If you’re an INTP personality type, you’re a highly rational and fiercely independent person. You may feel different from others because your personality type is actually quite rare—INTPs make up only 3 percent of the population (female INTPs are even rarer than males). Like the famous physicist Albert Einstein, who is thought to be an INTP, you’re drawn to the discovery of subjective truths and universal law. It was Einstein who said, “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.”
Are you an INTP personality type? Here are 12 signs that you are. (Keep in mind that typology describes general personality characteristics. Your background and experiences make you an individual, so you may not relate to every point but nevertheless be an INTP. Try our quick, free test to learn more about your personality type.)
1. You’re a seeker of truth. You wish to uncover the underlying universal law behind everything you encounter. To you, life is a complex puzzle to be solved. You’re especially fascinated by what motivates others and makes them tick.
2. You take intellectual matters seriously. You devour books, articles, and podcasts on the subjects of philosophy, religion, psychology, evolutionary theory, and anything else that interests you. Isabel Briggs Myers, who helped create the Myers-Briggs personality system, wrote in her book, Gifts Differing, ”INTPs are perhaps the most intellectually profound of all the types.” But the cultivation of knowledge is not all a solemn matter for you—you’re intellectually playful, quirky, and open-minded. You have an almost child-like awe and wonder of the world.
3. You make decisions by asking, “What makes analytical sense?” You value logical thinking more than emotion. For example, you’re more persuaded by an argument that is based on research rather than one that uses emotional or inspirational appeals.
4. But it’s not that you don’t have emotions. It’s just that you place them at a lower priority than rational thought. You’re actually quite genuine and personable when you feel comfortable with others. Sometimes you worry about how others will take something, so you don’t share your true thoughts and observations out of fear of hurting their feelings. You’re flexible and open-minded, so you rarely get angry, but when you do, others should watch out—you can be a powder keg of an explosion.
5. You can quickly locate any logical inconsistencies in a belief system or argument. You’re always noticing when information doesn’t add up. You can easily poke holes in others’ arguments or beliefs. When you express what you see, others may think you’re criticizing them, but to you, it’s not personal because you’re simply trying to get at the truth. You want accurate information yourself, so you figure others do, too.
6. As an introvert, you don’t let everyone in. You may conceal part of your personality—your highly rational and cerebral side—and only a few people are granted full access to your private inner world. You tend to vet others before letting them see the real you. However, once you sense that someone is no real danger, you can develop intimacy at a surprising speed.
7. You’re indifferent to the particulars of everyday life. You don’t care for small talk or discussing the everyday matters of people’s lives. Gossip doesn’t interest you. Sometimes you struggle to connect with others because you have no desire to play social games. Yet when someone gets you talking about a topic that interests you, you can become quite loquacious.
8. You may struggle to find a career that fits. You dislike corporate culture and the organizational life. If you keep your highly cerebral side private, you may feel that others don’t recognize your true competence and knowledge. Many INTPs find satisfying work as freelancers or entrepreneurs because they prefer to work outside the system.
9. You’re so independent that sometimes you wonder if you actually need other people in your life. But you do. Your independent projects only take you so far, and you may eventually realize that you feel empty without a few close connections. You value partners and friends who are intelligent, creative, and open-minded. Ideally, your closest intimates are people who share your specialized interests, so you can co-explore truth together.
10. You like simple living arrangements. You prefer living on less rather than more. You may shy away from serious financial obligations, like buying an expensive home or taking out loans, because you fear these will diminish your sense of freedom.
11. You’re suspicious of conventions and you’re far from traditional. Highly individualized and independent, you’d rather reason out your own way than go with the crowd. In fact, you relish breaking apart conventional ideas that others take for granted. You don’t understand how anyone can hold onto theories or ideology that have been proven illogical.
12. At your best, you change the way reality is perceived. Along with Einstein, the famous philosopher Socrates was probably an INTP. With their ideas, these men have changed the way whole societies see reality, showing that mature INTPs can be powerful thinkers.
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42 comments
Ola,
I strongly relate to all those points.
It feels too correct to be true, that i automatically become wary and defensive about what i’m reading here.
Is it true? (based on science anyway)
or tricks, like a horoscope?
Haha :)
I’m really impressed. These 12 points are very accurate for me.
I’m a 16 year old INTP female as well! I can fully relate with your comment.
