How do you INTPs get your work done so fast?

[WhereShip]

I'm new to the forum, so hello! First post.

Every INTP I've ever met finishes their work in (sometimes even less than) a quarter of the time that it takes me. You guys are very good at being concise as well. How do you do that? I'm an INFP btw. I'm long-winded and take forever to do things so I thought I'd come to the professionals for help ^_^.

+ I seriously do need the help. It takes me 8 hours to do something, 4 hours for most people, and only 2 hours for the INTP. That's without distractions btw. Although INTPs even while distracted take only 2 hours.

++Just as an aside, how do you guys read so fast??

 

[Grayman]

Cognitive or physical work?

 

[Seteleechete]

We spend the other 6 hours thinking about how to do the work as fast as possible.

 

[Tannhauser]

If it's a intellectually challenging problem, I guess an INTP easily gets obsessed with it.

 

[Haim]

What kind of work?

 

[smithcommajohn]

We spend the other 6 hours thinking about how to do the work as fast as possible.

This funny statement has some merit.

The wonders of thinking constantly about systems and efficiency is that we often will think through a potential problem and come up with a solution before it ever presents itself. It wasn't purposeful necessarily, but because of the ridiculous amount of thinking we do, we happened upon it.

I find in my work (IT) I'm constantly thinking about what can go wrong and what I would need to do to fix it. Of maybe 100 things I think of, 2 of them eventually happen and I know exactly what steps I would begin taking to resolve.

This is not to say we can think of every possibility, but I think, as a whole, it's one of our strengths.

Anyway, to reiterate, it only seems fast because we've been thinking about the problem before it happened.

 

[Seteleechete]

I was being semi serious with that statement (but decided it would look better if I waited for someone else to call me out on it XD).

I spend a lot of time(often as passing thoughts) figuring out the most efficient way to do something, solving potential problems and generally conceptualizing my work before I even start on it.

Take an essay, before I even start writing it I would have the entire thing figured out in my head and the actual work is just quickly putting it down. Which is why it's fairly simple to just write the entire thing the night before deadline.

 

[Seteleechete]

++Just as an aside, how do you guys read so fast??

As someone who takes far to much pride in my reading skills I couldn't resist trying to answer that. Now there are a few things obviously the primary one is plain experience.

The second is that my brain simply process things really quickly and downright partly subconsciously. With this I mean that I don't articulate my thoughts to myself unless I decide to do so and when I do it's often in a more concise manner.

This doubles down on the natural filtering of unnecessary phrases which are entire ignored or summarized as a context for what I read. I don't read text so much as I disect and translate it to something that doesn't take as long to comprehend. Which is why I can't read quickly when details are important.

Basically experience, processing speed and automatic filtering.

 

[WhereShip]

Cognitive or physical work?

Cognitive.

What kind of work?

School work.

 

[Architect]

I do most of my work in my head, then just write it down. So it probably appears like I get my work done really fast, but in reality I'm just doing what has been already at least sketched out.

Here's a story explaining it. I have an ISTJ software engineering cubical neighbor. A bug comes up, I looked at it and thought about what might be the issue. Most of the time doing nothing, occasionally looking at the code or referencing something. In due order I 'see' the solution, but do nothing to verify it yet.

My ISTJ neighbor can't think about it the way I do. He has to 'do', he thinks by doing. So I hear busy typing - clackity, clackity, clack, and about the time I figure out what the problem is he has a workaround submitted. Note: I haven't touched any code, he already has a fix, but his fix appears to be a workaround to me and doesn't address the actual problem.

A week later, after he keeps at it, he finds the root cause and pulls out his earlier workaround. As it turns out the actual problem is more-or-less what I had found out. If I had gone a little further and implemented it I would have been vindicated. End of the day he gets the credit for the solution, but mainly because I stepped aside and let him armadillo his way to it because I knew he had to. He was incapable of seeing the solution the way I did.

Hopefully that makes clear the differences in thinking - I think best without having to physically do anything (like write code), he can't think abstractly like that and had to discover his problems by doing. Further I can only think by taking a step back and understanding it. I use debugging sparingly - only as another form of research. He lives in the debugger.

