Here's the *latest version* of the INTP profile. Actually, it's almost
identical to the one in the archive at netcom.com
(/pub/noring/personality/...)
--Joe
Joe Butt -- jab...@sacam.oren.ortn.edu
*****
Private life, book life, took place where words met imagination
without passing through world.
--Dillard, Annie _An American Childhood_
*****************************************************************
Newsgroups: alt.psychology.personality
From: jab...@sacam.OREN.ORTN.EDU (Joe Butt)
Subject: INTP Profile
Distribution: world
Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Perceiving
Word mechanics. INTPs will often correct others if they use the wrong word
or shade of meaning. Analytical to a fault. Overprecise. Amenable to
almost anything until their principles are violated, about which they are
outspoken and inflexible.
A major concern for INTPs is the haunting sense of impending failure. They
spend considerable time second-guessing ourselves. 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 INTPs 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 Ns) 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.
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.}
As I stated in an earlier post, we might have trouble organizing an INTP
club. INTPs in the main are not clannish and wouldn't want to decide on
1) whether or not there should be such a club, 2) whether such a group would
exactly be a *club* or, if not, exactly *what* it should be called, and
3) which of us would have to take the responsibility for organization and
maintenance of the aforesaid club/group/whatever. Of course I could be
wrong... %-)
Some Famous INTPs:
Socrates
St. Luke
Rene Descartes
Blaise Pascal
Sir Isaac Newton
Thomas Jefferson
William Harvey (pioneer in human physiology)
Emily Dickinson
C. G. Jung
William James
Albert Einstein
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Gerald Ford
Midori Ito (ice skater, olympic silver medalist)
Rick Moranis (_Honey, I Shrunk The Kids_)
Ashley and Mary Kate Olsen (The 'Full House' twins)
Tom Foley (Speaker of the House)
Brent Spiner (Commander Data of 'ST-NG')
