George Soros (INTP's Intuition and Theory)

[DIALECTIC]

I have been reading "SOROS ON SOROS: BEING AHEAD OF THE CURVE"... A very easy to read book as it is designed as an interview.

Here are some extracts below i found very interesting for everyone to read as i thought he expresses just perfectly how INTP's cognition works in approaching potential opportunities or problems and dealing with them way ahead of other people as we are opportunists while they (most people) are social climbers...

 

[Architect]

Good catch, yes surely he is an INTP. This reads like the investing playbook I've developed for myself after 20 years of doing it. He's better of course, it wasn't a full time activity for me, but this spells it all out.

I started off as a contrarian and did well by betting on the housing crash nearly taking out the world economy, not until later did I learn his wisdom of "follow the crowd, most of the time, but don't trust it."

 

[Cognisant]

In investing the more money you have the harder it would be to make mistakes, I mean if there's two rival companies competing for market share and you invest a lot of money in one the smarter investors on the other side will sell first, the herd will follow, and your company which may not even be the best competitor will dominate the market by sheer logistical advantage.

Hell there's probably lots of people who just follow the big fish around investing in whatever they invest in, totally aware that what they're doing is further supporting the trend.

 

[DIALECTIC]

In investing the more money you have the harder it would be to make mistakes, I mean if there's two rival companies competing for market share and you invest a lot of money in one the smarter investors on the other side will sell first, the herd will follow, and your company which may not even be the best competitor will dominate the market by sheer logistical advantage.

Hell there's probably lots of people who just follow the big fish around investing in whatever they invest in, totally aware that what they're doing is further supporting the trend.

I do think that like most of us in our own field of "expertise" (whatever it may be), George Soros found the right niche, at the right time, and used the indirect knoweldge he had gained during a previous phase of his own development (he learnt philosophy at the London School of Economics, and before moving / escaping to London, he lived and survived during both nazi and Soviet occupations of Hungary), and then he used / implemented that very knowledge directly !

What he did (and gained from it), no one else will ever be able to do it nowadays because things / rules have changed...

But aren't we all (us, older INTPs) in the same boat somehow though ? Whatever we did, we hadn't planned it as such, it just happened and in the end we usually got better than people (Judgers) who had started way better than us !

I think our main help in life as INTPs is to be able to let things go a lot easier than other people would, this in turn release energy we can use to move forward leaving others stuck / fixated behind.

 

[DIALECTIC]

George Soros' perfect introverted Sensing ?


"It is much easier to put existing resources to better use, than to develop resources where they do not exist."

"I'm only rich because I know when I'm wrong...I basically have survived by recognizing my mistakes."

"I very often used to get backaches due to the fact that I was wrong. Whenever you are wrong you have to fight or [take] flight. When make the decision, the backache goes away."

 

[Cognisant]

and before moving / escaping to London, he lived and survived during both nazi and Soviet occupations of Hungary)

I fail to see why that's relevant.

He sounds like an ENTP to me and you sound like one too, I'm not saying you're wrong or he's wrong it just that I know what that mania feels like and I'm instinctively suspicious of self-help/inspirational books, especially one under the guise of an autobiography.

I feel like something's being sold to me and when I don't know what that something is all kinds of alarms go off in my head; is this a big fish trying to increase his following?

 

[DIALECTIC]

I fail to see why that's relevant.

He sounds like an ENTP to me and you sound like one too, I'm not saying you're wrong or he's wrong it just that I know what that mania feels like and I'm instinctively suspicious of self-help/inspirational books, especially one under the guise of an autobiography.

I feel like something's being sold to me and when I don't know what that something is all kinds of alarms go off in my head; is this a big fish trying to increase his following?

it is relevant; i said he used knoweldge he learnt from previous experience / phase of development: isn't it how we work. Nothing is discarded, everything from the past is integrated into present ?


Have you heard him talk in front of an audience ? He has to read speeches (he wrote) and sounds very very uncomfortable. Hardly an ENTP or any extrovert.

The book i mentionned is from 1995. He has an ago, but who hasn't even if it does decrease with age.

 

[Analyzer]

Yeah he comes across more as a ENTP looking at his work and philosophy. He is in favor of "mixed markets" or rather government intervention so investing and money opportunities are more dynamic, makes sense for someone of his fame and net worth. Also sounds like someone who is less principled and consistent(Ti) so he himself can benefit from a volatile atmosphere(Ne) which he has numerous of times. Karl Popper his mentor/teacher was a ENTP as well and lots of his ideas are borrowed from him.

George Soros' perfect introverted Sensing ?


"It is much easier to put existing resources to better use, than to develop resources where they do not exist."

"I'm only rich because I know when I'm wrong...I basically have survived by recognizing my mistakes."

