home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Profile: INTP
- Revision: 1.4
- Date of Revision: 30 Jun 94
- =============================================================================
-
-
- Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Perceiving
-
- by Joe Butt (jabutt@sacam.oren.ortn.edu)
-
-
- INTPs are pensive, analytical folks. They may venture so deeply into
- thought as to seem detached and often actually are oblivious to the world
- around them.
-
- Precise about their descriptions, INTPs will often correct others (or at
- least be sorely tempted to) if the shade of meaning is a bit off. This
- sometimes annoying habit is at once also a strength in grammarians, a
- perfect arena for the literal INTP.
-
- INTPs are relatively easy-going and amenable to almost anything until
- their principles are violated, about which they may become outspoken and
- inflexible. But they usually return to a reserved albeit benign
- ambiance, not wishing to make spectacles of themselves.
-
- A major concern for INTPs is the haunting sense of impending failure. They
- spend considerable time second-guessing themselves. The open-endedness (from
- Perceiving) conjoined with the need for competence (NT) is expressed in a
- sense that one's conclusion may well be met by an equally plausible
- alternative solution, and that, after all, one may very well have overlooked
- some critical bit of *data*. An INTP arguing a point may very well be trying
- to convince himself as much as his opposition. In this way INTPs are
- markedly different from INTJs, who are much more confident in their
- competence and willing to act on their convictions.
-
- Mathematics is a system where many INTPs love to play. But so are languages,
- computer systems, and potentially any complex system. INTPs thrive on
- systems. Understanding, exploring, mastering, and manipulating systems can
- overtake the INTP's conscious thought. This fascination for logical wholes
- and their inner workings is often expressed in a detachment from the
- environment, a concentration where time is forgotten and extraneous stimuli
- are held at bay.
-
- INTPs and Logic -- One of the tipoffs that a person is an INTP is her
- obsession with logical correctness. Errors are not often due to poor
- logic -- apparent faux pas in reasoning are usually a result of *overlooking
- details* or of incorrect context.
-
- { As a personal note, I really enjoy the 'minesweeper' game on Windows 3.1.
- It's a great theatre for testing both the ability to recognize patterns (a
- strength for N's) and logical correctness, and the added dimension of time
- gives the impetus to improve my skills. I usually get blown up because in
- haste I overlook a 'minor' detail, but there's always next time. ( My
- previously posted "best time" has been overtaken--by an ENTP. I'm
- down to 155 seconds, but my nemesis claims 137!) }
-
- Other games NTs seem to especially enjoy include Risk, Bridge, Stratego,
- Chess, Go (hence the server on the net), and *word games* of all sorts. (I
- have an ENTP friend that loves Boggle and its variations. We've been
- known to sit in public places and pick a word off a menu or mayonnaise jar
- to see who can make the most words from its letters on a napkin in two
- minutes.) The INTP mailing list has enjoyed a round of Metaphor, virtual
- volleyball, and a few 'finish the series' brain teasers.
-
- INTPs in the main are not clannish. The INTP mailing list, now in triple
- figures, was in its incipience fraught with all the difficulties of the
- Panama canal: we had trouble deciding on
- 1) whether or not there should be such a group,
- 2) exactly *what* such a group should be called, and
- 3) which of us would have to take the responsibility for organization
- and maintenance of the aforesaid group/club/whatever.
- (Other unsympathetic J types, as I recall, enjoyed the spectacle of our
- earnest strivings with that old question, "To be, or not to be..."
- Finally one of our firstborn patriots took the bull by the horns and
- declared that we could be if only we would, and now we are.)
-
- [Anyone who thinks (s)he is an INTP is invited to join the INTP mailing
- list by sending a message to listserv@sefl.satelnet.org with the line
- subscribe intp
- in the body of the letter.]
-
- Famous INTPs:
-
- Socrates
- Rene Descartes
- Blaise Pascal
- Sir Isaac Newton
- U.S. Presidents:
- James Madison
- John Quincy Adams
- John Tyler
- Gerald Ford
- William Harvey (pioneer in human physiology)
- C. G. Jung, (Freudian defector, author of _Psychological Types_, &c.)
- William James
- Albert Einstein
- Tom Foley (Speaker of the House--U.S. House of Representatives)
- Bob Newhart
- Rick Moranis (_Honey, I Shrunk The Kids_)
- Brent Spiner (Commander Data, "Star Trek -- The Next Generation")
- Midori Ito (ice skater, Olympic silver medalist)
- Ashley and Mary Kate Olsen (The 'Full House' twins)
-
- [6/30/94--apologies for the previous error in the mailing list address!]
-