answer some questions (pretty please)!

[subwayrider]

As much as I am interested in the females among you, my purpose for this interview is to gather data that might be useful to me in writing a male INTP character in a piece I am working on. Nevertheless, please feel free to answer even if you aren’t INTP or a woman. I would enjoy reading either way -- however, please be sure to state that you are not male and/or INTP.

So…

1. Is it normal for the young, underdeveloped ones to develop misanthropic views? If you’ve ever read Johnny the Homicidal Maniac (I typed him as INTP), is it also normal for these INTPs to develop a fixation with the flaws in human societies (presumably via the Inferior Fe), and to want to rant about them a lot?

2. What is your relationship to academia (college/university in particular) like? I have read that the ITPs can have some issues with Te-stylized learning. Did you have a favorite subject in school?

3. When you’ve been in romantic relationships, how does the other person make you feel? What were the pros and cons of being in a relationship?

4. Have you ever depended on people too much? Perhaps you were afraid of being left alone, so you found yourself needy and clingy? Perhaps you severely compromised your own views to gain acceptance?

5. What do you normally spend your time thinking about? Are there a lot of INTPs who don’t particularly like math, science, etc.?

I’ll be posting more as they occur to me. Also, if some of these are too personal to post publicly, you can PM me if you prefer.

 

[Inappropriate Behavior]

Not quoting each question as that seems unnecessary.

Also, we can only give our experiences/memories of the times. Asking if it is "normal" can't be determined by anecdotal evidence that we could provide. Is it "believable" might be a better wording since you're doing this for a story. You only need to make it believable for an INTP. We do have a varying range of behaviors after all. /nitpick

1. Not full blown misanthropy but I did focus a lot on the "flaws" I saw in the world. I still do today but to a lesser extent (I'm almost 47 now). I'm more accepting of the idea that we are still evolving and have so much still to work out. I put quotation marks around flaws because sometimes it was more about me not understanding why things were as they were. My ranting about it usually stayed in my head as I never seemed to formulate a speech to have ready and when things came out of my mouth they tended to stumble out as various, sometimes competing thought fought to all come out at once. It wasn't pretty.

2. The second part of number 5 seems more fitting to be asked here than there so it will be part of my answer here.

I often lost patience with institutionalised learning. I never prospered in math, I liked science or at least learning about most things scientific. I never felt like I have the patience to work in the field. Crossing every t and dotting every i so to speak was never my thing. I do however approve of the way it is done when done properly. As long as I don't have to do it.

But do let me know the results okay?

3. Almost happy, damn near giddy perhaps? At first anyway. I always love the new. After awhile it often came to be that maintaining the relationship felt like an obligation, which meant it was a chore and resentment might creep in. Striking a balance between together time and alone time is tricky at best especially since for me it is so inconsistent.

4. Not sure how to answer these. I've been afraid of being left out sometimes but not being left alone. I don't think I've ever been needy or clingy or too dependant (outside of childhood of course) but it's possible someone else has percieved me that way. Can't think of when that might have been.

It depends on what you mean by severly compromising my views. We supposedly do the go along to get along thing situationally and I have to what I would consider minor extents. I'll still step into a church for a wedding or funeral. I'm not going to any Klan rally to get along with some group of rednecks or anything like that if that's the kind of thing your looking for.

5. Wandering thoughts. Lots of wandering thoughts at that age.

 

[Brontosaurie]

As much as I am interested in the females among you, my purpose for this interview is to gather data that might be useful to me in writing a male INTP character in a piece I am working on. Nevertheless, please feel free to answer even if you aren’t INTP or a woman. I would enjoy reading either way -- however, please be sure to state that you are not male and/or INTP.

So…

1. Is it normal for the young, underdeveloped ones to develop misanthropic views? If you’ve ever read Johnny the Homicidal Maniac (I typed him as INTP), is it also normal for these INTPs to develop a fixation with the flaws in human societies (presumably via the Inferior Fe), and to want to rant about them a lot?

2. What is your relationship to academia (college/university in particular) like? I have read that the ITPs can have some issues with Te-stylized learning. Did you have a favorite subject in school?

3. When you’ve been in romantic relationships, how does the other person make you feel? What were the pros and cons of being in a relationship?

4. Have you ever depended on people too much? Perhaps you were afraid of being left alone, so you found yourself needy and clingy? Perhaps you severely compromised your own views to gain acceptance?

5. What do you normally spend your time thinking about? Are there a lot of INTPs who don’t particularly like math, science, etc.?

1. yes, seems plausible.

2. despise it, intellectually and emotionally. it amplifies my social phobia. it's creepy and dumb and oppressive. i've never managed to fulfill the requirements long-term even though i am a highly efficient learner. so i've been switching subjects a lot and recently i've begun to seriously consider giving up academia as a substitute for life plan.

3. it's been quite ambivalent. i have an extreme, unconditional, sort of idealized (but true) love at the core which makes me ignore quotidian communicative issues. so the person as such makes me feel good, but the interaction sometimes frustrates and drains me due to unresolved conflicts which i foolishly deem to be insignificant in comparison to the scope of our love.

