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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They are the great destroyer of outdated paradigms or untruths.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.
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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 finally listened to this podcast, it is really good. As an INTP, the accuracy/exploration front seat passenger analogy helped for me to understand why I enjoy travel so much, and enjoy many other activities, all of which are outside of my comfort zone. As a stereotypical genius and geek, I have experienced all the struggles you discuss. Understanding my struggles in the light of a personality trait and not as byproduct of other traits, helps me explicitly address my shortcomings, and understand why some approaches work while others do not. Thanks also for motivating me to enter another discomfort zone – finding my tribe. Triple Nine Society helped a little, but that addressed just a small part of my whole. Thanks Antonia and Joel.
I’m also an INTP female and you pretty much just described my entire school life. I also think those things about the “career” suggestions on INTP sites. Of course, I wish someone had adequately explained to me when I was much younger how completely fascinating theoretical physics can be so I didn’t completely miss out on learning all of the fundamentals and make it harder for myself to learn about it as an adult, but yes. I definitely second this post.
I’m not a coder, but Rachel said: “For most topics I’m interested in (not just programming), it’s like there’s a very clear and detailed (but abstract) map in my head, with no particular beginning or end. So in trying to explain my thoughts to other people, I have to figure out where to start and where to end and where to zoom in and where to give a general picture and which areas are going to seem completely unnecessary to them (even though, since it’s all connected, it all seems important to me). With all this, my explanations end up just being a big jumble a lot of the time.”
Yes. This. Definitely this. All the time. And then you come up with a way to explain it to someone using maybe a metaphor that you thought was a brilliant way to relate it into words and then everyone in the room just kind of stares at you like you’re an idiot. So you think maybe they’re not getting it and try something else and end up rambling on until they either get it or get bored and walk away….
Joel,
I have to agree with Nicole on this one. Saying “not sure extraverts will resonate with how they can “adapt” for a problem they don’t have” is incredibly frustrating and can easily be flipped – as an introvert I don’t really resonate with adapting to a problem I don’t have either. Being an introvert is not a problem we need to fix or find strategies to cope with or adapt for. As you and Antonia are both extroverts this might not be something that’s really easy for you to understand (not trying to be silly or a jerk) but the constant bombardment of being told we need to “get out of our shells” by pretty much the whole world in order to be “normal” is something imposed on us by extroverts and sometimes on ourselves when we seek to discover why we are “broken” or “not like everyone else.” But a turtle would die without its shell. So what’s in it for extraverts to adapt? What’s really in it for introverts to adapt other than making extroverts feel less uncomfortable around us? It’s not our responsibility to make you feel better or more comfortable but somehow that’s become our lot whether we are consciously choosing it or submitting to the pressures of the world. Being an introvert in a primarily extroverted world is not a problem introverts should feel the need to overcome. If all types need both introverted and extroverted functions to be healthy, well rounded individuals, why wouldn’t an extrovert want to strengthen this part of them and their understanding and acceptance of introverts especially if introverts are expected to do the same for extroverts for the benefits of “getting out and meeting new people” and other benefits that only actually sound like real benefits to extroverts? They would gain from it exactly the same thing introverts gain from adapting to extroverts.
The part about INTP offerings being rejected by others really resonated with me. You made this INTP female cry. #GettingInTouchWithMyInner3YearOld
Also, the part about being looked at like an odd duck really resonated with me. I remember loving The Ugly Duckling as a child. You helped me understand why.