INTPs outside of their comfort zones

[Redfire]

INTPs are usually most comfortable when working alone in interiors, thinking about possibilities. Scientists, engineers and computer professionals appear to be pretty common.
Now: since there are lots of INTPs working in these kind of professions, I'm wondering what would happen if an INTP ventures into something else.

What I'm mainly thinking about is medicine, since I think I will be going to medical school soon, and I will either work in research or a combination between research and practice. I'm pretty sure there are not too many INTP doctors, but I also think we could be better than the average. Most doctors are rulebook-kind sensors: they do what they learned they have to do.
House (ENTP?) would probably be a model for an INTP doctor, only the latter would probably be less charismatic and at the same time more objective (unlike ENTPs we don't always think we are right, even though we usually are).

My thinking is that is much easier to excel somewhere where INTPs are not common rather than typical NTs professions (physics, etc).

Now, that doesn't mean an INTP would be happy that way: actually it would be quite uncomfortable. But in my case I realized that if left to my thoughts I'm not going to head anywhere in life, and I need some field where I can apply them, make them real. And if I don't enjoy it at all I can always go into full-time research.

Anyhow, my questions are:

- Does anyone work somewhere not INTPish? Could be medicine, could be the army, could be business, could be law.

- Do you think an INTP can be disciplined enough to succeed in those careers? So far I'm the typical INTP: slacked through high school, only great grades in some subjects I was interested in while poor grades in irrelevant ones. Lucky for me grades don't mean anything in my home country and I can still go to med school, but I would have to become much more organized and disciplined.

I'm very interested in actual experiences, but please tell me anything you feel like talking about (I find the opinion of an experienced INTP rambling much more valuable that anything else I can find on the internet).

 

[Dimensional Transition]

I worked as a shelf stocker for a while... After 2 weeks I seriously got night terrors about my manager screaming at me to stock MORE AND MORE AND MORE. It was quite strange.

Needless to say I quit after 6 weeks... Not really my thing. I couldn't handle the pressure. I really loved helping people find the products they were looking for though, made me feel like I could actually make people a little happy. I'm sorry for not really having a real career yet, but oh well. It's something, right?


I think if an INTP is motivated enough, he or she is able to succeed in any career. As long as they're truly interested in it.

 

[Dapper Dan]

I think if an INTP is motivated enough, he or she is able to succeed in any career. As long as they're truly interested in it.

This. Finding something you like/care about is the hard part.

 

[Polaris]

I worked in dentistry for about 13 years. Before that I worked in restaurants, bars, after-school care , and I even did tourist guiding for a while. Currently I work in retail (outdoors-equipment store: I get to use my technical knowledge) and fieldwork (scientific), combining it with science studies.

I had never heard about the MBTI system until I was quite a lot older. Got tested a couple of times in relation to team-building exercises. I felt like the only freak in the basket of extroverted feelers. I tried to fit that mold. It just made me more and more stressed, and removed from what I really was about. I tried so hard to resist I was exhausted most of the time. I would spend weekends hiding away from people, hence not making many friends. People closest to me expressed frustration at my introvertedness, including family and X-partners. (Note the capital X).

It has been a bit of a struggle, but now I have finally accepted that I am different, and do not tolerate other people's crap any more.

It has distanced me from family.

I gave up my old job, and started anew; back to uni studying what I always wanted to study.

If the whole thing has taught me anything, it has been to push myself to limits I did not think I could push myself to. I have had the opportunity to learn people psychology both through observance of my own and other people's behaviour.

I have had to learn how to care. I have recently reconnected with my emotions, after years of being pretty much emotionally dead. I think this happened through the realisation that I was not invincible, after all.

It has been a humbling and rich experience.

 

[brieze]

Up until highschool I was aiming for business. I was raised in it. Marketing hotels timeshare.. that was my dad's world and I knew it well.

 

[pjoa09]

working in the family business. makes studying look good. though, you'd think to yourself that if you were at school wouldn't business look good too? it's always what you don't do that you wish to do and the thing that you do that you wish you didn't have to do. aside from masturbating which is biological there is not much that i do that i want to do.

but bloody fucking godshit people are scary. that sense of confusion on the phone or the struggle to figure out how to behave properly in front of customers is terrible experience of its own. but then I see Bill Gates is doing alright and the fact that I only spend $30 a week in hanging out is a lot better than the money spent on college. besides, I get to study whateverthefuck I want wheneverthefuck I want to.

I like swearing.