 

[WhereShip]

We spend the other 6 hours thinking about how to do the work as fast as possible.

Ah that makes sense xD. Now I don't want to quote everything you said so I'm just going to say it all here. I think I understand why now. You think about everything before hand and only spit out the end result making it seem like you did it quickly but it actually took you a while. I personally thought that it was because Ti reduces things to its most basic principles from which it can derive everything else so it's almost like a formula for how to do it in your head. Perhaps it's because you guys are very adept at finding the important details of a subject that you just cut through the useless stuff.

As someone who takes far to much pride in my reading skills I couldn't resist trying to answer that. Now there are a few things obviously the primary one is plain experience.

The second is that my brain simply process things really quickly and downright partly subconsciously. With this I mean that I don't articulate my thoughts to myself unless I decide to do so and when I do it's often in a more concise manner.

This doubles down on the natural filtering of unnecessary phrases which are entire ignored or summarized as a context for what I read. I don't read text so much as I disect and translate it to something that doesn't take as long to comprehend. Which is why I can't read quickly when details are important.

Basically experience, processing speed and automatic filtering.

I want to try this out. I swear though every INTP I've ever met reads SO fast. I remember my best friend and I reading books for a class and she had read 10 pages while I was still on the 2nd. I believe only a few minutes had gone by. I wonder though. They say Te is about efficiency but I see that as more of a Ti thing.

 

[WhereShip]

I do most of my work in my head, then just write it down. So it probably appears like I get my work done really fast, but in reality I'm just doing what has been already at least sketched out.

Here's a story explaining it. I have an ISTJ software engineering cubical neighbor. A bug comes up, I looked at it and thought about what might be the issue. Most of the time doing nothing, occasionally looking at the code or referencing something. In due order I 'see' the solution, but do nothing to verify it yet.

My ISTJ neighbor can't think about it the way I do. He has to 'do', he thinks by doing. So I hear busy typing - clackity, clackity, clack, and about the time I figure out what the problem is he has a workaround submitted. Note: I haven't touched any code, he already has a fix, but his fix appears to be a workaround to me and doesn't address the actual problem.

A week later, after he keeps at it, he finds the root cause and pulls out his earlier workaround. As it turns out the actual problem is more-or-less what I had found out. If I had gone a little further and implemented it I would have been vindicated. End of the day he gets the credit for the solution, but mainly because I stepped aside and let him armadillo his way to it because I knew he had to. He was incapable of seeing the solution the way I did.

Hopefully that makes clear the differences in thinking - I think best without having to physically do anything (like write code), he can't think abstractly like that and had to discover his problems by doing. Further I can only think by taking a step back and understanding it. I use debugging sparingly - only as another form of research. He lives in the debugger.

That makes it clear. Thank you for sharing the example. It helped greatly. I'm assuming it's because Ti does its thinking in its head while Te is more of a move around and talk to think kind of thing. That's why it looks like the Ti user is faster but it's more that people don't see the process that went into getting the answer. Probably also something to do with the N/S divide as well. Hope you don't mind me asking but why would you be vindicated for coming up with an accurate answer?

 

[Seteleechete]

I personally thought that it was because Ti reduces things to its most basic principles from which it can derive everything else so it's almost like a formula for how to do it in your head. Perhaps it's because you guys are very adept at finding the important details of a subject that you just cut through the useless stuff.

Well, I can do that as well but I am not sure that it's an INTP thing.

Also Te is about practicality more than anything else. Which in circumstances is more efficient when it comes to getting a task done if not in the theoretically most optimal manner.

 

[WhereShip]

Well, I can do that as well but I am not sure that it's an INTP thing.

Also Te is about practicality more than anything else. Which in circumstances is more efficient when it comes to getting a task done if not in the theoretically most optimal manner.

I see. I guess Te is efficient but in a different sense. Overall, thank you for taking the time to answer. I really appreciate it.

