerd! :laugh:
 

kuranes

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He stated once that he wasn't sure which part of his facts were made up and which were true, sometimes.
I've heard about those guys who can bluff even the more sophisticated lie detector equipment, since they believe what they're saying, themselves. The ultimate "method acting" ?
 

Synarch

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Yes. I think in general ENTP's are good at coping with life's problems (for the most part) because we actively hack our own reality and perceptions. For example, I am a big believer in attitude. With the appropriate attitude you can achieve considerably more than you would otherwise. Sometimes this requires believing some things to the exclusion of others. It's all about what RESULT you want to achieve.
 

Metamorphosis

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It's like "I don't know" isn't in an ENTP's vocabulary, but reading these posts makes me think I'm just not looking at the big picture instead of seeing lots of bullshit, lol.
 

substitute

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It's like "I don't know" isn't in an ENTP's vocabulary, but reading these posts makes me think I'm just not looking at the big picture instead of seeing lots of bullshit, lol.

Gosh, really? An INTJ being single-minded? Surely not! :alttongue:
 
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