 

[digital angel]

INTPs are usually most comfortable when working alone in interiors, thinking about possibilities. Scientists, engineers and computer professionals appear to be pretty common.
Now: since there are lots of INTPs working in these kind of professions, I'm wondering what would happen if an INTP ventures into something else.

What I'm mainly thinking about is medicine, since I think I will be going to medical school soon, and I will either work in research or a combination between research and practice. I'm pretty sure there are not too many INTP doctors, but I also think we could be better than the average. Most doctors are rulebook-kind sensors: they do what they learned they have to do.
House (ENTP?) would probably be a model for an INTP doctor, only the latter would probably be less charismatic and at the same time more objective (unlike ENTPs we don't always think we are right, even though we usually are).

My thinking is that is much easier to excel somewhere where INTPs are not common rather than typical NTs professions (physics, etc).

Now, that doesn't mean an INTP would be happy that way: actually it would be quite uncomfortable. But in my case I realized that if left to my thoughts I'm not going to head anywhere in life, and I need some field where I can apply them, make them real. And if I don't enjoy it at all I can always go into full-time research.

Anyhow, my questions are:

- Does anyone work somewhere not INTPish? Could be medicine, could be the army, could be business, could be law.

- Do you think an INTP can be disciplined enough to succeed in those careers? So far I'm the typical INTP: slacked through high school, only great grades in some subjects I was interested in while poor grades in irrelevant ones. Lucky for me grades don't mean anything in my home country and I can still go to med school, but I would have to become much more organized and disciplined.

I'm very interested in actual experiences, but please tell me anything you feel like talking about (I find the opinion of an experienced INTP rambling much more valuable that anything else I can find on the internet).

I'm a tax attorney. I really enjoy it. Congress frequently changes portions of the tax code. I also enjoy interesting conversations with my colleagues(I know that the INTP descriptions suggest that we like to work alone but I do enjoy having interesting conversations). I think it's important to keep in mind that we also adapt, so if you're genuinely interested in medicine, try it out and see how you like it. Have you considered networking with some physicians? If you can, I recommend that you find a mentor; a good mentor is invaluable and unforgettable.

I vaguely remember reading a book about an intern who considered himself a thinker(I don't know what his MBTI is). In that book, he described how he came into the medical profession. If I remember correctly, he was a post graduate student in physics and then at some point decided to pursue a career in medicine like his brother. At times, the author would describe how he had moments where he wondered if he would fail. Through the help of his brother and perhaps another colleague, he overcame that and moved into a satisfying practice. Unfortunately, I can't remember the title of the book.

 

[Redfire]

Thanks for the answers. There's not much I can comment upon, except that indeed there are INTPs in every profession.

 

[Jelly Rev]

Ive been a construction laborer for 4 years, It sucks but my parents own it and pay for my college so I'm kind of forced.
I willl be a senior at uni for a psych major, hopefully grad school and becoming a researcher.

construction laborer is prolly the worst job for an intp. takes nearly no thought and you need to be right in reality the whole time. I daydream all day and mess the esfj who works there. Most workers are ISTJ, ISTP and ISFJ and that esfj who I continually butt heads with bc of his total opinionated inconsistency

 

[lucky12]

Jelly Rev, I feel your pain. I've worked as a general laborer and a landscaper past 2 years, same age group too. I'd say I fall within INTX, working with anyone is a pain in the ass because I have such strange preferences within P and J. Never mind, without sensors I would have no problems.

I always get into arguments about my shift times.. Ugh.. back to work tomorrow

 

[Jelly Rev]

Never mind, without sensors I would have no problems.

haha heard that, w/o sensors would be sweet but I think construction without ISXX's would not be construction at all.
I just turn off my brain and ask the foreman what menial thing he wants me do, I go do it and daydream while doing it. Sometimes I even wear earplugs when I dont need to so I can be less focused on the external and more on my daydreams lol.

 

[Astealthydonut]

I'm in highschool and I currently work as a server in the cafeteria of a "senior campus." I'm basically a waiter just a bit easier, but no tips All I can say is it sucks. I'm terrible at it. I'm expected to know all the old peoples names, but im awful with names. You can't day dream or you'll forget someones order. And my co-workers suck, they're all nosy pricks(except for two I like and one is head back to college soon.)

Anyway I'm done ranting.

 

[xbox]

My retail job requires a lot of meeting sales goals/customer interaction, literally bothering people and hoping to get something out of it. Oh yeah no day dreaming either, its difficult. I kinda hate myself for it. However, I've taken a different approach than my ESFJ coworkers, and am doing ok with it.

