User Guide to Being a Better INTP

Part One - Calibrating Your Probability Designation Software

Here’s part one of my advice to young INTPs, from over five decades of experience. I have to explain some concepts before I get into how to address them, but I assure you, it’s worth a read. It will be broken up into multiple parts, so anything that is not covered in sufficient detail here will be covered later.

An INTP’s most important attribute is our intellect and independent thought, something which, with the rise of the internet, seems to be failing among INTPs, not because of a problem with INTPs per se, but because the ways in which we gather knowledge has been hijacked by modern technology.

There’s an entire process that used to be far easier for INTPs, but now is much harder because of the internet, and that is the development of independent critical thought. In order to actually develop this effectively, the first thing you need is massive amounts of data. The way INTPs categorize information seems to be different from most people. Most people think in black and white, without actually evaluating information on its own merits - they categorize information based on the source. INTPs categorize information differently; INTPs engage in Bayesian thinking to an extreme degree, and so new information changes the likelihood of all related data already gathered. For INTPs, gathering data is an ongoing and endless process of categorization by probability. INTPs intuitively assign probabilities to each piece of information they gather, and this is further honed by more data. The advantage here is that we always have a realistic model of the probability of our theories; INTPs are top-down inductive thinkers, therefore our intuitions on how models, frameworks, and theories about how reality works, as well as our logical reasoning, are highly accurate in a broad sense. However, because it’s inductive rather than deductive, we can never know with 100% certainty. So we sacrifice extreme certainty on some points for extremely high probability on many points. One benefit of this is less of a tendency to engage in black and white thinking.

The hijacking of the INTP brain which leads to failures in this system probably started over 15 years ago, as the internet became easier and easier to access. Our innate biological need for knowledge was now satisfied by superficial Wikipedia articles, superficial bite-sized pieces of information that imperfectly updated our probability calibration, while satisfying the need for information. Our satiety on this intellectual junk food gives us the illusion of knowledge. We are no longer getting enough data to accurately assign probabilities to the information we are taking in, but we are getting the information satiety that we desperately desire. The end result is that we are running on too little information, resulting in imperfect models. Throw on top of that podcasts that bombard us with ideas, often without context or obscured context, and things just get worse.

Essentially, we are eating Doritos and donuts rather than substantial meals, and anyone born after 1995 might not even know that “meat and vegetables” exist anymore. “I’m eating, I’m full, what’s the problem?” is the likely response.

Take yourselves back 30 years, to 1994. There was no central repository of instantly searchable, instantly accessible information. Knowledge was substantially harder to come by. For the average human, that wasn’t an issue, because they had no interest in any knowledge beyond what they saw on TV or learned in high school. They learned what was taught, graduated, got married, bought a house, watched the news, read the newspaper, rinse, repeat. They became a cog in the machinery, and were OK with it, that construct provided them with what they needed. But that’s not how INTPs operate.

An INTP in high school in 1994, with that innate biological drive for knowledge would have to go to bookstores, buy books, take books out of the library, and read massive amounts of information - this is what the drive led to. There was no shortcut, no easy Wikipedia search - there were no Wikipedia Doritos to distract us from the hearty meal of an entire book. There was also no distractions of social media, streaming movies, or anything (outside of a Super Nintendo). When you got home after school, you were truly alone. Unless the phone rang, or a friend knocked on your door, you no longer had connection to anyone at school. And you had hours to read. Because there was no lexical version of Doritos and donuts and minimal distractions, INTPs would read a book from cover to cover, and if they found the subject interesting, they would read multiple books on the subject.

So what is the difference between a book and random information on the internet? A book gives you far more information than a simple google search and Wikipedia rabbit-hole experience. It also gives you other opinions, other options, analysis and insight by the author, analysis and insight by those quoted by and read by the author; you’re essentially getting a full course in the subject. Information alone is good, but information that includes critique, assessment, opinions, and analysis is far, far better. Three pages of text on Wikipedia will never give you what 300 pages on the same subject in a book will give you.

Therefore, one key to properly calibrating your mental Bayesian probability software is to read entire books on various subjects; The more subjects the better. If you can read one full book per month for 10 years, you will have honed your ability to assess and categorize information based on probability, which develops many attributes of the INTP necessary to leverage your strengths; this includes critical thinking skills, and bullshit detection - two abilities seriously lacking in the modern world - the two things most necessary to avoid falling for corybantic and moronic ideologies, shifty grifters, and just plain bad ideas. Over 30 years ago, this was the standard way an INTP grew up, and so INTPs were always far ahead of the curve, but as mentioned, as informational “meat and vegetables” were replaced with “Doritos and donuts”, INTPs fell behind the curve. The only way to maximize your solvency, value, and potential as an INTP is to hyper-focus on massive knowledge gathering tasks.

I already know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking “but Dax, the internet gives me so much information! I could learn the equivalent of an entire college course by reading on the internet!”. My response to that is as follows: NO. I’m an INTP just like you, you can’t fool me, I know how lazy and distractible we are. You don’t have the discipline to search out and find legitimate sources, and you are too distractible to spend hours and hours reading on a subject when you already have seven other tabs open. Doritos!

The other key is to actually go on to further education beyond high school (which will be the subject of a future article). With the solid foundation of being well read, with a broad knowledge base, critical thinking skills, and strong bullshit detection skills, an INTP will excel in college. However, if you haven’t developed these skills; if you’ve only been eating Doritos and donuts, it’s likely you will struggle. In this case, the one thing to keep in mind is that paying attention, reading, and actually doing the work is easy. If you accept that you’re a loser, if you accept that you can’t do it, if you’re OK being a loser who stays home in the basement playing video games and idly searching google, you will not live up to your potential - nay, birthright, as an INTP. For an INTP, the gathering of knowledge is the key to success; don’t let the superficial junk food of the internet take you down. You deserve better than that.

Part two will concern how to avoid ideological thinking.