I am an INTP (female)16 years old.I observed after taking tests many times.This all written is just true about me.I think logically rather than emotionally. But this doesn’t mean i don’t understand others’ feelings.I don’t know why i still feel alone after having a whole bunch of friends.I always hated gatherings events and parties…
So INFPs care for meaning and INTPs simply for the truth?
What’s the difference between meaning and truth?
First i was afraid that simultaneous things eventually couldn’t be calculated
sequentially. To me, it was in fact a question about god and the universe.
But the fear didn’t last long. Now it would just hit my ego somehow if my cheap particle
algorithm that i worked out wouldn’t really work. And that’s said to be an ENTP
trait. You have the choice between fantasy and science fiction. Science fiction is a good
thing because when it actually works, it gives you power. If you believe in fantasy, you’re more likely a girl. But if the truth was impossible to grasp, at least for common people, also INTPs would become frustrated.
Playing god is better than proving god. And that’s no paranoid delusion. There’s a clear real chance to solve the riddle. So take the challenge.
Now i’m struggling with evolution and how evolutionary algorithms could resemble minimax backtracking.
I discovered a code example of an evolutionary algorithm 1.5 years ago. And now i want to squeeze decision making and human perception into it.
It basically processes of sets of selections of each five letter-sized bitmap patterns that can be scaled or rotated. They have a movement vector and the data structure has the time they were generated and a color in it. Now you can feed a bitmap or even animated video for comparison into the algorithm.
Or other data that was converted to be represented visually.
It basically always only compares two pictures by summing up absolute pixel value differences at the same coordinates and gives one of them evaluation score points.
The sets are randomly varied or recombined with each other and the ones with the good evaluation get sorted up while the bad ones are replaced by new random ‘individuals’ at the bottom end of the struct array.
Certain pictures would be linked with a movement of a limb. When they show repeatedly and there is no fear stimulus with them, our ‘robot’ would move his limb.
Just think of a movement enough and you’ll carry it out.
The fear stimulus is a certain kind of picture which simply paralyzes actions.
And it also influences the ratio between the mutation and the recombination rate in a curve.
Comparing pictures often only goes forward in one direction. For example, two pictures which would have nothing in common except that the second one occured one moment after the first one would give a match. And moving one picture with its vector before comparison while not actually changing the stored info also.
My idea is that this way, the data structures get chained in a way that their linkage resembles a decision tree. Meaning when the program runs, it will sort of vaguely backtrack its memories to figure out the most promising next move.
Back to the MBTI:
Se is focusing on the outer input rather than comparing already stored sets
Si is always using the same parameters on different patterns
Ne is a higher mutation rate with external focus
Ni is a higher mutation rate with internal focus
Fe and Fi is being more sensitive to fear triggers
Te is applying varying parameters on the outside world
Ti is varying the parameters much while not changing the patterns
Anyone can make up BS. I concentrated real hard to describe what’s going on in our heads so i guess i’m still not the worst. There is much worse esoteric stuff out there. And my program at least does SOMETHING. It would be hard to evaluate if such a robot would make sense in its behaviour. It’s not exact. It can never be exact because you never have all the info before making a decision. Prove that the minimax recursion actually happens while running the evolutionary algorithm.
Under psychological viewpoints, it’s already now a more scientific and reliable model for predicting human behaviour than the MBTI. But proving the algorithm right really makes me nervous.
At least you have “a” friend. I’m almost 48, an INTP (having taken every test multiple times and read just about every book on the topic) and I have always said that I don’t really have any friends; I have acquaintances in contexts. Propinquity is enough to pull me into a relationship by finding some common thread, but it’s never deeper than that. Maybe that’s what friendship is. I’m not sure.
My wife (ISFJ) has been trying to push me out recently to interact with others. I’ve gone to a meeting or two with people with whom it would seem that should have things in common. I did. We talked about it. That was enough. I know where they stand and their depth is insufficient to hold my interest. It’s hard when you have to relate to people on an emotional level and all you want is the data and underlying implications. Most people will tell you how this or that makes them feel. I get “emotional” about things that are complicated and need to be sussed out. It’s not that I necessarily enjoy the topic. It’s that I enjoy learning the topic. Whether or not I ever need to use that as a form of expression is not relevant. My knowing it is expressive enough.