 

[Lostwitheal]

My retail job requires a lot of meeting sales goals/customer interaction, literally bothering people and hoping to get something out of it. Oh yeah no day dreaming either, its difficult. I kinda hate myself for it. However, I've taken a different approach than my ESFJ coworkers, and am doing ok with it.

I used to work in a jewellery store and had to do exactly this. I spiced up my day a bit sometimes by playing practical jokes on co-workers and hacking the tills so people could play solitaire on them

 

[Vrecknidj]

Jobs I've had:

1983-1986: phlebotomist
1986-1989: peer tutor
1989-1990: stockman at a grocery store
1990-1993: community college teacher (math, English, philosophy)
1993-1994: warehouse employee and forklift driver
1994-2004: private tutor (high school level courses)
1996-present: university professor (part time)
2005-2010: high school teacher
2006-present: editor, writer for micropress companies in the RPG industry
2010-present: consultant in the medical ethics community
2011 (summer): summer camp director

I'm an INTP who happens to enjoy working with others.

 

[briangriffin32]

I think I may have beat you all regarding the testing of my comfort zones

I've worked in inside sales (that's telemarketing in layman's terms) for 3 years, mainly business to business. Most of the work is cold calling. Even though I've switched employers during that time, the metrics stay more or less the same. More than 2 hours over the phone, 100 calls a day...

It was certainly a challenge for someone like me to engage a decision maker on the phone in a flash (before they have a chance to say "not interested" and hang up). It's even harder trying to suck up to the gatekeeper so he/she (a she most often) will get you the right contact information.

However, I have experienced some success in the past. In the last job I had, my supervisor was a micro-managing ESTP who took me under his wing. He was very controlling, but I liked the fact that he gave very honest feedback, and as long as I was doing everything he told me to, I would sell. He had a very tight script for cold-call introductions which got me past my anxiety in introducing myself to total strangers. Once that hurdle was past, the rest of their conversation was negotiating...a skill I felt more at ease with.

I eventually had to leave because of an urgent family matter that needed addressing. The boss was strict on not allowing people to come back after they were gone for awhile, so that's the end of that chapter.

That being said, the one thing I hate about some sales environments is this whole "you've got to be their friend for them to buy from you" mentality. Too many times in other environments, I would seethe in anger at seeing some himbo/bimbo type getting fed hot leads simply because they generated a natural friendliness that compensated for an obvious lack of intelligence.

That's why I worked well with my ESTP boss. He didn't care about seeming like a dumb nice guy on the phone. He was Gordon Gekko in a nutshell, and just like Gekko he trained me to be one ruthless A** closer lol

 

[elusivepeanut]

I've worked in inside sales (that's telemarketing in layman's terms) for 3 years, mainly business to business. Most of the work is cold calling. Even though I've switched employers during that time, the metrics stay more or less the same. More than 2 hours over the phone, 100 calls a day...

I feel you. I'm in outside sales. Right out of college as a marketing major, I started 5 years ago in small business2business technology sales. The only reason I did this is because career coaches said it would give me the real life business experience I needed to get into a MBA of choice for Marketing. I stuck it out and then worked my way up to mid market with a "I can not fail" mentality, and now I'm in large enterprise fortune 1000 sales.

I cold call, go to networking meetings, give presentations to boardrooms full of people, the whole nine yards. Working constantly outside of my natural comfort zone.

The rewards lie in the fact that it's a technical sale which I excel at. I get a long so well with the sales engineers that I'm able to constantly sponge off of them. I've become a vicious sales person for the simple reason that I can do what the other guys do but I actually know with depth what I'm talking about and selling. The level of knowledge I've attained by being an introvert is what I leverage for confidence to sincerely express extroverted qualities.

I'm not motivated by money which is pretty weird for my profession. Yet, that actually helps me because I know my buyers can sense that I'm not in it for myself. The bad part is that I'm not as aggressive as I need to be. It it's so hard for me to be firm with people and ask the really tough questions to close deals when the reluctance is based on emotion (fear, uncertainty, doubt..). When it's a lack of information or a technical disconnect, I can win over that issue all day.

All in all, sales is awesome. The learning need is constantly filled. I meet new people from C-level, VP of IT, Dir of IT, IT admins, etc and I get to learn about a variety of business types, and then get to understand how they run their business from a strategy and tactical level.