4. i'm constantly trying to rid my thinking of the biased influences which permeate it. i know that i am susceptible to manipulation because i refuse to let my social self-preservation instincts shield me from absorbing and examining the suggestions of another party. that wasn't the right answer to that question...

5. i spend my time traversing an increasingly barren inner world of conceptual been-there-done-that.

(male, 24, IN?P)

 

[Hadoblado]

INTP male AFAIK

1) - Rage at society? Yep. I never did anything about it though. I guess I have ranted about it a bit over the years.

2) - It's like putting me in a themepark and telling me I can only access the water cooler. I can't concentrate on the things being said because I want to explore all the other things that have been said. I can't remember things without exploring them in my own time, so yeah, not my style. My favourite subjects largely depend on the teacher/lecturer, but I've always enjoyed philosophy and psychology.

3) - Good. I'd say the major con for me is that I no longer feel like my time is only my own. This creates a lot of issues.

4) - Nope.

5) - I don't do much math or hard science. I like doing these things without it being spoon fed to me by a book, but my aptitude in both takes a pretty large hit as a result. While I enjoy thinking about them, it's the sit-down-and-do that's not there. Usually my thoughts tend towards refinement of concepts.

 

[Pyropyro]

As much as I am interested in the females among you, my purpose for this interview is to gather data that might be useful to me in writing a male INTP character in a piece I am working on. Nevertheless, please feel free to answer even if you aren’t INTP or a woman. I would enjoy reading either way -- however, please be sure to state that you are not male and/or INTP.

So…

1. Is it normal for the young, underdeveloped ones to develop misanthropic views? If you’ve ever read Johnny the Homicidal Maniac (I typed him as INTP), is it also normal for these INTPs to develop a fixation with the flaws in human societies (presumably via the Inferior Fe), and to want to rant about them a lot?

2. What is your relationship to academia (college/university in particular) like? I have read that the ITPs can have some issues with Te-stylized learning. Did you have a favorite subject in school?

3. When you’ve been in romantic relationships, how does the other person make you feel? What were the pros and cons of being in a relationship?

4. Have you ever depended on people too much? Perhaps you were afraid of being left alone, so you found yourself needy and clingy? Perhaps you severely compromised your own views to gain acceptance?

5. What do you normally spend your time thinking about? Are there a lot of INTPs who don’t particularly like math, science, etc.?

I’ll be posting more as they occur to me. Also, if some of these are too personal to post publicly, you can PM me if you prefer.

1. Probably. They probably haven't mastered the ability of taking responsibility so they put all the blame on others. Besides, blame or rants are the tools of the powerless.
2. I work there . Chemistry and Biology.
3. I had a relationship once. The giggles were there at the beginning but it soon died out. I believe I'm not yet that qualified/experienced to give you a good answer about the pros and cons of relationships.
4. I was dependent on people when I was a child but I tend to like being left alone as I grew up.
5. Mostly making plans or an abstract storyline/invention. Not necessarily not like the sciences but I did encounter an INTP that's more skilled in the arts.

(male/ INTP)

 

[Anktark]

1. Is it normal for the young, underdeveloped ones to develop misanthropic views? If you’ve ever read Johnny the Homicidal Maniac (I typed him as INTP), is it also normal for these INTPs to develop a fixation with the flaws in human societies (presumably via the Inferior Fe), and to want to rant about them a lot?

2. What is your relationship to academia (college/university in particular) like? I have read that the ITPs can have some issues with Te-stylized learning. Did you have a favorite subject in school?

3. When you’ve been in romantic relationships, how does the other person make you feel? What were the pros and cons of being in a relationship?

4. Have you ever depended on people too much? Perhaps you were afraid of being left alone, so you found yourself needy and clingy? Perhaps you severely compromised your own views to gain acceptance?

5. What do you normally spend your time thinking about? Are there a lot of INTPs who don’t particularly like math, science, etc.?

I’ll be posting more as they occur to me. Also, if some of these are too personal to post publicly, you can PM me if you prefer.

1. I would say it is quite normal for an INTP to be more perceptive of flaws. As for ranting, unless it's to a close friend or as inner monologue, the INTP couldn't be arsed.

2. I found that both school and university kinda sucked (the latter quite a bit less). Firstly, way too many people for my liking. Secondly, the subjects in classes were taught at a pace that was usually not optimal to me. Thirdly, rote memorization -> regurgitation (applies to school more).
Informatics would have been my favourite subject (in school) if I haven't learnt the curriculum material a month after classes started. It introduced me to programming, so I probably should be somewhat grateful for that (I am not). In the end, I am gonna go with physics.

3. I have not been in a romantic relationship. So far seems unlikely I will be.

4. Can't remember even a single event, but it might have happened once or twice (I assume everything until age of three doesn't count).