 

[Seteleechete]

Btw, out of unrelated curiosity do you consider yourself a cynic, a realist or an idealist? From brief observation INFPs appear to me as the most cynical people I have seen, so I am curious.

 

[Happy]

INTPs get work done fast?

 

[redbaron]

I'm new to the forum, so hello! First post.

Every INTP I've ever met finishes their work in (sometimes even less than) a quarter of the time that it takes me. You guys are very good at being concise as well. How do you do that? I'm an INFP btw. I'm long-winded and take forever to do things so I thought I'd come to the professionals for help ^_^.

+ I seriously do need the help. It takes me 8 hours to do something, 4 hours for most people, and only 2 hours for the INTP. That's without distractions btw. Although INTPs even while distracted take only 2 hours.

++Just as an aside, how do you guys read so fast??

INTPs take pride reducing everything to their most essential components so they spend less time on things that don't matter.

I find the easiest way to teach people to be 2fast2furious like me is to make them reduce whatever they're doing to the 5 most important things. Then 3. Then 1.

Then I just make them work backwards up the chain of 1-3-5. Do the most important thing. Then the next 2, then the last 2.

It also seems to help people compartmentalize and prevent themselves from getting overhwhelmed. Barely anything is actually so complicated that the average person can't do it, it's just a matter of figuring out how to do it.

If I had a big huge list of things to do, I might list everything I need done in the next 2 hours (or ASAP) as 'A', next 24 hours as 'B' and anything that could be done throughout the week as 'C'.

So every day consisted of doing every 'A', then every 'B' and then every 'C'.

Do whichever one you like, I find the 5-3-1 method is best for big interconnected projects that don't have definite tasks (and therefore can't be listed as A, B or C) and the A-B-C method is best for when there's numerous small-medium sized tasks to be done with time pressure.

~

As an aside, I rarely ever do anything to its utmost capability I just get things to like 85% completion because it always occurs to me that it might take say, 3 hours to do something 85% and to squeeze out the last 15% would take another 3 hours, in which I could do 85% of some other thing.

If there's no time pressure I just do things to completion if they're enjoyable, but by just accepting things will pretty much never be perfect my sanity is preserved in a working world where everyone just wants more more more.

 

[Architect]

Hope you don't mind me asking but why would you be vindicated for coming up with an accurate answer?

Simple - I'm surrounded by IXTX types who won't believe something until they see it. So doesn't matter that I can explain my idea - they're not idea people. I told him the problem, and as usual he shrugged and said "maybe", but won't believe it until he went through all the possibilities and found it experientially. That's Si at work.

 

[Jennywocky]

I was being semi serious with that statement (but decided it would look better if I waited for someone else to call me out on it XD).

I spend a lot of time(often as passing thoughts) figuring out the most efficient way to do something, solving potential problems and generally conceptualizing my work before I even start on it.

Take an essay, before I even start writing it I would have the entire thing figured out in my head and the actual work is just quickly putting it down. Which is why it's fairly simple to just write the entire thing the night before deadline.

Totally. I have a pretty good outline in my head where I'm going and "pre-think" the thing before writing it... although if I get more ideas while actually doing the work, I try to accommodate them to see where they go.

In fact, sometimes I will waste more time trying to develop a more efficient process rather than just doing the work in the most straightforward way possible. My way pays off dividends if work must be repeated; some of the most boring experiences have been when I've been forced to do repetitious thoughtless work.

I want to try this out. I swear though every INTP I've ever met reads SO fast. I remember my best friend and I reading books for a class and she had read 10 pages while I was still on the 2nd. I believe only a few minutes had gone by. I wonder though. They say Te is about efficiency but I see that as more of a Ti thing.

Basically I'm skimming for concept -- I'm really good at grabbing the main ideas being promoted (or main plot points) and some other broad descriptions of the writing as well as a few well-constructed lines.

The problem is that I can miss a lot of the supporting detail since I'm just focused on concept. So it depends on what I'm trying to get out of something -- a detailed understanding of the topic or a conceptual grasp of the issues. Really good at the latter, and I do okay with the former if I can extrapolate down from the concepts. But otherwise I have to slow down.

