MBTI & Me ( INTP)

Took the Myer-Briggs type indicator quiz today and found something about me.After answering about 70 odd questions the result was : You're an INTP.So curious about the fact that what does INTP stand for I started digging the net. Now internet is a wonderful place for satisfying all your curiosity.Just enter anything in google and you have more results than what u will read in your entire lifetime. So after searching for INTP definitions i found out that INTP's are a bit of a rare profile.First the definitions:

# I – Introversion preferred to Extraversion: INTPs tend to be quiet and reserved. They generally prefer interacting with a few close friends rather than a wide circle of acquaintances, and they expend energy in social situations (whereas extraverts gain energy).
# N – iNtuition preferred to Sensing: INTPs tend to be more abstract than concrete. They focus their attention on the big picture rather than the details, and on future possibilities rather than immediate realities.
# T – Thinking preferred to Feeling: INTPs tend to value objective criteria above personal preference. When making decisions, they generally give more weight to logic than to social considerations.
# P – Perception preferred to Judgment: INTPs tend to withhold judgment and delay important decisions, preferring to "keep their options open" should circumstances change. [Wikipedia]

INTP types are quiet by undying skeptics. They are mainly interested in new ideas and have little concern for parties or small talk. They can, however, become quite talkative about a topic they've recently studied. Their logic cuts directly to the core issue of any problem.

"INTPs are relatively easy-going and amenable to most anything until their principles are violated, about which they may become outspoken and inflexible. They prefer to return, however, to a reserved albeit benign ambiance, not wishing to make spectacles of themselves."
- INTP Profile (TypeLogic)

"The INTP is above all a thinker and his inner (private) world is a place governed by a strong sense of logical structure. Every experience is to be rigorously analysed, the task of the INTP's mind is to fit each encountered idea or experience into a larger structure defined by logic."
- An INTP Profile (intp.org)

"INTPs live in the world of theoretical possibilities. They see everything in terms of how it could be improved, or what it could be turned into. They live primarily inside their own minds, having the ability to analyze difficult problems, identify patterns, and come up with logical explanations. They seek clarity in everything, and are therefore driven to build knowledge. They are the "absent-minded professors", who highly value intelligence and the ability to apply logic to theories to find solutions."
- Portrait of an INTP (The Personality Page)

"INTPs contribute a logical, system-building approach to their work. They like being the architect of a plan, because of the scheming and thinking involved, far more than being the implementer of that plan. Implementation tends to be drudgery. They are content to sit back and think about what might work, given their view of the situation. INTPs may ignore standard operating procedures. The hours that they spend are not what is important to them, but rather the completion of their thought process"
- INTP - The Wizard (Lifexplore)

"likes solitude, not revealing, unemotional, rule breaker, avoidant, familiar with the darkside, skeptical, acts without consulting others"
- Jung Type Descriptions (INTP) (similarminds.com)


Also some of the great personalities with whom i share the type are:

* Abraham Lincoln - American President
* Albert Einstein - German physicist
* Blaise Pascal - French mathematician
* Carl Jung - Swiss psychiatrist
* Charles Darwin - English naturalist
* Gerald Ford - American President
* James Madison - American President
* John Quincy Adams - American President
* John Tyler - American President
* Meryl Streep - actress
* Rene Descartes - French philosopher
* Socrates - Greek philosopher
* William Harvey - medical doctor
* William James - American psychologist

An illustrative list indeed.Now some of the explanations were spot on.On a humorous note :
You know you're an Intp when...
1.You uphold the beleif that it is possible to be perfectly social wihtout actually speaking.

2.More often than not, you bow your head while walking, and are an expert at 'crowd dodging'

3. You indulge in, and are quite renowned among friends for, making completely random, yet very accurate observations.

4.You think about the very thing which you are not doing.

5.If wikipedia was a person, you would marry it. If possible, you would download the internet into your mind.(and have probably tried)

6.You frequently entertain the thought that you can make peoples heads explode simply by concentrating pure hatred on them.
Or at least, you wish it were so.

7.You often fantasise about being part of a wordlwide virtual reality, or becoming an all powerful demigod,or something of the like.


8.When sitting on any public chair which has more than one sight sideby side, you kindly make sure that your dearest -whatever you're carrying- has a seat to itself.

9.No-one* finds you funny but yourself, and despite this, you are always trying to make clever jokes that no-one gets.

10.You have spent a whole night of not sleeping, pondering something, and then after asking someone about it the next day, realise that you're the only one which seems to care.

Now this was the summation that was needed. Apart from being humorous it succinctly does describe the few oddities that i find in my personality. But also bear in mind the zen proverb : No one steps in the same river twice. i.e. one is always in the state of flux. So though the type indicators ( there are 16 in fact ) describe something about you they are not the boundaries within which you have to live. Man is a creation that can go beyond and many in fact do so.

But for the moment a step has been taken in the direction of knowing oneself and for this reason alone everyone should take this test.