 

[WALKYRIA]

Hi there, I'm your man. I went completely out of the comfort zone.... I was supposed to go to university and learn some history/business/languages/informatics or physics.... But I decided that I was gonna be whatever I wanted to be and that the hazard/randomness will decide of my faith. I strongly believed in serendipity.
Well, 7 years after med school, I'm almost finished and I had a great amazing personal growth. I went through depression, positive disintegration...Etc Now I feel better than ever but at the same time, I don't connect fully with other INTP's. I find, that they have not achieved what they had to achieve. Growth cannot be achieved without pain, and my guess is that INTP's don't want to suffer.
So, now I know exactly who I am, and I know that I'm going to be a psychiatrist... I jhave medium like powers, can easily read people, have great empathy for people, am genuinly gentle.... BUT Be aware that medecine is difficult for us INTPs and for many reasons.


1- details... a lot of details to memorize.(WHile I and many INTp's I suspect have more of vivid visual learning style and thus don't retain words !)
2-The people... In my country med student tend to be E**J, STJ, NTJ and thus manly intelligent SJ's. I have a hard time in communicating with the sensors, they are linear, they want precise and sequential informations. They really think I'm the dumbest person they ever met.... Truth is that I'm a right brain user, and a very bad communicator.

3-The people... Too much people. I mean, patients are really cool I think.(i'm an IN*P, thus in between INTP and INFP and don't suffer from apathy with patients, I really like the patients, I find them interesting !). WHAT I HATE IS AUTHORITY, and as a med student, you'll find yourself on the zero level of the food chain of the hospital. Thus, U are meaningless, your superiors( doctors are generally jerks !) want u to beg for medical informations, many speak, act and think they'r gods. I hate them really, they have like the biggest **TJ egos many time nd really I hate that. If doctors were better, I would have been in oncology and do research there... bt really nope !



Thus med school is even harder for us INTP's , becauz we are really too intelligent for this bullshit( for memorizers !). BUt anyway, if you go into psychiatry like me, well you'll forget everything soon. Psychiatry, neuroscience research... (what is the mind? what is the conscious?reptilian brain? etiopsychopathology?sleep disorders? )
C'mon people, realize that Psychiatry is an INTP discipline in which we INTP can excell and potentially win a nobel prize... while still earning money and studying human behaviour.( perfect for MBTI lovers!).
I don't want to lie but I think I am the one and only or maybe there is another one INTP... we are extremely rare in medecine and we all want to go in psychiatry. Neurology is really boring, It's not what we think it is .

 

[DrGregoryHouse]

Hi there, I'm your man. I went completely out of the comfort zone.... I was supposed to go to university and learn some history/business/languages/informatics or physics.... But I decided that I was gonna be whatever I wanted to be and that the hazard/randomness will decide of my faith. I strongly believed in serendipity.
Well, 7 years after med school, I'm almost finished and I had a great amazing personal growth. I went through depression, positive disintegration...Etc Now I feel better than ever but at the same time, I don't connect fully with other INTP's. I find, that they have not achieved what they had to achieve. Growth cannot be achieved without pain, and my guess is that INTP's don't want to suffer.
So, now I know exactly who I am, and I know that I'm going to be a psychiatrist... I jhave medium like powers, can easily read people, have great empathy for people, am genuinly gentle.... BUT Be aware that medecine is difficult for us INTPs and for many reasons.


1- details... a lot of details to memorize.(WHile I and many INTp's I suspect have more of vivid visual learning style and thus don't retain words !)
2-The people... In my country med student tend to be E**J, STJ, NTJ and thus manly intelligent SJ's. I have a hard time in communicating with the sensors, they are linear, they want precise and sequential informations. They really think I'm the dumbest person they ever met.... Truth is that I'm a right brain user, and a very bad communicator.

3-The people... Too much people. I mean, patients are really cool I think.(i'm an IN*P, thus in between INTP and INFP and don't suffer from apathy with patients, I really like the patients, I find them interesting !). WHAT I HATE IS AUTHORITY, and as a med student, you'll find yourself on the zero level of the food chain of the hospital. Thus, U are meaningless, your superiors( doctors are generally jerks !) want u to beg for medical informations, many speak, act and think they'r gods. I hate them really, they have like the biggest **TJ egos many time nd really I hate that. If doctors were better, I would have been in oncology and do research there... bt really nope !



