Obviously to the members of this forum, nobody in particular, just things that I couldn't relate to. And that isn't (as far as I know) about other types from around here. I can't understand what's there to not understand. Doesn't the phrase "I can't relate to that from "much" to "at all." " give you the answer?
No, that phrase confused me even further. Let's take a look at how you started the first paragraph so I can show you why and so we can see that miscommunication is sometimes much more complicated than your simple evaluation suggests. I find miscommunication and communication in general very interesting, by the way (CMST is my minor), so please excuse my nerdiness.
I'm noticing things like emotional reactions, sometimes even cases when people feel oddly offended,
...
First,
where did you notice all of these things? You didn't specify. If you would have begun that first sentence with something like, "I've been noticing that some members on this forum exhibit emotional reactions and these other behaviors..." that would have changed the meaning I received. This leads to my next point.
Second,
which emotional people are you referring to? People you personally encounter in "real life?" You didn't specify that either. So I was led to believe that the first item in your list was referring to people in general and not INTPs in particular since your language was general and you didn't specify that this INTP forum was your context, which leads to my next point.
Third, the aforementioned ambiguity inherent to the first item in the list (about emotional people whose identities are unspecified) can be interpreted as your claiming that you have an acute emotional awareness of people in "real life" that some INTPs don't have. This, in turn, sets up your opening paragraph as a list of self-descriptions that distinguish you from other INTPs, an interpretation that is further supported by my next point.
Fourth, some of the items in your list do
not apply to some of the members on this forum and to some other INTPs elsewhere, so your intended meaning (i.e., that the list provides descriptions of INTPs) doesn't completely apply to your opening paragraph. This is the main reason why a part of me perceived that your list was referring to yourself and not to other INTPs, as though you were noting distinctions between your behaviors and common INTP behaviors.
And fifth, this line,
I can't relate to that from "much" to "at all."
as I already noted, only compounded the confusion, since you never specified what "that" was that you couldn't relate to. I didn't expect to see someone attribute some of those characteristics in your list to INTPs, which is, again, the main reason that I perceived that the behaviors you were noticing were probably self-descriptions. But if this was true, then you couldn't relate to
your own self-descriptions that don't apply to many INTPs, which led you to doubt the notion that you're an INTP?
I find this extremely confusing and suspected that some type of miscommunication was happening, which is why I asked for clarification.
In summary, you
A.) didn't specify your context but assumed that I would discern it on my own,
B.) attributed behaviors to INTPs that I have not read INTPs are generally known for,
and I
C.) got confused and inferred contradictory meanings from your words,
so
D.) for all these reasons, and even more that I'll leave undisclosed for the sake of space, I missed your intended meaning. Whenever we as human beings communicate, what we mean is usually obvious to us, but we need to be careful to make sure the language is understandable to others as well, otherwise this type of miscommunication can occur. And if someone happens to miss your intended meaning (as I did), all you have to do is clarify--not say things such as "obviously" or "I can't understand what's there to not understand." Again, what's obvious to you may not be obvious to everyone else through no fault of their own, so it may not be a wise idea to attribute the blame for this misunderstanding to the other person. Some people might consider that to be an attack on their intelligence or such, whether you intend that or not.
Alright class, Communication Studies 211 is dismissed for the day.
But now that I do understand your meaning, I consider the items in your list to reflect the variation within INTPs, as others have noted, as well as variations within the life stages of the INTP. But I also get the impression that not everyone on this forum is an INTP, and I've noticed that some people even explicate that they
aren't INTPs, so these two things should also account for some of those differences that you noted.
Maybe I'm an extrovert then. 