5. Vague answer to a vague question: systems, concepts, their (ab)use and modification; definitions and speculation. As for second part of the question, could be. I don't greatly enjoy math for the sake of it, but it's a great tool for defining and understanding. I would be more precise saying that I appreciate math. Being an INTP does not necessarily mean you like science, however, the two coincide often and became a stereotype.

 

[subwayrider]

Thanks for the replies thus far. It's interesting to me that the INTPs who have participated have had the same experiences with academia as me, and feel about the same about it as I do. I, too, felt very constricted by the book-and-blackboard approach, so much that the emphasis on grades really went out the window for me and I opted for having as much fun with the concepts as possible, exploring them in a very personalized way (one nutshell definition of Ti). During my time in junior college, in certain of my science courses, I inadvertently anticipated the learning process at competitive universities by ditching class and teaching myself mostly via my own devices. Those of my classmates who were most competitive at the time were actually utilizing the classroom, group work, and professor's notes approach. They tended to get better grades, but once they transferred perhaps it was a bit awkward to adapt to the individualized learning so many university students seem to prefer.

I attend a very good university, so I have some contact with geniuses although I am not one -- or even in the sciences -- myself. If possible, I would like to remain in this environment for many years. The INT women are particularly fascinating. If I were more sociable, I'd have a bunch of them as friends by now.

​

But I'm working on the sociability...

 

[subwayrider]

I'm something of an author, and it occurred to me some time ago that it might prove beneficial to utilize methodologies more obviously native to other forms of artistic expression. In contemporary acting, for instance, it has become somewhat commonplace for actors to take preparation for roles to certain extremes -- think Heath Ledger in 'The Dark Knight' or Christian Bale in 'The Machinist.'

I am interested in such an approach and have utilized it in the past -- though not to any comparable extent -- and now I'm interested in, if you will, becoming INTP.

So if one wanted to become INTP, what sort of changes in lifestyle would that entail? I noticed a pattern of the aforementioned actors, and others, deliberately focusing on the body to bring about the desired change in the psyche. Is there something I might perhaps do with my body?

As a point of reference, I am a half-withdrawn, half-sociable INFJ.

 

[Nick]

1. Is it normal for the young, underdeveloped ones to develop misanthropic views? If you’ve ever read Johnny the Homicidal Maniac (I typed him as INTP), is it also normal for these INTPs to develop a fixation with the flaws in human societies (presumably via the Inferior Fe), and to want to rant about them a lot?

Young people do things to stick out, INTPs are consistent with extreme repetitive imaginative thoughts. We're good at picking out patterns, we pick up the little nuances that others miss and it makes us feel special if we share what we learn with others. The thing is, 1. we're extremely quiet so we usually just go 'hmmm' in our heads and keep going, 2. after we learn a bit, we become humble.

2. What is your relationship to academia (college/university in particular) like? I have read that the ITPs can have some issues with Te-stylized learning. Did you have a favorite subject in school?

Remember, academia is created to fit every type of a person (some are square pegs) into round holes, see what I'm getting at? Especially at the entry level (bachelor's degree) are we still modeled to teach all types of people. Understand its a slow tedious process, but created by great minds. Teaches you discipline, allows you to grow as a person and connect to other like minds, and programs (masters/doctors/phds) are created for you to pursue once you grab a hold of a direction in life and focus *(become more J-like) in that area. You have to go through the motions like everyone else, so enjoy it.

3. When you’ve been in romantic relationships, how does the other person make you feel? What were the pros and cons of being in a relationship?

If I feel great, so does she. Its a neverending enjoyable ride, things do get stale after years, so understand it/s your job to lead mostly and direct her how to have fun. Cons as others have mentioned is a lack of personal time, but thats okay, cause it takes two to tango.

4. Have you ever depended on people too much? Perhaps you were afraid of being left alone, so you found yourself needy and clingy? Perhaps you severely compromised your own views to gain acceptance?

I knew after a 4 year relationship that my personality was strongly co-dependant. I learned that transitions take time, everything happens for a reason and sooner or later you'll have to learn to live with yourself first and foremost.

5. What do you normally spend your time thinking about? Are there a lot of INTPs who don’t particularly like math, science, etc.?

My free-time is concentrated on anything that piques my interest, but I do enjoy becoming extremely proficient in a more obscure online PC-game.

In the past year or so I've developed more of an outgoing personality (thanks to nootropics). My Ti combined with my Ne allows me to simply verbalize my thoughts and control conversations in the whichever direction I want with simple subtleties.

Again, you more you learn in life (and yes life is a neverending journey that shifts gears when you least expect it), the better you develop your character. Whichever direction you choose to go with your build is your choice, but enjoy the ride.

.

.

 

[Cognisant]

1. I still think society is flawed and occasionally rant about it, why would I stop?

2. I have a hard time learning in structured environments, if I want to learn something I pursue the knowledge by myself for myself, it's hard to stay motivated otherwise.

3. Oh fuck where do I start?

4. Not really, I have trouble maintaining connections.

5. Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Technological Life Extension, etc.