Thus med school is even harder for us INTP's , becauz we are really too intelligent for this bullshit( for memorizers !). BUt anyway, if you go into psychiatry like me, well you'll forget everything soon. Psychiatry, neuroscience research... (what is the mind? what is the conscious?reptilian brain? etiopsychopathology?sleep disorders? )
C'mon people, realize that Psychiatry is an INTP discipline in which we INTP can excell and potentially win a nobel prize... while still earning money and studying human behaviour.( perfect for MBTI lovers!).
I don't want to lie but I think I am the one and only or maybe there is another one INTP... we are extremely rare in medecine and we all want to go in psychiatry. Neurology is really boring, It's not what we think it is .

what country are you in?

 

[Redfire]

That's really interesting, Walkyria. I decided to stay well within my comfort zone, though. I currently plan to study linguistics and work as a translator.

I thought for a while about majoring in psychology and going from there to neuroscience. But I don't like talking to people.

 

[WALKYRIA]

I am in Belgium( just above France ), where life is a bit easier but kinda marginal.

I don't believe INTP's hate to talk to people. I think it's a misinterpretation of MBTI and INTP general description. What we hate is being too personal with strangers( becoz average joe cannot understand, so we keep it for ouselves !), but if you keep your private life at a distance from conversation, than it's great being psycho/psychia for INTP. Besides that, I also think that INTPs speaking or not speaking is contextual. I sometimes find myself animated for no apparent reasons.
As a psychologist or a psychiatrist, U don't have to speak much, U need to have great listening and analytical skills( we excell in them I guess so !) .

I actually love to talk to random people . Blame it on my enlarged curiosity for things of life. Psychiatry is one of the few jobs where you get paid greatly for doing almost nothing( And that's why other burned-out doctors hate psychiatrist= lazy mofos !)... but speaking/listening, philosophy, problem solving, counseling, medicate, lifelong learning about the mysteries of the mind ; with great intellectual peers , the brain, the culture, the societal problems... and yet still help people and get enough free time for your hobbies.
With no doubt, psychiatrist are the most intellectual physicians you can find, the other ones are just machines with no souls.
I find the job to be a perfect compromise between our individual/special needs and the society's needs for workers/professionals.

Another thing is that psychologist and psychiatrist are all intuitives with almost no exception. SO, u will work with NF's and NT's mainly.( They say that Freud was a sensor, but I doubt so..). Thus intellectual and creative people. Which feels great.

Voilà, my word for young INTPs is : find a niche, always choose the hard way and remember that the struggle is momentary while the rewards are often lifelong.

 

[Latte]

... 1 of 4 psychiatrists I met have been N, and that N was nothing like the romanticized view you described.

The system of diagnostics and standard procedures in psychiatry does not encourage intellectuality. It encourage following soft-algorithms to (with no way to avoid personal bias) look for traits until there is a list that matches a criteria list for a diagnosis. Then there are standard procedures for dealing with a person who is X diagnosis. Those diagnosises, the disorders, mostly have idea roots back to before neurology and have for the most part only partially morphed into something resembling a surface understanding of what is actually going on with people.

It's the highly non-rigorous yet rigid, subjective error ridden cousin of physical medicine and psychology. Psychology at least recognizes what ideas within its field are real and which are speculation.

Most things of high worth when it comes to changes in psychiatry come from neurologists and psychologists.

 

[not]

I'm an INTP who happens to enjoy working with others.

My opinion is that most INTP's enjoy working with others. But I will speak for myself. I love to work in small groups, or one on one. I enjoy teaching to larger groups when I am the teacher and they are the students. As in, having authority... I even enjoy talking in front of large crowds, in the hundreds, when it is about a very specific topic that I have expertise on. What I don't enjoy is working in large groups, or in situations where I lack a level of control. I can't stand large social gatherings where the point of the gathering is to 'socialize.' I do much better when there is a stated, tangible goal. Otherwise it feels like a huge waste of time.

 

[Redfire]

Walkyria: have you thought about forensic pathology? It seems like a really cool area. Am I wrong? If so, why?

 

[WALKYRIA]

Forensic pathology? I prefere forensic psychiatry/criminology... It doesn't appeal to me that much(forensic pathology)... It seems that I'm really too abstract to work with the material things of life(hence not the conventional physical medicine). The sole things that I appreciate seem to be the matters of : the mind/brain, the univers, and the society. The rest doesn't appeal to me that much.
Would you like to work with death people/corpses on a daily basis? It seems cool in movies but believe me it's pretty gross. My bloody stone cold INTJ buddy want's to go for it though.

It's the highly non-rigorous yet rigid, subjective error ridden cousin of physical medicine and psychology. Psychology at least recognizes what ideas within its field are real and which are speculation.