"I very often used to get backaches due to the fact that I was wrong. Whenever you are wrong you have to fight or [take] flight. When make the decision, the backache goes away."

ENTP's inferior Si also makes them want to set a precedent for a tradition or methodology.

 

[DIALECTIC]

Is it really what an ENTP sounds like ?
Very much doubt so. The guy has no charisma in talking whatsoever, he obviously doesn't like talking in public hence why he has to have a script already prepared, and yet he sounds like it is someone else who wrote it for him !

He said in the book he only ever met Karl Popper a couple of times while studying in London and just once later in life, even though yes he was his mentor.


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TEzrIdT4FM8

 

[Saoshyant]

I don't see INTP and I really don't see ENTP. Soros' writing seems very abstract and not to the point. I tried to get through one of his books, the Alchemy of Finance, and I couldn't do it. That is pretty rare for me. His writing style is very similiar to Carl Jung's. I'd lean towards INxJ, and more towards INFJ.

 

[DIALECTIC]

I don't see INTP and I really don't see ENTP. Soros' writing seems very abstract and not to the point. I tried to get through one of his books, the Alchemy of Finance, and I couldn't do it. That is pretty rare for me. His writing style is very similiar to Carl Jung's. I'd lean towards INxJ, and more towards INFJ.

On the contrary, I found Soros writing straight to the point: says in a sentence what others would say in a paragraph. Here is a great article he wrote, it sums up a lot of things:

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/0ca06172-bfe9-11de-aed2-00144feab49a.html#axzz3Nz0oOc5J


I really like that part:

Reflexive feedback loops have not been rigorously analyzed and when I originally encountered them and tried to analyze them, I ran into various complications. The feedback loop is supposed to be a two-way connection between the participant’s views and the actual course of events. But what about a two-way connection between the participants’ views? And what about a solitary individual asking himself who he is and what he stands for and changing his behavior as a result of his reflections? In trying to resolve these difficulties I got so lost among the categories I created that one morning I couldn’t understand what I had written the night before. That’s when I gave up philosophy and devoted my effort to makimg money.

Soros is like all of us: an opportunist... His success / fortune just happened without much trying. Definitely not a Judger whatsoever.


By the way, Carl Jung was... INTP !

 

[Saoshyant]

On the contrary, I found Soros writing straight to the point: says in a sentence what others would say in a paragraph.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/0ca06172-bfe9-11de-aed2-00144feab49a.html#axzz3Nz0oOc5J

I really liked this part:

I realize that this is all very abstract and difficult to follow.

 

[Saoshyant]

Soros is like all of us: an opportunist... His success / fortune just happened without much trying. Definitely not a Judger whatsoever.


By the way, Carl Jung was... INTP !

We'll have to disagree about Jung, but we can agree that Jung and Soros share the same type.

 

[DIALECTIC]

I really liked this part:

Abstration is no problem for us INTPs; the more abstract (/ analyzed) something is, the easier to understand / digest / integrate i find since it means being reduced to categories (we can then start to -re-build / synthetise from).

 

[DIALECTIC]

We'll have to disagree about Jung, but we can agree that Jung and Soros share the same type.

Other logical possibility / explanation: maybe they are both INTPs but that's you who aren't one ?

 

[Brontosaurie]

Abstration is no problem for us INTPs; the more abstract (/ analyzed) something is, the easier to understand / digest / integrate i find since it means being reduced to categories (we can then start to -re-build / synthetise from).

i'd rather have the categories that readily emerge from my interpretation of inconsistent, emotionally charged statements than those of a pre-ordained Ti different from mine. i find it awkward when others try to do thinking. on the other hand their attempts may be seen through the same interpretation of motives and biases as the less analytically inclined statements. but then that's how they are useful - not as the abstractions the originator supposes them to be. Ti can't be learnt/traded/handed.

 

[DIALECTIC]

i'd rather have the categories that readily emerge from my interpretation of inconsistent, emotionally charged statements than those of a pre-ordained Ti different from mine. i find it awkward when others try to do thinking. on the other hand their attempts may be seen through the same interpretation of motives and biases as the less analytically inclined statements. but then that's how they are useful - not as the abstractions the originator supposes them to be. Ti can't be learnt/traded/handed.

But there are defined abstract categories people agree with... Otherwise, scientists, psychoanalysts, philosophers etc. wouldn't understand each others.' concepts and theories (categories are the building bocks of).
I guess when they don't agree, it is because they use other categories and quite possibly because they never experienced certain life events to understand some categories.

 

[QuickTwist]

A metaphor will always speak deeper than a factual rundown. Its a shame more people don't make metaphors on this forum.

 

[Brontosaurie]

your metaphor is like a box in the blob