On being an INTP…
In early 2016 I took the MBTI test on 16personalities.com and was extremely surprised to learn that I’m an “INTP”, the so called “Logician”.
I was known as a curious, creative type who speaks a lot of languages and knows a lot of random, often useless stuff because he has a pretty decent natural memory.
I was also known for being extremely bad at Maths back in high school and because of my creativity I wasn’t necessarily viewed as a very logical person (even though my sister did tell me I was like Sheldon Cooper, having a high IQ and no EQ at all, to which I replied “There’s a difference between understanding humans and not giving a fuck about them.”).
I read through the description and was shocked at how well it described me. But I still wasn’t convinced, I thought they might be applying the well-known technique “Astrologists” use for horoscopes, with very generic and often appealing descriptions that everybody loves to agree with.
So I took the test again, this time in a different language because I had always felt like I subconsciously knew what answer I had to choose to get to a certain outcome. Of course I had no reason to trust myself just because I was doing the test in a different language, so I tried to focus on really thinking about every question and being as honest as I could.
I was an INTP again. Celebrities with the same personality type include some of the greatest minds to have ever lived: Albert Einstein, Abe Lincoln, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Bill Gates, Marie Curie, René Descartes, both Google-founders and even fucking NEO from The Matrix!
How could I be in the same category as these people, being a lazy stoner and all…? Also, the description did say that many of us INTP’s go on to succeed in scientific careers and even though I had a slight interest, I had never really had any science classes at school and during my nerdiest years, where I spent my weekends reading random Wikipedia articles, I had never really educated myself in the natural sciences.
I obviously doubted my results again, even though I would’ve loved to have the same personality type (out of 16 after all) as Einstein, Lincoln and the great philosophers, but I couldn’t really believe it, even after being surprised again about how well the description of an INTP fit me:
- I hate being “common”, but I’m still rather introverted and don’t want too much attention
- I love patterns and figuring out discrepancies between statements (“Wait, but you said blabla, so that doesn’t make any sense”)
- I’m not interested in practical, day-to-day activities or care much about social conventions
- When I get excited about a topic, I will often not make sense in a conversation because I’ll jump from one idea to the next while trying to explain how I logically got there
- I often finish other people’s sentences, because I figured out what they were trying to say before they did
- Apparently I say a lot of crazy stuff, but I always have logical reasons to get to those crazy conclusions and people often don’t think far enough to understand it
- I’ve always handled negative emotions very rationally and therefore don’t get angry when the issue doesn’t deserve it (this “concept” is also one of the pillars of stoic philosophy)
- I’m viewed as lazy, when actually I’m thinking 24/7 about pretty much every issue I encounter, which believe it or not is tiring. I just live in my head and I like it!
- I love accumulating knowledge, often just for the sake of knowing and without actual plan to apply the knowledge
…and there are many more traits that fit extremely well, but I still kind of didn’t believe I was an INTP, so I took the test another time.
Find out your personality type or read about all of them for free on www.16personalities.com
After the 3rd time taking the test on different platforms and in different languages, I was pretty convinced I was an INTP and really started learning about the topic.
Suddenly I realized through other, more in-depth descriptions of the INTP-personality that I very likely am this type.
INTP’s are not always mathematicians or physics professors. Many of them have a talent for languages, others for fine arts and again others for coding. The common denominator between them is rather how they think and how they view the world, not their chosen career paths and talents.
I learned that it’s also common for INTP’s to not immediately believe the MBTI-test results and therefore repeat them various times (I took the test six times, although after the 3rd or 4th I was mostly convinced).
This goes for pretty much anything. We always take everything with a grain of salt because we’re born sceptics who wanna know how and why, often rather than what.
We are always looking for better, more efficient ways of doing stuff or trying to improve existing systems and concepts and the world would definitely be a worse place without us (that goes for every personality type, but some helped more than others ;))
Of course both Olsen-twins are apparently INTP’s as well, but…. Let’s just not talk about that.
So… What now?
Well… Although the MBTI and psychology in general aren’t very exact and probably never will be, having really thought about myself and comparing myself to other INTP-types has helped me immensely with my self-development. I’m happier with the way I am than before, because I realized that it’s ok to be different as long as you keep going forward.
Knowing that I’m an INTP has helped me really narrow down my strengths and weaknesses, of course always reflecting on what I read and hear and not just believing it to be true. Therefore I have been able to focus my efforts in self-development on the areas I really should improve instead of just following every self-development trend that pops up on YouTube.
INTP’s only make up around 3% of the population, but nowadays we live in the internet. So if you’re reading my blog and are interested in stuff like philosophy and atheism, you might just be an INTP too.
It doesn’t really matter what type you are though, you still have all the power when it comes to your development and your journey.
So… What have we learned today?
It can really help to know yourself a little bit better if you’re struggling with different aspects of life. Self-awareness is a little bit of a trendy topic in self-development but it’s an important one and tests like the MBTI in combination with self-reflection can really help with it.
In the past couple of months I’ve learned a lot about myself, which has made me happier but also ready to change what’s necessary for me to get out of the shithole I’ve been calling my life for the past five years.
I hope it can help you too and I’d like to hear what results you got from the tests, leave me a comment and if you liked this post, subscribe to my newsletter!
Peace out, brothers and sisters!
-The Insightful Stoner
Originally posted on www.insightsofastoner.com.
