"Balanced" INTP [OUIQ]

[Ptah]

One again, I take from the ivory tower up above (http://forums.intpcentral.com/showthread.php?44187-quot-Balanced-quot-INTP)that which can and should equally be discussed among we the plebeians below (http://forums.intpcentral.com/showthread.php?40166-The-OUIQ-Shall-Inherit-the-Forum!). Even so, I place it here to keep those godawful nons out (for who has any time for them, right)?



Do you try to be a balanced INTP? By this I mean an INTP who works to build on or overcome their inherent weaknesses.

...

How have you developed as an INTP? Do you actively try and overcome 'weaknesses?' If so, what sort of things have you done and how have they affected you? Is it possible for a non-senser to become 'good' at small talk?

I'm looking for suggestions/discussion on improvements that make an INTP more prosperous.


Let's have at it.

Furthermore, what is a "balanced INTP" to you? As applied personally and/or generally.

[Ptah]

To some extent I do try to become a "balanced" INTP but not necessarily in terms of the MBTI/type model factors (be it Ti or just T, etc), and not just for its own sake. You could say I endeavor to balance my value-system (http://forums.intpcentral.com/showthread.php?41942-Merely-Mortal&p=1390920&viewfull=1#post1390920) for the sake of my happiness and health (http://forums.intpcentral.com/showthread.php?41942-Merely-Mortal&p=1390917&viewfull=1#post1390917).

As you might imagine, this business can sometimes become involved with/guided by my awarenes of the descriptively heuristic power of type theory (again, be it MBTI or Keirsey's), turned introspectively. For instance, to optimize certain lifestyle choices which play to my strengths whilst minimizing contact on my weaknesses. This as the overall strategy, although also affording for certain developments to shore up a few salient, tactical weaknesses of mine.

These special provisions -- which are not to "balance", merely "adjust" -- chiefly centered around idiosyncrasies of my (very weak) Fe, involve behavioral tweaks (contrived, programmed habits) against things like my capacity for a flare-up temper under just the wrong circumstances (http://forums.intpcentral.com/showthread.php?32301-Rapid-Aggravation), my proclivity to demonstrate inappropriate emotional responses (http://forums.intpcentral.com/showthread.php?26216-Inappropriate-Emotional-Expression) at times, etc. However, there exist other such habit-tweaks which seek to combat other functions' malfunctions. Such as against my undesirable capacity to exhibit moments of Ti-Ne stun (http://forums.intpcentral.com/showthread.php?25780-Moments-of-Ti-Ne-Stun), and perhaps Ne/Si driven culture shock paralysis (http://forums.intpcentral.com/showthread.php?27951-Culture-Shock-Paralysis)? Other tweaks shore up rough edges around the fine points I've sharpened certain behaviors to, for instance as against my habitual leak which causes me to desire real-life undo/restart (http://forums.intpcentral.com/showthread.php?40448-Real-Life-and-Undo-Restart). Finally, there are habits I've put in place specifically to adjust for a shortcoming under Ti's (stereotypical?) domain, possible dyscalculia (http://forums.intpcentral.com/showthread.php?41415-Is-this-dyscalculia).

What results are a bunch of conscious, deliberate shims put in place around certain rough edges (hewn either by nurture or nature), such that my back and flank sides are covered while I beam laser-like forward in terms of my evident, natural strengths (or not at all).

This isn't necessarily "balance" in the function sense, but it is "balanced" in an overall lifestyle/career/etc/personally philosophical sense (as above), if you ask me.

You can achieve a state of balance without equal weight on both/all sides. It all depends on the proportions and angles involved, and the aesthetic/dynamic desired.

---

And since I can take this shot, I will:


I assume higher IQ INTPs to have greater self awareness of what constitutes a personal weakness and how it may be beneficial to overcome it.

:dont:

[puzzled-observer]

I agree with your general idea. I think "balance" as it is normally thought of isn't necessarily the best path. The fact that we live in a society allows us to specialize in what we're doing. Becoming more "balanced" means moving yourself towards the "average person" which would decrease your relative rarity and therefore decrease your potential value to society.

Now, obviously potential value to society doesn't necessarily correlate with happiness or personal fulfillment either; but it can certainly promote such things.
I'm not personally at the point where I fully understand what my specific strengths are...such that I could put it into a precise wording. Though obviously it's easy to understand them in general.

I feel like in general it's more productive to work around weaknesses rather than trying to correct them. As Ps I think we have a tendency to adapt ourselves to the situations...but this is a mistake. It's better to put yourself in a situation where the weaknesses don't matter all that much (i.e. flexible hours, personal autonomy, etc). This isn't the case for all weaknesses, though. For example: I feel like there is an aspect of my laziness that's associated with fear of failure or avoidance of criticism or something along that line. The nature of this particular weakness is such that it's fundamentally unavoidable. So obviously in that case it's reasonable to make a concerted effort to overcome it, rather than avoiding it.

My idea is to maximize the potential for positive growth rather than minimizing the negative growth. If you have something special to offer, the world is big enough where you can find a niche to apply it. So I say hone and sharpen your special skills. Do one thing really well and THEN figure out how to apply it.

[rainfall]

Ugh. Didn't your Ti take over completely, Ptah?

[Ptah]

Ugh. Didn't your Ti take over completely, Ptah?

No. It is perhaps the most salient (here), but it does not have exclusive control over my behavior (on this forum or otherwise). Ne directs my behavior between posts here, as it does between many events IRL.

[LastRailway]

I am more balanced in some aspects and less balanced in others (MBTI-wise).