I understand and share your concerns about psychiatry. It's not a perfect field, I admit it has it's shortcomings but so every GREAT field has(sorry but we deal with things much more deeper than a bleeding or infarctus or whatever other obvious physical medical issue(as important as they might be); we save suicidal people, we relieve the worst pain= mental pain,...Etc). All in all, it can be a pretty sweet niche for us INTPs. Furthemore, Psychiatry is a field where amazingly great things can be achieved( about the mind, the people, the society) and we really don't know that much, so there is plenty of room for research.

Psychology alone doesn't meet my high standards(more for NF's). Neurology I find it really boring on a daily basis (deals with the quantifiable thus "safe aspects" of brain diseases; more for INTP 5w6's) !) . Psychiatry is the best for people interested in the deeper brain issues.(5w4's)

In fine, Psychiatry is- as high as my standards might be- a field approaching the most my ideal job.(loads of free time, not physically intense, teaching prospects, research prospects, independence, great work mates, high status, writing books prospects, family life, salary,..etc)

PS: Personnaly I intend to stay 15-20 years in psychiatry, learn about the human psyche, than go in politics and rule the country my way. fuck it !

 

[Redfire]

Forensic psychiatry sounds amazing, at least as a field of study.

 

[Jennywocky]

Forensic psychiatry sounds amazing, at least as a field of study.

If I had my chance to do my career over again, that's one of the areas I myself would be considering.

 

[Redfire]

If I had my chance to do my career over again, that's one of the areas I myself would be considering.

What are the other areas?

I remember reading somewhere that your worked in IT. I'm guessing criminologists need IT people as much as anyone else these days. There may be a way for you to get there.

 

[WALKYRIA]

Anyways, beside being a billionaire and thus having the might and freedom to do whatever you like whenever you like// and to influence the lives of others....no job is perfect for INTP's let's not lie to ourselves. Psychology, law, medicine, IT, architecture... good, but at the end of the day we all know that it's best fitted for people who come easily to conclusions(judgers !).

We just wanna lay and get laid + enjoy our money while we invest here and there in research, poor countries, studying whatver strikes our minds ...Etc OOh my gosh that would be the best thing.

Personally I don't think INTP's can have normal lives, with normal lifestyles, normal interactions... We need to define our own standards of life.


perfect job for INTP: financial independence.... and then building the perfect life.

 

[Windbag]

Personally I don't think INTP's can have normal lives, with normal lifestyles, normal interactions... We need to define our own standards of life.


perfect job for INTP: financial independence.... and then building the perfect life.

Perfect, sure. But adequate involves variety and autonomy.

One of my favorite jobs was working for a custom home builder. I never had a clue what I was going to do from one day to the next. Every day my INTJ boss gave me an assignment, and it could range from "clean this site" to "build something complicated that no one else wanted to touch." 90% of the time I worked alone. The rest of the time I worked with an INTP carpenter! (No joke, he'd taken MBTI tests.)

On the days I was sweeping or digging, my mind wandered to interesting topics, usually about how to improve construction processes. The rest of it involved rapid improvisation, which is fun. I stayed in shape without trying, and hung out with a lot of SP types, and that can be fun in a very anti-intellectual way.

 

[gilliatt]

One day I saw this course about the stock market and trading in markets for a living. I enrolled and finished it. But it was something I could do all alone. Just me and my charts, my thinking about what might happen in the future. You can take a chart with the price and volume of trading and think about one man, call him a Composite Man, Operator, and understanding and interpreting market action from that idea. There is laws involved in every case.
Anyway, I could not work for any boss, I have to find something I could do all alone. This business is a lone wolf business. Days I do not see anyone, just my stray cats and dogs, and my computer. But being by myself never bothered me, I have been by myself my whole life. Say a woman in my life. Oh, stop it! We would get alone about one date and two days.
Anyway, this speculating is something maybe an INTP could take up. Not ease, lots of ups and downs. I have seen millions won and then lost. Then there comes a time when you are certain of the direction of the market, then you pyramid, push your advantage. There is times, you see the possibilities, see the break coming, you mortgage the farm, pawn the cat etc and put it in the market.
Few people have by nature gifted to become a great operator in markets. I have to world hard to be average, I tend to lose interest like everything else I try to do. And there is no magic about success. Its knowledge of all sorts of conditions in this world. In studying market principles, there is no absolutes, you have no for sure things. So you can't be positive about a, let's say a climax etc.
Well, being always alone, don't have time to think about it, to busy thinking. I am not going to cry, let me get back to talking to myself, don't you cry either!