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INTP
From Do What You Are: Discover the Pefect Career for You through the Secrets of Personality Type, by Paul D. Tieger & Barbara Barron-Tieger
The Four Dimensions of Personality Type
The Type system of Personality assessment is based on four basic aspects of human personality: how we interact with the world and where we direct our energy; the kind of information we naturally notice; how we make decisions; and whether we prefer to live in a more structured way (making decisions) or in a more spontaneous way (taking in information). We call these aspects of human personality dimensions because each one can be pictured as a continuum between opposite extremes, like this:
(E) Extraversion --- Introversion (I)
How we interact with the world and direct our energy
(S) Sensing --- Intuition (N)
The kind of information we naturally notice
(T) Thinking --- Feeling (F)
How we make decisions
(J) Judging --- Perceiving (P)
Whether we prefer to live in a more structured way
(making decisions) or in a more spontaneous way (taking in information)
Everyone's personality falls ontoone side of the midpoint or the other on each of these four scales. We call the opposite ends of the scales preferences. [There are sixteen possible types]
ISTPISFPINFJINTJ
ISTJISFJINFPINTP
ESTPESFPENFPENTP
ESTJESFJENFJENTJ
INTP
Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking, Perceiving
Approximately 1% of the American population
INTPs are conceptual problem solvers. They are intensely intellectual and logical, with flashes of creative brilliance.
Outwardly quiet, reserved, and detached, INTPs are inwardly absorbed in analyzing problems. They are critical, precise, and skeptical. They try to find and use principles to understand their many ideas. They like conversation to be logical and purposeful and may argue to the point of hairsplitting just for fun. INTPs are convinced only by logical reasoning.
INTPs are usually ingenious and original thinkers. They prize intelligence in themselves, have a strong drive for personal competence, and are interested in challenging other people to become more competent as well. INTPs are primarily interested in seeing possibilities beyond what is currently known, accepted, or obvious. They like to develop models for improving the ways things are or solving difficult problems. They think in extremely complex ways and are better able to organize concepts and ideas than they are able to organize people. Occasionally, their ideas are so complex they have difficulty communicating and making others understand them.
Highly independent, INTPs enjoy speculative and imaginative activities. They are flexable and open-minded and are more interested in finding creative yet sound solutions to problems than they are in seeing those solutions made into reality.
Possible Blind Spots
Because INTPs rely so heavily on their logical analysis, they can overlook what matters to others. If something is not logical, INTPs run the risk of dismissing it, even if it is important to them. Admitting to themselves what they really care about will help them stay in touch with their true feelings.
INTPs are excellent at detecting the flaws in an idea but are more reticent about expressing their appreciation. They can get bogged down on a minor flaw in one part of a plan and keep the entire project from moving toward completion because they refuse to let one illogical point remain within the whole. When they turn their highly honed critical thinking skills on the people around them, their naked honesty may translate into unintended hurtfulness. They need to be told, and need to learn to ask, what matters emotionally to others.
Because INTPs are fascinated with solving problems, they tend to be impatient with routine details and may lose interest in a project and never complete it if it requires too much follow-through or detail. Turning their energy outward will enable them to gain sufficient practical knowledge to make their ideas workable and acceptable to other people.
INTPs sometimes feel inadaquate when they try to live up to their own high standards of perfection. Learning to share those feelings with someone else can help them get a more realistic and objective view of themselves.
NTs: Intuitive Thinkers
ENTJ INTJ ENTP INTP
Approximately 12% of the American population
By now you know that Intuitives look for meanings in all things and focus on implications, and you'll remember that Thinkers make decisions impersonally and logically. Taken together, these two prefernces creat an "Intuitive Thinker," a type of person who is intellectual and competent.
The motto for NTs might be, "Be excellent in all things." NTs are the most independent of the four temperments. They are driven to aquire knowledge and set very high standards for themselves and others. Naturally curious, NTs usually can see many sides to the same argument or issue. NTs are excellent at seeing possibilities, understanding complexities, and designing solutions to real or hypothetical problems. Their role is often that of the architect of change.
NTs at Work
NTs enjoy using their abilities to see possibilities and analyze them logically to solve problems. They are interested in constantly aquiring knowledge, either for its own sake or for a strategic purpose.
Strengths
NTs have vision and can be great innovators. They can see possibilities as well as the big picture, and they can conceptualize and design necessary changes within an organization. They excell at (and enjoy) strategizing, planning, and building systems to accomplish their goals. NTs understand complex, theoretical ideas and are good at deducing principles or trends. They enjoy being challenged, and are demanding of themselves and others. NTs can accept constructive criticism without taking it personally. At their best, they are confident, witty, and imaginative.
Potential Weaknesses
Sometimes NTs can be too complex for others to understand. They have a tendency to overlook necessary details. NTs can be deeply skeptical and often challenge rules, assumptions, or customs. They sometimes have trouble with authority and can be seen as an elitist. NTs often fail to see how they affect others, and they may not be interested in either harmony or the importance of feelings. NTs can be fiercely competitive, and they sometimes will not bother with a project or activity if they don't think they will excel at it. At their worst, NTs are arrogant, remote, and in a world of their own.
A good job for an NT might be one that provides autonomy, variety, plenty of intellectual stimulation, and the opportunity to generate ideas. NTs must find their work challenging to be satisfying. Since they can be impatient with others whom they consider less competent than they, NTs need to be surrounded by very capable supervisors, colleagues, and employees. Many NTs value power and gravitate toward powerful positions or people.
Because their need for competence is so strong, NTs are often found in leadership positions. They show up in college-level teaching positions, in upper management, in the sciences or computer fields, and in medicine or law in great numbers.
You can probably guess where NTs end up on the police force. Although NTs are not found in law enforcement in large numbers, they can represent as much as 20 percent of upper management. High-level positions give them a chance to tackle complex problems, the opportunity to apply their vision and logic to long-range strategic plans, and the power they enjoy.
ISTP & INTP
Introverted Thinking Types
For both ISTPs and INTPs, Thinking is dominant and introverted. ISTPs extravert their auxilery function, which is Sensing, and INTPs extravert their auxilery function, which is Intuition.
Implications for Career Satisfaction
Because they want to understand and make sense of the world, ISTPs and INTPs need work which allows them to make analyses--whether they are considering an abstract idea or a concrete project--in the most logical way possible.
Introverted Thinking types are often drawn to computer-related work, although an ISTP is more likely to be interested in setting up, maintaining, and fixing computer systems (to be able to use his or her auxilery function, Sensing, to attend to the accurate opertions of the system), and the INTP is more likely to be drawn to programming (to be able to use his or her auxilery function, Intuition, to learn about new programs and creative ways to use the system).
notes:
ENTP?
INFP? mix four/five(nine) - mix INTP/INFP
ISTP?
NT= knowledge seekers
NF= identity seekers
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