What Are the Worst Traits of an INTP?

There are some common traits of the INTP personality type that many view as undesirable.

I’m an INTP, and find the following all tend to be “bad” traits”.

1. Analysis Paralysis

INTPs prefer to gather information over making decisions, which can make us particularly vulnerable to having to make decisions under stress or a deadline. An INTP in an executive-level position should ideally be paired with someone more comfortable at stopping the first phase in order to accomplish actions given existing information. At the same time, INTP analysts often provide the best insight over the more impulsive ESTx types.

2. No Sense of Time

Intuitiveness tends to be a strength of the subconscious brain, while time awareness is a function of the conscious brain. People who are extremely focused on conscious activities (ESxx types in general) are also very time-sensitive, while INTPs in general become very focused on activities to the extent that they don’t really notice its passage. INTPs are also not very good at estimating the time to complete a project, nor at making deadlines.

3. Distractedness

INTPs are fascinated by everything, and they love to follow connections. You can keep an INTP engaged for hours by putting them online on a Wikipedia page, as they will follow every tangential thread into deeper and deeper rabbit holes. More experienced INTPs get into the habit of setting alarm clocks for themselves, just to ensure that they don’t stay up all night focused on the mating habits of Thrushes.

4. Improvization

INTPs are notorious for “winging it”, attempting to solve a problem that they don’t necessarily understand going in, often by creating intermediate solutions and technologies from whole cloth just to get there. What’s so terrifying is so how often it works for us. Part of this is that, even when “winging it”, INTPs are usually thinking about how to solve problems like this long before they get to the point where they actually have to do something. However, the journey can be unnerving to those people who don't have access to the person’s mental processes, and when things do go wrong they often go spectacularly wrong.

5. Underconfidence

Especially when younger, INTPs often face the inverse aspect of the Dunning-Kruger effect: they tend to underestimate their own skills in a given area, especially in the presence of people who have more confidence but less competence. They know how much they don’t know, but don’t necessarily have a good estimate about how much they do know compared to non-experts. This means that many INTPs tend not to take chances when younger, even when they have the opportunity (and the means) to do so. As they get older they gain confidence in their own skills, but it can take a while.

6. Social Awkwardness

INTPs are generally very intelligent, but this very intelligence often reinforces their isolation from their peers - they simply don’t learn the social cues that most people absorb intrinsically, and as such, they have to play catch up and figure out social interaction as a cognitive skill. This, combined with their inherent honesty, makes them far more likely to commit social blunders and cues that can alienate others, and can consequently make it hard for them to develop friendships and relationships until they get older. Fortunately, as they do mature, they do pick up these skills, and often develop a more nuanced perception about social behaviors than others do who rely upon instinct.

7. Passive-Aggressive Behavior

This is something that tends to be a staple for most INXX personalities, but INTPs are particularly vulnerable to this. Strong extroverts can often engage in bullying behavior to establish dominance in social groups. Other extroverts often mirror this behavior, because they don’t want to be in the Out group or see the strong extrovert as a trendsetter. Introverts, on the other hand, tend to not know how to respond to such behavior, and as such frequently do nothing at all. The extrovert, sensing a potential victim, will then push at the introvert harder and harder, making them withdraw even more. However, at some point, the extrovert crosses a line, and the introvert, who is now stressed and angry and ashamed, finally strikes back, either physically or verbally, in ways that are completely unexpected by the extrovert. This kind of reaction is often labeled (improperly, I believe) as passive-aggressive behavior because it seems like the aggressiveness seemingly comes out of nowhere, often disproportionately to the latest (but not the cumulative) insults.

8. Difficulty with Authority

INTPs are often far more focused on learning and discovering new things, which makes them good researchers. However, as they gain understanding and competence in an area, they also have difficulties in working through the non-learning oriented obstacles, such as those necessary to completing a course of study, or editing a report, or dealing with the bureaucracy of getting a degree or getting promoted. They can be easily stymied by bureaucracy or politics, and as such often have difficulty in treating authorities with the respect that such authorities believe they deserve. This often translates into INTP careers stagnating, especially if they are also engaged in meaningless work that accomplishes no discernable goal.

9. Impatience with Fools

As mentioned, INTPs enjoy teaching, mentoring and helping others to understand complexity. However, they do not in general deal well with willfully ignorant people, especially those that tend to deliberately spread misinformation. This can come across as elitism or arrogance to those same people, but in reality, we just don't like idiots.

10. Reservedness

Many INTPs are described as being reserved, aloof, or unemotional. Most INTPs actually feel emotion very strongly, but they dislike controlling their behavior. They also do not give their heart out easily. When they do, INTPs usually tend to mate for life (though many other types may find living life with an INTP challenging precisely because they are so hard to get close to). When a relationship ends, they also tend to see it primarily as their own fault, even when it’s not, and can become even more reluctant to re-engage in matters of the heart if that happens.