You realize what’s enjoyable? Being instructed you haven’t any feelings, no motivation, and no concept tips on how to speak to folks — all as a result of your mind prefers logic over groupthink.
Should you’re an INTP or ISTP, you’ve most likely been mischaracterized extra instances than you’ll be able to depend. Apparently, preferring accuracy over fluff makes you a robotic, and never answering textual content messages instantly means you’re emotionally unavailable (you have been actually simply watching a YouTube video and didn’t see the alert, however right here we’re).
Introverted Pondering sorts are inclined to function behind the scenes — dissecting, transforming, systematizing. The inside world is loud; the outer world, at all times making an attempt to interrupt. However as a result of their brilliance is commonly quiet and their feelings don’t leak everywhere, folks make assumptions. Dangerous ones. Lazy ones.
Let’s break a few of these down, we could?
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1. They’re chilly, impassive robots.
Look, simply because somebody doesn’t live-stream their emotional breakdowns doesn’t imply they don’t have them. INTPs and ISTPs typically really feel issues intensely — they only don’t need to really feel them sloppily.
The INTP’s inferior operate is Extraverted Feeling. Which means they really feel plenty of vulnerability and insecurity round emotional expression. Certain, they’ve feelings like everybody else. However they’re going to maintain them underneath lock and key as a result of it feels terrifying to leak them out.
Identical to an ENFJ may not need to get right into a logical debate about quantum mechanics as a result of they’re insecure about their logical cohesion (even when it’s good), an INTP gained’t need to unload all their feelings as a result of they don’t belief that they are going to “make sense.”
Ti sorts typically attempt to clear up their feelings as a substitute of experiencing them — which implies bottling, rationalizing, distracting, after which finally collapsing right into a bizarre mixture of existential dread and three AM Wikipedia spirals.
And since they hate trying silly, you often gained’t see that collapse until you’re somebody they deeply belief. In any other case, it’s only a cool, clean stare and a quiet retreat from the room.
2. They’re lazy or unmotivated.
No. They’re simply not motivated by your metrics.
Ti-doms have a selected type of motivation: the obsessive, hyperfocused, “hasn’t eaten in twelve hours as a result of they’re researching how 18th-century crusing ships have been constructed” sort. If one thing captures their curiosity, they are going to outwork everybody. But when it doesn’t? It’s like making an attempt to get a sea cucumber to run a marathon.
An ISTP I coached as soon as stated, “I’d fairly repair the issue than sit in a gathering listening to folks throw ineffective concepts on the wall. I’m productive, simply not within the company, bureaucratic sense.”
If Ti sorts seem unmotivated, it’s often as a result of they’re surrounded by folks asking them to do issues that really feel inefficient, meaningless, or arbitrary. You need productiveness? Allow them to design the system. Then get out of the way in which.
3. They’re indecisive.
Introverted Pondering could not leap to conclusions or rush when a call must be made. It doesn’t go together with the gang. It needs to know why one thing works — and extra importantly, if it should nonetheless work underneath stress.
So while you ask a Ti-dom a query they usually pause for twenty seconds earlier than answering, they’re not stalling. They’re working simulations.
Should you’re in search of a fast, emotionally-charged “sure” or “no,” you’re gonna be dissatisfied. However if you’d like somebody to catch the flaw in your 17-step marketing strategy earlier than you waste ten grand on it, name a Ti kind.
An INTP consumer as soon as stated, “If I appear indecisive, it’s as a result of I’m making an attempt to stop a future model of myself from mocking present-day me.”
Many Introverted Pondering sorts really feel inwardly very decisive, they only don’t categorical their intestine reactions out loud till they’ve been vetted.
4. They don’t care about folks.
They do. They only care otherwise.
If Fe-doms are like heat hugs and shared playlists, Ti-doms are like somebody quietly fixing your damaged sink with out being requested — and by no means mentioning it once more.
Caring for them typically seems like troubleshooting your life quietly. Or sending you a 3-page message about why your ex was a narcissist with horrible boundary points. Or ensuring you don’t damage your individual plans by declaring the one flaw you neglected.
Ti sorts present up when it counts. Like a deeply skeptical, emotionally repressed ninja who will completely roast your unhealthy logic earlier than providing you with a journey to the airport.
5. They’re socially clueless.
Let’s make clear. They see the social guidelines. They only suppose half of them are ridiculous.
Certain, they miss a cue from time to time — sarcasm, flirting, the refined “we’re leaving now” sign. However in lots of instances, they’re opting out on objective. They don’t need to carry out the dance of well mannered lies and hole affirmations. Meaningless chit chat and pointless banter make them really feel in poor health. Accuracy and honesty will at all times be extra ideally suited than pretending.
An ISTP I knew as soon as instructed his boss at a company retreat, “You say you need suggestions however you punish folks after they give it. That’s unhealthy management.” Which tanked his promotion. However he walked away feeling nice about it. As a result of it was true.
6. They suppose they’re smarter than everybody else.
No, they suppose everybody else ought to be questioning issues extra.
Ti-doms don’t assume they’re the neatest — they assume certainty is harmful, they usually side-eye anybody who’s too assured with out proof. After they hear somebody say, “I simply know,” they begin mentally drafting a counterargument. To them they’re simply capable of dismantle anybody’s logic, together with their very own. That fixed questioning implies that they’re typically extra certain about what’s not true than what’s. Typically this makes them really feel like they don’t know something for sure. But it surely additionally means they spot holes in mainstream beliefs earlier than most individuals do. And that’s what will get them in sizzling water with their relations on the reunion.
Finally, introverted pondering sorts are truth-seekers, which implies they’ll debate their pals, their professors, and their very own inside monologue if it will get them nearer to coherence. And in the event that they do appear smug, it’s often since you refused to quote a single supply whereas declaring one thing “apparent.”
7. They’re at all times rational and proof against bias.
Let’s be trustworthy: Ti-doms need this to be true. They aspire to be the dispassionate logic-bot who makes selections based mostly on clear knowledge, elegant reasoning, and nil private interference.
However right here’s the factor: the inner system they’re so happy with remains to be fed by them. Their experiences. Their assumptions. Their unconscious emotions they haven’t labeled but.
Finally, even the cleanest logic will get warped by a rogue emotional variable they refused to acknowledge. Like, “This conclusion is 100% rational,” till you understand it’s simply the one framework that allows you to really feel in management, unjudged, or unhumiliated.
And when Ti-doms enter an inferior Fe grip, they sink right into a world of hypersensitivity, people-pleasing, irrational disgrace, and emotional whiplash — after which marvel how the hell all of it acquired so messy.
Instantly, they’re obsessively ruminating about what somebody meant after they stated “Certain” in that textual content. Or they’re over-apologizing. Or blowing up a relationship over an imagined slight, all whereas insisting they’re being “logical” as a result of they created a 14-point inside thesis about how they’re not the issue.
From the surface, it’s baffling. From the within? It feels scientific.
Sure, Introverted Pondering is exact, but it surely’s not infallible. Particularly when emotions try to sneak in by the again door, disguised as “high-level abstraction.”
What Do You Assume?
What do you suppose are the largest misconceptions about your character kind? Share your ideas and insights with different readers!
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