Profile:  INTP
Revision:  1.2
Date of Revision:  7 Dec 93
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           Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Perceiving

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


Word mechanics.  INTPs will often correct others if they use the wrong word
or shade of meaning.  Analytical to a fault.  Overprecise.  Amenable to
almost anything until their principles are violated, about which they are
outspoken and inflexible.

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 two other NTPs.) }

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.)

INTPs in the main are not clannish.  The INTP mailing list, which was an
unlikely entity IMHO, was 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@sfl.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: (tied with ISTJs for most frequent type)
     Thomas Jefferson
     James Madison
     John Quincy Adams
     John Tyler
     Dwight D. Eisenhower
     Gerald Ford
William Harvey (pioneer in human physiology)
Emily Dickinson
C. G. Jung, (neo-Freudian, 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)