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In this episode Joel and Antonia dive deep into the needs and challenges of the INTP personality type.
In this podcast on the INTP personality type you’ll find:
INTP – Accuracy/Exploration in Genius system
INTPs have a crucial role that they play in our society. That task may seem a little thankless, which helps us understand some of the challenges they face.
Deep down inside, INTPs care more than they let on.
The Driver for INTP is Introverted Thinking (Ti), which we have nicknamed “Accuracy.”
What makes analytical sense? Decision-making process.
Driver = Flow State = the most rewarding thing you can do.
Ti works the best when it is without social obligation.
The opposite of Ti is Fe “Harmony.” Fe is about connecting and social interaction.
INTPs in the survey revealed their greatest challenge was in connecting with other people.
Copilot – Ne “Exploration” – is pattern recognition. Interaction with the environment without being attached to any outcome. A zoomed out process that allows you to explore your terrain.
Podcast Introverted Intuition vs Extraverted Intuition
When Ti and Ne are combined it is a fascinating combo of zooming in (Ti – surgical approach to data) and zoomed out (Ne – an overall view of patterns).
Together, these cognitive functions create radically new ideas.
Creating patterns and frameworks and architecting new maps and models requires them to be a bit destructive – like Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction.
Ti works the best when removed from the social bias component.
Emotional connection influences info.
INTPs often show up saying things that other people don’t want to hear, which is their gift to the world.
They are the great destroyer of outdated paradigms or untruths.
INTPs will always look for the strictest vetting process in their chosen field.
We are such social creatures we don’t appreciate it when people call us on our BS/Belief Systems.
We make extraordinary technical strides when we overturn the social norm.
INTPs break things down to their fundamental nature and depersonalize them.
Sometimes frameworks only get so far, and they get stuck because they run out of new frameworks for ideas.
The copilot process for INTPs is Extraverted Intuition, which we have nicknamed “Exploration.”
Exploration gives INTPs access to bigger frameworks and increases their territory, so they have more structures to hang fresh data on.
It is imperative for INTPs to grow their Exploration process.
The alternative is to stick with what you already know. If you don’t take in more territory, your framework may be radically off because you are missing a vital piece of info that’s just outside your existing territory.
Exploration allows INTPs to go out and experience things. Travel is essential to INTPs.
Going outside their comfort zone is imperative. All growth happens outside the comfort zone.
Sometimes we graft our identity to old pieces of info and INTPs overturn the things with which we identify.
But the INTP must first go through the uncomfortable terrain of change and challenge before they can do it for others.
INTPs need to be students of experience, life, and interaction.
The Survey revealed the INTPs struggle with a lack of motivation.
The INTPs that have the greatest motivation have decided they are going to bring their gifts to the world.
The more somebody rests on their laurels and holds back the more they feel a lack of inspiration and motivation.
The 10-year-old process is Introverted Sensing, which we have nicknamed “Memory.”.
Memory often means doing the thing that is known and comfortable. Finding a familiar context and staying there perpetually.
Frameworks don’t expand with Si. So, INTPs double down on Ti and continue to clean slice concepts and data until things become absurd. Without the input from Ne, they keep dividing until there’s nothing left.
Emotion is the seat of motivation, which is an INTPs blind spot. If INTPs double down on their thinking process, they avoid the emotions that will get them motivated.
Emotion is about finding the meaning behind things.
Exploration helps expand frameworks of mind and increase the narratives with which INTPs work.
Why does the data matter?
Ne gives meaning to the data. Without meaning, there is no motivation.
To see the narratives of our lives we need to zoom out.
Get outside yourself and explore beyond your comfort zone.
INTPs can have belief systems.
INTPs love absurd humor. Monty Python. Sketch comedy.
Even falling in love is nothing but a narrative.
INTPS who do the best are the ones who connect with other people through contribution.
INTPs can appear cynical because society doesn’t always honor their gift of radical honesty.
The natural state of an INTP is to be childlike and approach life with wonder and curiosity. Then they get the message that they are unacceptable which leads to cynicism.
Nobody can sustain a feeling of brokenness indefinitely. They either become depressed or resentful.
“You are not broken.”
“You are okay.”
We are seeing more and more media acknowledging the role of geeks and people who influence our technological world.
We see their contribution, but they are harder to reconcile in our day to day life.
We love truth. It reverberates through our spinal cord.
Society is getting ready for entering into a space of radical honesty, but it still means pushing people outside their comfort zones.
Modern technology is forcing us into a state of transparency; most technology is invented by INTPs.
