#and that was me that entp girl and our infj teacher while the rest of the class was full of rage because of this writing style

[notanotherinfjblog]

How to spot an INTP

A few years ago, I made a post about how the cognitive functions manifest in our behaviour and now I’m going to expand on that and give a more detailed, visually accompanied overview for each type, now for the INTP.

For the purpose of this guide, I took a look at this interview with Harald Lesch, a German astrophysicist, natural philosopher and science journalist. You can find the links to other type spotting guides below which I will update over time when new guides are being added.

The dominant and the auxiliary cognitive functions that people use are those that are the ones that are really noticeable in the quality of their gaze, in their speech style, in their facial expressions, and their whole general demeanour, and so these are the ones that I will be focussing on here. In case of an INTP, these are Ti and Ne. Due to this combination, INTPs spend a lot of time inside their own mind and that’s visible in their faces. If you compare the gaze of an INTP to that of an ISTP that shares their dominant Ti, the difference between them is blatantly staring you in the face because the INTP’s gaze completely lacks any intensity whatsoever that the ISTP (and any other person with Ni/Se) does possess. INTPs can look at something directly and yet it never seems like they are really taking in all the visual information. It’s like their mind is screaming so loudly that it’s drowning out any external information that might enter their brain.

When they laugh, they laugh for themselves, not to accommodate other people. Many times, INTPs laugh about what they are about to say, but when they are saying the funny thing afterwards, they usually do so calmly without laughter in their voice. INTPs are in general not designed to accommodate other people, they are not designed to go out of their way to be polite and friendly. They can absolutely be so, but that’s a conscious choice, not something that happens naturally as it does for the other types with higher Fe. If you watch the interview, you will find that Harald Lesch spends the entire almost 20 minutes just sitting there on his chair with his arms crossed for the entire time, with occasional disruptions of gesticulations with no regard to how that might come across. INTPs are not socially inept though and they usually do know what is appropriate in a situation and what isn’t, but first and foremost, they are existing for themselves, unrelated to those around them. They are their own entity. 

When it comes to talking, INTPs have two modes: 1) their gaze is directed at some point in the air, but their eyes are slightly shifting from left to right, from right to left, like the external gearwheels of their mind, and you can bet there will be a perpendicular line on their forehead between their eyes as they are frowning at their own thoughts, or 2) they are looking at their conversation partner directly, often with big eyes under raised eyebrows as to highlight the point they are making. And they will switch between these two modes constantly, though the first one appears to be the default. INTPs may lack the grand and open body language of other types and like to keep it minimalistic, so they mainly use their head for this purpose, and I mean that in the most literal sense possible: their head moves around a lot, may it be for emphasis, for (un)certainty on a matter, anything.

Regarding their speech style, INTPs share the same tendency that all intuitives are prone to, which is really long sentences. They squeeze in a lot of subordinate clauses all over the place, and when they finally finish a sentence while monologuing, the next sentence is following so quickly after with not a single millisecond wasted for irrelevant things like breathing, it seems like they are actually producing one single sentence that is going on and on and on forever. But I would like to highlight that what they are saying is (with a few exceptions of aborted subordinate clauses they first wanted to squeeze in) all grammatically correct. This becomes noteworthy when you compare them to the NJs who are many times incapable of that. A little excerpt from the interview on climate change and policies with Harald Lesch (translated from German) demonstrating these everlasting sentences:

“It must be done. It’s a bit like, you are told, the tooth back there, we actually should do something about it, and then you don’t go to the dentist and you still don’t go to the dentist and at some point it starts to hurt and then you may try some highly spiritual drinks such as a cognac, fiddle there, rinse it a bit back there and at some point in the end you need to go and then it needs to be pulled and currently I have the feeling, we’ve had the diagnosis for a long time concerning the wisdom tooth, but wisdom’s last resort, eventually, is climate protection and gradually, uh, the number of people who understand that keeps growing, but it could be that nature won’t play along, which means that our conception of time, how we deal with decisions - we are poring over and over and so on - these conceptions are wrong because we cannot bargain with nature and nature has its own time scales according to which it reacts and the more strongly we change nature, the more strongly and the faster these changes will fall back on us. [...] And at this point you just really need to say this, you need to, uh, that children go on the streets here on Fridays [Friday’s for future], uh, that is actually a scandal, namely that one that we are not joining them, that not all of us are on the streets.”

