Introverts tend to be more introspective than extroverts, so they may not share their thoughts easily.
They may be difficult to understand because they are often silent and you only know what’s
inside their mind when they choose to share with you.
Intuitives are harder to understand since there are by far more Sensing types in the
population than Intuitives, and Sensing types don’t really understand why Intuitives are
so captivated by theories and things that don't exist or cannot be used in the real world.
You can add the Thinking aspect of their personality type which makes INTPs less interested in
traditions than in the concept of tradition and their Perceiving style which can make
them a bit unpredictable, and now you can see why people say: “Wow, what an awkward
person” when they cross paths with an INTP.
INTPs rely more on logic than feelings.
This can cause them to be less empathetic and agreeable than other personality types,
especially during the earlier stages of their development.
The logic an INTP follows is usually complex and highly individualistic, and this may make
life harder for them.
Other people may not be able or willing to understand an INTP's reasoning.
They don't care about a high-level career, or a six-figure income.
They follow the beat of their own drum and find it difficult to please other people's
expectations of them.
Their favorite end result is a complex, yet elegant solution to a problem.
They can be easily irritated by simplistic opinions and superficial ways of thinking.
INTPs are aware that life is not simple, and they do not want to miss out on the incredible
complexities and how everything really comes together.
For an INTP, knowledge can be a source of pleasure.
INTPs have Introverted Thinking as a dominant function, and that should make them super
easy to understand, because they'll tell you something or express their opinions with no filter.
However, because of their inferior function Extroverted Feeling, they can appear more
complex and difficult to understand.
With Fe as an inferior function, INTPs just notice the emotions of others, which means
it’s easy for them to tell when someone’s in an emotional situation, but hard to know
how they must react.
When they’re asked how they are feeling, INTPs often take a lot of time to think about
what people really want to hear from them, and look deep for some words that may resemble
an answer.
Probably the best they can do to approximate their own feelings, is to use the feelings
of others' to approximate their own.
This doesn’t mean they do not have feelings!
INTPs have feelings and can feel as intensely as other types, but because their full range
of emotions is more difficult to access, their feelings may take longer to be expressed.
If you want to get on better with an INTP, here are some tips:
- Be patient.
You should give the INTP time to come back with an answer when ready.
Asking too soon or too many times for an answer will make them feel pressured, and you may
need to wait even longer for a good response.
- Remain calm.
Try not to put INTPs in a situation where they will be expected to emotionally react
or show empathy.
Their first response will be to retreat.
- Don't misinterpret their silence.
The silence of INTPs can simply mean they are thinking.
So accusing them of withholding the truth will only make them retreat even more.
- They are observable.
It can be difficult for INTPs to describe their values, emotions, or preferences but
those can be easily seen in the way of how INTPs make decisions.
So asking too many personal questions might get the opposite response than what you were expecting.
- Don’t rely on their body language.
If someone during a conversation looks away, this might indicate a lack of confidence,
or many other things..
For an INTP however it often means nothing; this can just reflect their thinking process
or that they think quickly about many things.
In short, INTPs can easily give off the impression of being very complex, and so they're harder
to understand than most personality types.
With Introverted Thinking as a dominant function, their focus is on logic and accuracy.
They can come off as being aloof, absent-minded, and even cold because they often have a hard
time expressing their emotions to other people.
Also, important to mention would be that INTPs are probably not the most complex or misunderstood type.
These honors could easily go to another type.
The truth is, all introverted-intuitives can be considered complex or hard to understand
mostly because of their intuitive layers and introversion.