Profile:  INTP
Revision:  1.4
Date of Revision:  30 Jun 94
=============================================================================


           Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Perceiving

            by Joe Butt (jabutt@sacam.oren.ortn.edu)


INTPs are pensive, analytical folks.  They may venture so deeply into 
thought as to seem detached and often actually are oblivious to the world 
around them.

Precise about their descriptions, INTPs will often correct others (or at
least be sorely tempted to) if the shade of meaning is a bit off.  This 
sometimes annoying habit is at once also a strength in grammarians, a 
perfect arena for the literal INTP.

INTPs are relatively easy-going and amenable to almost anything until
their principles are violated, about which they may become outspoken and
inflexible.  But they usually return to a reserved albeit benign 
ambiance, not wishing to make spectacles of themselves.

A major concern for INTPs is the haunting sense of impending failure.  They
spend considerable time second-guessing themselves.  The open-endedness (from
Perceiving) conjoined with the need for competence (NT) is expressed in a
sense that one's conclusion may well be met by an equally plausible
alternative solution, and that, after all, one may very well have overlooked
some critical bit of *data*.  An INTP arguing a point may very well be trying
to convince himself as much as his opposition.  In this way INTPs are
markedly different from INTJs, who are much more confident in their
competence and willing to act on their convictions.

Mathematics is a system where many INTPs love to play.  But so are languages,
computer systems, and potentially any complex system.  INTPs thrive on
systems.  Understanding, exploring, mastering, and manipulating systems can
overtake the INTP's conscious thought.  This fascination for logical wholes
and their inner workings is often expressed in a detachment from the
environment, a concentration where time is forgotten and extraneous stimuli
are held at bay.

INTPs and Logic -- One of the tipoffs that a person is an INTP is her
obsession with logical correctness.  Errors are not often due to poor
logic -- apparent faux pas in reasoning are usually a result of *overlooking
details* or of incorrect context.

{ As a personal note, I really enjoy the 'minesweeper' game on Windows 3.1.
It's a great theatre for testing both the ability to recognize patterns (a
strength for N's) and logical correctness, and the added dimension of time
gives the impetus to improve my skills.  I usually get blown up because in
haste I overlook a 'minor' detail, but there's always next time. ( My 
previously posted "best time" has been overtaken--by an ENTP.  I'm 
down to 155 seconds, but my nemesis claims 137!) }

Other games NTs seem to especially enjoy include Risk, Bridge, Stratego,
Chess, Go (hence the server on the net), and *word games* of all sorts. (I
have an ENTP friend that loves Boggle and its variations.  We've been
known to sit in public places and pick a word off a menu or mayonnaise jar
to see who can make the most words from its letters on a napkin in two
minutes.) The INTP mailing list has enjoyed a round of Metaphor, virtual
volleyball, and a few 'finish the series' brain teasers. 

INTPs in the main are not clannish.  The INTP mailing list, now in triple 
figures, was in its incipience fraught with all the difficulties of the 
Panama canal:  we had trouble deciding on 
  1) whether or not there should be such a group, 
  2) exactly *what* such a group should be called, and 
  3) which of us would have to take the responsibility for organization
     and maintenance of the aforesaid group/club/whatever. 
(Other unsympathetic J types, as I recall, enjoyed the spectacle of our
earnest strivings with that old question, "To be, or not to be..." 
Finally one of our firstborn patriots took the bull by the horns and
declared that we could be if only we would, and now we are.)

[Anyone who thinks (s)he is an INTP is invited to join the INTP mailing
list by sending a message to listserv@sefl.satelnet.org with the line
	subscribe intp
in the body of the letter.]

Famous INTPs:

Socrates
Rene Descartes
Blaise Pascal
Sir Isaac Newton
U.S. Presidents: 
     James Madison
     John Quincy Adams
     John Tyler
     Gerald Ford
William Harvey (pioneer in human physiology)
C. G. Jung, (Freudian defector, author of _Psychological Types_, &c.)
William James
Albert Einstein
Tom Foley (Speaker of the House--U.S. House of Representatives)
Bob Newhart
Rick Moranis (_Honey, I Shrunk The Kids_)
Brent Spiner (Commander Data, "Star Trek -- The Next Generation")
Midori Ito (ice skater, Olympic silver medalist)
Ashley and Mary Kate Olsen (The 'Full House' twins)

[6/30/94--apologies for the previous error in the mailing list address!]