The more INTPs show up as doing their job of being radically honest, the more we will head toward transparency as a society.
In the past, honesty brought death.
We can’t have real harmony without radical honesty, and we can’t have radical honesty without the need to connect with others.
The 3-year-old process is Extraverted Feeling (Fe), which we have nicknamed “Harmony.”
Healthy INTPs can become almost worshiped. They show up with so much credibility. They haven’t rejected Fe, they made it part of their aspiration and decided to use it to make others happy. Their intent is positive.
Podcast How To Love Yourself
Agape – Principled love. We are all in this together.
INTP men/women at the top of their game have many admirers.
Sometimes by solving problems for themselves, an INTP can find a way to solve for a larger demographic.
Female INTPs feel isolated because most women are Fe dominant, and men are usually looking for women to behave a certain way.
Spend more time in your copilot and understand why you struggle to fit in. Then go and find the context that will appreciate you for your gifts.
INTP women are polarizing. Birds of paradise. Not everyone’s going to love you, but some will and they are looking for you.
Pay for the privilege of finding your tribe. Conventions, Seminars, Cons, etc.
Online communities. Reddit.
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98 comments
I also had an abusive childhood and I’ve always thought my obsessive need to find the truth and make others aware of it was due to the circumstances of my past-no one knew what was happening to me because my abuser was so manipulative and I was not allowed to have any feelings or thoughts that contradicted hers, so now things like propaganda and inaccuracy really bother me. I also have not always tested as an intp. I was an enfp, then an entp and am only just now considering myself intp because of this podcast. I was always close in the e and I so it’s probably not a big difference, but I’m wondering if some traumatic experiences can make people more likely to end up intp or if maybe when I was younger my narcissistic abuser kind of trained me to be an enfp because that’s what she was and she did everything she could to make me believe we were the same.
Also I wanted to mention that roller derby is a good place to find lots of women who are not harmony driven:). And I’m wondering if anyone has examples of careers that are good for people who like exploring many different fields in an in depth way. In other words, what do the happy intps that you know do for a living? I hate that I have to pick one field of study if I want to do in depth research.
Thanks Elsaka for the comment.
The only thing I would disagree with is the idea that we as people detest our fifth position. I would argue that it is our inferior (4th position) that we are more likely to detest.
BTW – We don’t encourage people to develop their inferior for growth but rather their co-pilot (auxiliary) function. We believe that holds the best leverage.
For me, as an ENFP, my fifth function (according to the model you’re using above) would be Ni (our name is “Perspectives”).
I’ve actually used Ni (and other people who have Ni) as inspiration & help for my growth.
Sometimes Ni slightly frustrates my Ne (“Exploration”) process because it is slow and feels so linear. And yet – it helps round an introverted version of the very thing I value most in my stack… my intuition.
I could actually see a case made that after you develop your co-pilot function (for me that’s Fi / “Authenticity” – for INTPs that’s Ne / “Exploration”) one could benefit greatly from focusing on growing their 5th position.
I also see a case made for the fifth function helping compensate for the inferior. In my case – when I’m stuck in Si/“Memory” I tend to think I’ll never get unstuck. Ni/“Perspectives” can actually give me some perspective when I’m unable to get into my Ne.
If I’m stuck in Si – I’m in an introverted attitude anyway – so why not rely on Ni for help when there?
Take an INTP in a bad state…
You are in Fe/“Harmony” when emotions grip you. Wouldn’t Te/“effectiveness” help you get clarity while “in the grip” of your inferior?"
Te is a thinking process (which you are already familiar with since you are Ti dominant) and it matches both the attitude and an external organizational structure of the function (Fe) that is giving you the trouble.
So in conclusion – and as of the time of this writing – I see the fifth position as a help – especially when stuck in the inferior process.
I would caution one to not skip development of the co-pilot in favor of the fifth function – which we can all be tempted to do.
Again – that’s my first thinking around this. After letting this sit in my own subconscious I might have better clarity in my articulation.
Just watch out. Accuracy people also tend to get themselves killed. :-)
Thanks for the comment back. Good stuff.
Hang in there Benooit.
The podcast was probably empowering because we gave you a framework to hang some of your challenges on.
As you continue to grow your co-pilot of “Exploration” you will continue expanding these frameworks in your mind. Some of these people patterns you are currently struggling with will begin to make more sense.
Also – don’t be afraid to use your talent for logic and metrics to create frameworks around emotions too. Classify/categorize emotions that show up and put metrics/ratings against them. Experiment by treating emotions like you would any other piece of data. And let us know how that works for you as an INTP.