I have gone a long long way to manage to be very organised, efficient and getting things done when necessary and, I now see this as a valuable skill. I am only as lazy as I allow myself to be and I wouldn't have it otherwise.

I also have gone a really long way to be more agreeable socially, instead of being that person who would shut up most of the time and then all of the sudden say the most awkward, wrongly-timed or ill-addressed thing, with no self-censoring almost at all. I've never been shy, so I've never really minded much social settings, and at this point in my life, others don't mind me very much either in their social settings. Which is yet another useful skill to develop.

Where I still struggle is emotionally-wise. I am immature, I don't know myself well enough to easily recognise how I *feel* about stuff, and I'm prone to all sort of mistakes with others because of this. I am on it, but, due to all sort of complications in my life, I'm not doing much progress this way.

Now, as a person and regardless MBTI, I think I am fairly balanced to a certain degree. I have found denial and avoidance as the easy and quick way to resolve (or rather, avoid being badly affected from) most of my problems and I'm trying every time I remember it (that is, 90% of the time) to hold myself responsible for every single thing I've said or done. That really helps being more selective to what I do and say and it also helps building a great deal of self-respect, which, I believe, is the key to balance.

[Jennywocky]

In short, I see balanced people (INTPs included) as having the capacity to move smoothly through life in pursuit of their goals and having the resources to accomplish them and build up some personal pride in the process. Balanced people also will typically have varied types of goals (intellectual, mental, emotion) that reflect a holistic approach to life, rather than allowing themselves to be stuck in a rut or focus only on the "safe/comfortable" aspects of themselves. They usually have become balanced because they've been willing to stretch themselves and engage in activities that would cause them anxiety, in purposes of working thorugh the anxiety and experiencing more personal efficacy and contentment, long-term.

Unbalanced people typically cannot engage every situation productively; and even within the ones in which they are successful, they typically are ineffecient in their activity, create unnecessary complications for themselves, and/or seem to remain fundamentally unhappy and insecure. It's typically a "to a hammer, everything looks like a nail" approach, and the same iron fist that can smash opposition finds itself unable to be a velvet glove, at least enough to deal with situations that naturally involved delicacy (for example).

For INTPs, I think it means bringing a sense of clarity to everything we do, while understanding the limits of rational thinking and what areas it has trouble intruding into, for the purpose of developing other skills well enough to get past the log jams or helping rationality to work more productively.

[Ferrus]

I will post in hell as well as in paradise. Such is the spread of my immanence.

I would I suppose wish to throw contextualisation here - I think the notion of balance for balance's sake is a remnant of the power Ancient Greek ethic of a medium of behaviour. This was most famously expressed in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics but it was a value-system which permeated the Greek polis. Note the conception of an individual was then considerable less sharp than it is amongst present (at least Western societies) - one's identity was nothing else but one's stature in the polis. When one considers the dynamics of political life particularly among such direct engagement in civic responsibility, such an ethic is perfectly congruent - it was the ethic which allowed one the greatest capacity to function as a human being with the terms of their ontological engagement. An Aristotelean ethic is one of maximum emollience and minimal friction, of a downplaying of the starkness of the self and one which marks a character defined by his non-servile, non-female demeanour - absolute dominance over one's natural determination by the immediate relation to a normative social matrix of behaviours.

Now, in the modern age (mediated by Renaissance civic life) it is moored away from this contextual capacity and is now instead defined by its emergence (as a useful tool or rather analogy) to three well springs:

a) Christian continence and (especially Protestant) engagement with the world - and these ethical echoes as expressed in humanist ethics
b) The demands of the modern economy, which again requires personal balance and muteness against the primacy of one's productive capacities
c) Behaviour and cognitive psychology which sees optimal states of behaviour as corresponding to a certain degree of reciprocal passivity among the capacities of the mind

To this extent a Romanticist (if perhaps materially deficient) defence of radical unbalance has a structural significance to an INTP.

[composer]

I appear to have taken this in reverse. According to Jung the goal of the individual is to self actualize by working on and realizing their inferior functions. Through a variety of reasons that I've detailed elsewhere I, very early on, was confused about my basic type. At first I thought I was an INFJ, then INTJ, finally realized I was an INTP. So now by midlife, my energy is focused on individuation; becoming an INTP. I sometimes describe my growing up as that of being raised by wolves. All sensor family and friends. I don't think I knew a single intuitive.

So I think I came to balance, by emphasizing my native proclivities in midlife. Now in my job I don't pretend to be a people person - I work from home as much as possible and avoid the people at work, but I produce brilliant solutions. But I can play the people game when needed.

[mthomps]

One again, I take from the ivory tower up above (http://forums.intpcentral.com/showthread.php?44187-quot-Balanced-quot-INTP)that which can and should equally be discussed among we the plebeians below (http://forums.intpcentral.com/showthread.php?40166-The-OUIQ-Shall-Inherit-the-Forum!). Even so, I place it here to keep those godawful nons out (for who has any time for them, right)?



Let's have at it.



Furthermore, what is a "balanced INTP" to you? As applied personally and/or generally.

To me, a balanced INTP is one who's Ti can allow the magic of Ne to guide it. Am I this way? Hell no. They are called Dominant and Auxiliary functions for a reason and I believe most people who understand MBTI, including myself do not actively try to develop their Auxiliary, which, as previously stated, is key to a balanced INTP.

Our aux function, Extraverted Intuition, is what makes a brilliant intp brilliant. It brings fourth wit and charm that Fe could never muster. In company of other NT's I find I can thrive in this manner. That's because other NT's can understand the rather esoteric Ti. For others, Ne MUST be called fourth in its sharpest forms, otherwise we are all just weirdos who "think to much"

Well fuck 'em.