 

[Architect]

Totally. I have a pretty good outline in my head where I'm going and "pre-think" the thing before writing it... although if I get more ideas while actually doing the work, I try to accommodate them to see where they go.

Yup, a variation on what I said about programming for me.

In fact, sometimes I will waste more time trying to develop a more efficient process rather than just doing the work in the most straightforward way possible. My way pays off dividends if work must be repeated; some of the most boring experiences have been when I've been forced to do repetitious thoughtless work.

lol ... true that.

Basically I'm skimming for concept -- I'm really good at grabbing the main ideas being promoted (or main plot points) and some other broad descriptions of the writing as well as a few well-constructed lines.

Same again - Ne in action

The problem is that I can miss a lot of the supporting detail since I'm just focused on concept. So it depends on what I'm trying to get out of something -- a detailed understanding of the topic or a conceptual grasp of the issues. Really good at the latter, and I do okay with the former if I can extrapolate down from the concepts. But otherwise I have to slow down.

Also true. My INFJ goes for the detail (Ni) of an idea where I want to stay at 10k feet. We constantly wrangle around that point.

 

[WhereShip]

Btw, out of unrelated curiosity do you consider yourself a cynic, a realist or an idealist? From brief observation INFPs appear to me as the most cynical people I have seen, so I am curious.

Sorry, could you define those for me in the way that you understand them? I looked up the definitions and think I'm all of them but I might not be looking at it the right way.

 

[WhereShip]

INTPs take pride reducing everything to their most essential components so they spend less time on things that don't matter.

I find the easiest way to teach people to be 2fast2furious like me is to make them reduce whatever they're doing to the 5 most important things. Then 3. Then 1.

Then I just make them work backwards up the chain of 1-3-5. Do the most important thing. Then the next 2, then the last 2.

It also seems to help people compartmentalize and prevent themselves from getting overhwhelmed. Barely anything is actually so complicated that the average person can't do it, it's just a matter of figuring out how to do it.

If I had a big huge list of things to do, I might list everything I need done in the next 2 hours (or ASAP) as 'A', next 24 hours as 'B' and anything that could be done throughout the week as 'C'.

So every day consisted of doing every 'A', then every 'B' and then every 'C'.

Do whichever one you like, I find the 5-3-1 method is best for big interconnected projects that don't have definite tasks (and therefore can't be listed as A, B or C) and the A-B-C method is best for when there's numerous small-medium sized tasks to be done with time pressure.

~

As an aside, I rarely ever do anything to its utmost capability I just get things to like 85% completion because it always occurs to me that it might take say, 3 hours to do something 85% and to squeeze out the last 15% would take another 3 hours, in which I could do 85% of some other thing.

If there's no time pressure I just do things to completion if they're enjoyable, but by just accepting things will pretty much never be perfect my sanity is preserved in a working world where everyone just wants more more more.

Ohhhh thank you! That's a pretty new way of looking at it. I'll try out that method.

~

That's probably why you save so much time. I personally end up thinking that every little thing is important and spend the 6 hours to get 100% even though I could just do what you do. Seriously though, thank you. This was very helpful.

 

[pjoa09]

wat.

takes me forever.

i fuck around so goddamn much.

 

[redbaron]

wat.

takes me forever.

i fuck around so goddamn much.

5-3-1 A-B-C 2ez.

 

[The Gopher]

We spend the other 6 hours thinking about how to do the work as fast as possible.

Heh, this has some truth to it. Generally I don't do anything til the last minute because everything up to the last minute was working out exactly what I need to do and how.

It confuses people though. One time I was in charge of database creation for a project. While everyone else was working all I did was pace up and down for about an hour then at the end I flipped the mock up database rows and columns for one of the tables.

Now what I had done for that entire hour was go though every possible sql statement the project required written it in my head and then changed the database I was given so it would work. As far as the designers were concerned I did nothing. The programmer thought I was a genius.

If you do all the work in your head before you "start" can optimize the process and appear finish quickly. That said apparently I'm an INFP again so...