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This is just beginning to get on my nerves...

MerkW

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Aug 10, 2007
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I still can't decide whether I am an INTP or INTJ. Can one be a right-brained INTJ? Can one be an INTJ, yet prefer to not apply their studies? Can one be an INTP yet be an extreme perfectionist? Can one be an INTP yet have a more narrow field of interest?

Are INTJs absent-minded?
Are INTPs good at focusing on small details?

The list goes on.

What am I?

How may I know for certain?

It seems that I am either a messed-up INTJ (one who happens to be very messy and impractical), or a messed-up INTP (one who happens to be rather obsessively perfectionist and goal-oriented).
 

JustDave

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Jan 20, 2008
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xNTP
I feel your pain. This morning I started a thread to help me figure out if I am an INTJ or an INFJ. My logic has pinted to a T preference but many of the forum members have concluded that I am probably an F.

On to your conundrum.

Consider this: would you rather solve a difficult problem or devise a strategy to achieve a particular goal? As I understand it INTPs primarily desire understanding whereas INTJs want to accomplish certain goals. IMHO, neither is better as both work together.
 

MerkW

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Consider this: would you rather solve a difficult problem or devise a strategy to achieve a particular goal? As I understand it INTPs primarily desire understanding whereas INTJs want to accomplish certain goals. IMHO, neither is better as both work together.

I would rather solve a difficult problem. However, I pursue pure understanding and specific goals simultaneously. As you said, both are complementary.
 

Domino

ENFJ In Chains
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Ah! The great Merk "The W is Implied" w... you've come back to us.

I've read your questions. I know scatterbrained unmotivated INTJs. I know hideously perfectionistic INTPs.

I myself am an ENFJ who falls so close to INFJ as to cause many issues/disturbances with the order of my MBTI functions.
 

Metamorphosis

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I would rather solve a difficult problem. However, I pursue pure understanding and specific goals simultaneously. As you said, both are complementary.

Being an INTP doesn't preclude you from having goals. I don't even focus on knowledge that I can't apply somehow.
 

MerkW

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Being an INTP doesn't preclude you from having goals. I don't even focus on knowledge that I can't apply somehow.

True, but I really dislike how INTPs are occasionally portrayed as having a vast variety of unusual talents and a head full of completely unrelated tidbits of random information, while not having any particular field of focus.

Yes, I do have a rather wide variety of unusual talents, and I do have a lot of random factual information retained in my mind, yet my main field of interest is quite, quite focused.
 

heart

heart on fire
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May 19, 2007
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Being an INTP doesn't preclude you from having goals. I don't even focus on knowledge that I can't apply somehow.

Yeah, I am INFP and I even at times have resorted to having some goals. ;)

I have a field of focus. I focus in on the 1700s and early 1800s as a field of interest for the most part. But within that I am full of all sorts of "never going to actually NEED this" types of info that fascinate me for hours on end.
 

JustDave

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Allow me to try again.

INTJs, such as Hannibal (the military leader not lecter), are more overtly strategic in nature whereas INTPs, such as Darwin and Einstein, are more concerned with knowledge for its sake.

Again neither type is better. It's all situational.
 

MerkW

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Yeah, I am INFP and I even at times have resorted to having some goals. ;)

Wow. And to think I imagined all INFPs to be wrist-cutting emos who do nothing of any use.

I jest, of course.
 

Domino

ENFJ In Chains
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True, but I really dislike how INTPs are occasionally portrayed as having a vast variety of unusual talents and a head full of completely unrelated tidbits of random information, while not having any particular field of focus.

This better describes my INTJ than my INTP.
 

MerkW

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Allow me to try again.

INTJs, such as Hannibal (the military leader not lecter), are more overtly strategic in nature whereas INTPs, such as Darwin and Einstein, are more concerned with knowledge for its sake.

Again neither type is better. It's all situational.

Based of that, I would be a rather clear-cut INTP. I am still not completely convinced, though.

This better describes my INTJ than my INTP.

Oh? That strikes me as mildly unusual.
 

Athenian200

Protocol Droid
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Wow. And to think I imagined all INFPs to be wrist-cutting emos who do nothing of any use.