Occasionally, INTPs can fall into a speech style that the Ne-doms ENFP and ENTP are notorious for, which is almost stutter-like as they repeat either the same word or the beginning of a word several times over and over very quickly before moving on with the sentence. Something that INTPs also like to do is start talking about something, omit the main part and jump right to the conclusion, so that they get confused when nobody can follow because they know the middle part, they just forgot to say it out loud. 

Other How to spot type XY guides so far: INFJ, ENFJ, ESFJ, ISFP

[imdeannafuckingwinchester]

MBTI as people I know.

INTP (me and friend): Procrastinates. Has perfect grades. Is really distant when you first get to know them. Once they trust you, they are a lovable dork. Loves dogs and cats. Hates going outside. PE is death. Can’t run for shit. Anime Nerd. Bookworm. Loves earl grey tea. Can’t deal with social situations. So smart. Nihilistic AF. 

ENFJ (mom): Soooooooo many friends. Runs into someone she knows on a daily basis. PTA mom. Super caring. Passive aggressive AF when angry. Planning is crack for her. Struggles with logic. Loves animals. Is the type of person to smile at strangers. Also the type of person to flick you off if you cut her off while driving. 

ISTP (dad): Construction is life. Fixes things for fun. Used to own a motorcycle. Was in the navy. Has PTSD. Really friendly if you are a ‘compentent’ individual. Will punch you if not. ADHD. Really funny. Intimidating. He gets me (INTP) like no one else. Really cuddly and fun if he likes you. 

ENTP (friend): Literal debater. Reads Machiavelli for fun. Doesn’t believe in MBTI. Everyone in our Spanish class hates him. Puns. He has so many puns. He never shuts up. ‘Actually…’ Is an awkward cinnamon roll. Can’t handle sexual jokes. Cares about you a lot if he likes you. Aethiest. 

ESFP (brother): Hyperactive puppy. Hugs. Loves dancing (not good at it). Loves spending time with his friends. Likes cartoons. Laughs at jokes even if he doesn’t get them. Enjoys reading. Good at math. Soccer is life. Thinks dodgeball should be an Olympic sport. Cuddles with me even if I don’ t want to be touched.

INFJ (friend): Mom friend. Wants everyone in her ‘ family’ to get along. Has depression. Smiles for us anyway. Peacemaker. Enjoys tea. Is the most organized person on the planet. Has anxiety. Is a sweet cinnamon roll. Will not have your bs. Sucks at anything remotely athletic. Harry Potter nerd. I got her addicted to MBTI.

INFP (best friend): Quirky cinnamon roll. Never gets enough sleep. Trying her best. Depressed. Gets me on another level. We bond over Ne. Can have an entire conversation with her out of just references to movies we’ve watched together. Always down for lazy couch time. Cares so much. Honestly, I love her so much. 

INTJ (a teacher I’m friends with): Super polite. Most students either love or hate her. Intelligent AF. Teaches biology. Gets really excited about science facts. She lets students into her room from the cold during brunch. Will not have any of your bs. Loves participation in her class. Has a cat. 

ENFP (friend): This girl. Makes friends easily. I don’t know how she does it. Smarter than you’d think. We bond over Ne. Bit of an SJW. Loves gossip. Bullet journals are her life. Obsessed with aesthetics. Wants everyone to feel comfortable in her environment. Is aggressively nice. Procrastination.

ESTP (friend): So bubbly. Loves gossip. Really flirty. Shook everyone's hand on the first day of school. Struggles in school. Picks up a math concept fairly quickly once I explain it to her (and have her attention). Most likely to randomly compliment a person. The teacher doesn’t know why we are friends. We are practically polar opposites. She does all the talking for me. 

 ISFJ (grandma- mom’s side): Teaches a yoga class. Her house is so clean. Not good with kids. She loves her grand-kids anyway. Has been driving the same car for 17 years. Doesn’t know how to work technology. Really friendly. Health-nut. Has a garden she is so proud of. 

ESFJ (grandma- dad’s side): Loves dark chocolate. Lives on the same street as the rest of her family (minus my family). Goes to church every Sunday. Cares for her older sister, her step-mom, and cared for her mom until she passed. The most loving person on the planet. Bakes cookies with me every time I come over. Loves poker. Just wants you to be happy. Cooks so much food. Idealistic.

ISTJ (Grandpa- mom’s side): Really quiet. A scientist. Knows a lot of random trivia. Organized as hell. Loves his family but isn’ t the most affectionate. Good at cooking. Drinks a lot of coffee. Wine type of person. Always hosts Thanksgiving. Gets way too into Easter.