So that's what we are called? We are INTPs. We comprise 2.5% of the population. The best 2.5% of the population
. The only other INTP I've ever known is my older brother. Until a couple of years ago, I wasted a lot of my time hanging out with people and doing social stuff that I considered.. well.. a waste of time. I never really understood why people enjoyed hanging around doing pretty much nothing. I just went along because I felt compelled to. Even my parents would say "its a friday night, why don't you go hang out with your friends?" They were my friends, yes, but they were not INTP! I couldn't identify with them. I never have. Also, I don't consider it a matter of social vs. anti-social. These people were just a waste of my time. I would gladly have spent some time with some INTP friends or any one with... god forbid... ambitions!
This was when I realzied that high schoolers were entrenched in their anti-intellecual culture and I had better plans for myself.
I had always been goal-oriented and hungry to learn, but I had also been holding back. As a member of a society that was pressuring me to conform to its scoial values, there were certain cognitive inhibitions I had to overcome. For all of this, I am stronger now. I have let loose my ravenous appetite for mastery on my all-consuming passions. In the past, my passions would consume me and I would only nibble back, feeling unfulfilled. But things have changed now. I no longer nibble; I devour.
With that being said, here's a few things about myself and what I've been doing over the past few years. Foremost, I am a language learner. I learned Spanish in school and and I took up learning Japanese on my own. Most people have the preconception that Japanese is a near-impossible language to master (and I think you know how INTPs feel about preconceptions!). So I created an intelligent system to learn the language through visual mnemonics. It took a few months to learn kana, 2500 kanji, and 1000s of vocab words. I've been learning the language for about 3 years, but I was more concerned with prefecting the system and training my visualization skills during that time. Nevertheless, I have been humbled by how difficult a task it is to learn a language, and I won't have mastered either of them for years to come.
Since then I've also become interested in devloping learning systems. Traditional education is there to cater largely to an audience of people who would not take it upon themselves to learn otherwise. Its certainly doesn't cater to the INTP. If you've ever questioned a teacher's rules and they answered "Because I'm the teacher" then you know what I'm talking about.
I also play several intruments. Primarily I'm a drummer and I've been playing for about 7 years (and am now a compulsive beat-boxer). I go to college next year where I plan to pursue cognitive science/linguistics/psychology.
Most of all, I am the rational architect, at the pinnacle of the INTP. It is nice to meet you.
. The only other INTP I've ever known is my older brother. Until a couple of years ago, I wasted a lot of my time hanging out with people and doing social stuff that I considered.. well.. a waste of time. I never really understood why people enjoyed hanging around doing pretty much nothing. I just went along because I felt compelled to. Even my parents would say "its a friday night, why don't you go hang out with your friends?" They were my friends, yes, but they were not INTP! I couldn't identify with them. I never have. Also, I don't consider it a matter of social vs. anti-social. These people were just a waste of my time. I would gladly have spent some time with some INTP friends or any one with... god forbid... ambitions!This was when I realzied that high schoolers were entrenched in their anti-intellecual culture and I had better plans for myself.
I had always been goal-oriented and hungry to learn, but I had also been holding back. As a member of a society that was pressuring me to conform to its scoial values, there were certain cognitive inhibitions I had to overcome. For all of this, I am stronger now. I have let loose my ravenous appetite for mastery on my all-consuming passions. In the past, my passions would consume me and I would only nibble back, feeling unfulfilled. But things have changed now. I no longer nibble; I devour.
With that being said, here's a few things about myself and what I've been doing over the past few years. Foremost, I am a language learner. I learned Spanish in school and and I took up learning Japanese on my own. Most people have the preconception that Japanese is a near-impossible language to master (and I think you know how INTPs feel about preconceptions!). So I created an intelligent system to learn the language through visual mnemonics. It took a few months to learn kana, 2500 kanji, and 1000s of vocab words. I've been learning the language for about 3 years, but I was more concerned with prefecting the system and training my visualization skills during that time. Nevertheless, I have been humbled by how difficult a task it is to learn a language, and I won't have mastered either of them for years to come.
Since then I've also become interested in devloping learning systems. Traditional education is there to cater largely to an audience of people who would not take it upon themselves to learn otherwise. Its certainly doesn't cater to the INTP. If you've ever questioned a teacher's rules and they answered "Because I'm the teacher" then you know what I'm talking about.
I also play several intruments. Primarily I'm a drummer and I've been playing for about 7 years (and am now a compulsive beat-boxer). I go to college next year where I plan to pursue cognitive science/linguistics/psychology.
Most of all, I am the rational architect, at the pinnacle of the INTP. It is nice to meet you.
. Btw your avatar cracked me up. 
. (that emoticon is a ninja right?)
