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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They are the great destroyer of outdated paradigms or untruths.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
Awesome that you are sharing this with them. This is the way we will grow this community… one person at a time. Thanks for taking the lead Allyse.
Thanks Emma for listening and giving some feedback.
First of all I must say that it is a wonderful podcast particularly because almost everywhere I listen that INTPs don’t care. People think I am cool with everything and I don’t care but you pointed out the most hidden truth about us that yeah we do care about why people say what they say about us….it is common for us to be labelled weird, etc.But yeah as far as I am concerned I do not get offended by things which most people might get offended by, making people think I don’t care and sometimes we do just act like we don’t care which I guess would be a common human behaviour.
Well I am an INTP and i am 18 and I must say that there are some problems you are mentioning common to INTPs which was not really a major problem for me like social situations ( i can’t say about my future though) though they were a bit awkward but there is just one thing we need to understand is the importance of connecting because i am sure all INTPs would make excuses to themselves telling how pointless it is and this is the major step towards this problem. Having an ESFP father I got this concept easily into my head and after being depressed for about two years, since last year I am highly motivated and am willing to make changes to the world so thanks for making me feel that I am doing it right. So I thank you because now I learned that my behaviour patterns are close to a healthy INTP.
And I see that everybody wanna talk to us but we get overwhelmed pretty easily but I find a drawback to that. Yeah they idolize our brain, they would always come to me for advice but that is that , as you said they talk to me a lot but don’t let me connect to them in a deeper level.
Anyways thinking about characters like Sherlock or even Dumbledore makes me feel like that there are some people born to contribute for the greater good of the world and I would happily take that part.
I think I have built a strong basic foundation for my source of inspiration and created an environment which keeps my motivation high like being surrounded by books and like-minded friends. I guess a motivation which took two years to build does not get diminished easily. Well it hasn’t for now
Like Cherylece, I also felt like some of my biggest fears were confirmed. I am also a female INTP and have always found it very difficult to make female friends. I have a happy marriage and have had several good male friends, although many times those friendships are thwarted or at least restrained because it is difficult for so many people to accept mixed-gender friendships. I often feel like I have to pretend to be someone I am not and that I am constantly either holding my tongue or evaluating any statement I want to make because so often it turns out badly. This is an exhausting ‘inaccurate’ representation of me and has led me many times to simply conclude that I’m not good at ‘people’. Unfortunately, it’s the social sciences and religious practices that draw me; fields that seem to require Harmony and nearly reject Accuracy.
I love what you said about radical honesty being necessary for a truly authentic relationship, and I can understand how frightening that can be and that not everyone is up for that kind of intensity. I just wish I could find the ones that are instead of having to be someone else.
I just listened to your INTP podcast and I am teetering between a wonderful sense of relief and an overwhelming sense of despair. After listening to your podcasts over the past year, I gradually determined that I am definitely an INTP. I am 56 years old and I have felt like an imposter my entire life and never knew why. A few months ago I ran across a MBTI that I took as a 23-year-old graduate student that typed me as an ISFJ! I then realized that—as a result of trying to fulfill expectations of others—my 10-year-old was driving, with my 3-year-old in the co-pilot seat. I recently retired from a 25-year career as a school psychologist which appeared to be a success outwardly, but which left me with no sense of personal fulfillment, I believe, because the profession valued Memory and Harmony. So although I appeared successful, I was not using my driver or co-pilot and I felt drained and inauthentic. For the past 2 years I have been working as the secretary at my church and I feel as if I am dying inside. This job requires me to use Harmony and Memory primarily. Accuracy and Exploration are not valued. So, today when I heard you talk about the unique contribution of INTPs, it made me feel validated and gave me hope that if I could find the right fit for me, that I could make a difference, and that my life would not be in vain. But I honestly don’t know where to go from here. I don’t know exactly what I want from you…I guess I just wonder if you can share anything that would be helpful for someone who tried to live their entire life from their inferior cognitive processes…Even though I now know my strengths, it is so hard to restructure my life…hence my current state of teetering between relief and despair. Thank you both for what you are doing!!!