Ironically, I know of at least one INTP who does that, but haven't heard of an INFP doing so. :huh:

Based of that, I would be a rather clear-cut INTP. I am still not completely convinced, though.

Well, one thing that might be a good question, then, is whether you find Feeling or Sensing harder to deal with.

Do you use Ti more than Te? Ti is more about understanding the nature of something, Te is more about efficiency towards a goal, from what I can tell.

Also, do you use Se and Fi more, or Si and Fe more?
 

JustDave

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Based of that, I would be a rather clear-cut INTP. I am still not completely convinced, though.



Oh? That strikes me as mildly unusual.


I've got an idea! All things being equal, how confident are you in your ideas/work/goals? Again, as I understand it INTJs tend to be more confident. Which yet again is not necessarily a good thing as overconfidence could cause one to prematurely dismiss viable possibilities ...
 

MerkW

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Well, one thing that might be a good question, then, is whether you find Feeling or Sensing harder to deal with.

Do you use Ti more than Te? Ti is more about understanding the nature of something, Te is more about efficiency towards a goal, from what I can tell.

Also, do you use Se and Fi more, or Si and Fe more?

I use Ti more than Te, but I wonder as to whether I use Ni more than Ti. Sensing and Feeling are both extremely and equally difficult for me to deal with. It is hard for me to say whether I use Se and Fi more or Si and Fe more, as neither seems accurate. I seemingly use Si and Fi more than Se and Fe, which, of course, was not one of the options.
 

white

~dangerous curves ahead~
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Bear with me?

You're on a hot and dusty road out in Guatemala with a friend who's had 6 cans of beer, and is driving at 90 miles an hour. All of a sudden, a tribesman pops out from nowhere, and WHAM, your friend knocks him down dead. Now you've two options. One would be to go to the tribe and confess, for which you and your friend are most likely to be hung and quartered, or two, pack up, fly out of the country in the next hour, and no one will ever know.

What'll you do, and why?
 

The Ü™

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The way I see it, the INTJ has inferior Se, which serves as an aspirational function. The Ni position in the INTJ dreams of a life of action freedom, but the Ni makes these Se desires impractical and unrealistic unless developed, potentially leaving Ni trapped in their idealized fantasy world. So the INTJ can also be over-obsessive and cautious in their pursuit of their Se aspiration.

The INTP, on the other hand, has an Fe aspiration, which is more a desire to fit into their social group. This is probably the source of the INTP's social awkwardness. Tertiary Si is likely what makes the INTPs gatherers of useless knowledge.
 

Metamorphosis

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True, but I really dislike how INTPs are occasionally portrayed as having a vast variety of unusual talents and a head full of completely unrelated tidbits of random information, while not having any particular field of focus.

I normally see INTPs portrayed as the experts in their field, but who typically remain relatively low level in the corporate heirarchy. As Pink pointed out, we will tend to have a lot of varied knowledge as long as it is somehow directly applicable to life (or we think it could be at some point).

Yes, I do have a rather wide variety of unusual talents, and I do have a lot of random factual information retained in my mind, yet my main field of interest is quite, quite focused.

I focus on multiple fields that wouldn't seem related at all to an outside observer but are all ultimately directed towards the same goal.
 

JustDave

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Do you see yourself leading people?

Do you have trouble telling people what to do (directing vs. informing)?
 

MerkW

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Bear with me?

You're on a hot and dusty road out in Guatemala with a friend who's had 6 cans of beer, and is driving at 90 miles an hour. All of a sudden, a tribesman pops out from nowhere, and WHAM, your friend knocks him down dead. Now you've two options. One would be to go to the tribe and confess, for which you and your friend are most likely to be hung and quartered, or two, pack up, fly out of the country in the next hour, and no one will ever know.

What'll you do, and why?

I'd get rather annoyed at this so-called "friend" of mine, to being with. I will try to force my friend to go announce what happened to the tribesmen on his own. If he doesn't comply, I will knock him out with a shovel or some similar device, bring his unconscious body along with the corpse to the tribe settlement. I will attach a sticky note on either my friend's limp body, or the tribesman's corpse, explaining the situation. Then, I will wait a while, see if this friend makes it out alive or not. If he doesn't, and the tribesmen end up going after me, I will just get out of there as quickly as possible.

I am rather interested to hear you interpret this.
 
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