Category: not a typing post

Hey Asked about Robin Wright a few days ago and just noticed you already typed her as ENTJ, which surprised me because i had her as the exact opposite ISFP. My typing was based off the subtlety of some of her acting performances and how introspective she can come across. In what ways can exact opposites differ but seem the same?

Well, ENTJs and ISFPs have all the same functions, they’ve just learned them in a different order.  Technically, if an ENTJ spent a lot of time working on their feelings and physicality (like, say, participated in a lot of acting excercises), they might bear a passing resemblance to an ISFP.  The problem is that the ENTJ will always have the crutch of a strong Te and Ni through which to view the world, which is pretty hard to let go of (and why would you?).

Often what happens with people with well developed 3rd and/or 4th functions is that they’ll look like their opposite, but… confusing.  If you go letter by letter, maybe you’ll be able to tell that you have an S-type, but otherwise that ESTJ looks like an INFP, so maybe they’re an ISFP (Princess Diana)?

Or you have an INTP that’s tells you he’s incredibly emotive and writes about his feelings directly, but still seems like an introverted P-type (Sam Smith).

Or ESTP writers who are conceptually-minded, and spend a lot of time alone but still seem like P types (or TPs) (Jesmyn Ward, Paulo Coelho, Donna Tartt)?

Or people-person ISTPs who get super into the conceptual elements of the acting process (Harvey Keitel).

If you’re going the opposite direction, I’m constantly confusing ISFPs for extraverted N types (Joe Gordon-Levitt, Sophie Dahl).

In all cases, no matter how convincingly they speak the sentiments their opposite type would say, their behaviour is still very much grounded in their original type.

Anonymous said to mbti-sorted:
Hi,
I was just wondering what quirks/type specific characteristics you’ve
noticed with ENTPs. I’ve always thought I was an INFP but started
thinking that Ne might be my Dom function and I think I use Si. I’m
leaning towards ENTP but I want to be more sure and honestly you’re my
most trusted source.

Anonymous said to mbti-sorted:
Sorry, sorry I meant Ti. I’m the one who thought they might be an ENTP.

I’m
sorry it’s taken me so long to get around to answering this.  I
would love to be able to give you a list of ENTP quirks, but
unfortunately I’m completely unable to answer that kind of thing
seriously – I never paid particular attention from the beginning of
typing people, so it’s something I recognize (third function Si), but
can’t really define and list (4th function Te).  I’d have to rewatch a
bunch of video through the lens of my Te, which sounds a lot like work
and as I’m not being paid for this, it’s just not going to happen.

As part of the attempt to give you something substantial, though, I
ended up reading up on existential crises on wikipedia:

(I’m going to cut here, because this is about to get really long.  I mean, really long.)

“An
existential crisis is a moment at which an individual questions the very
foundations of their life: whether their life has any meaning, purpose,
or value.”

At the bottom there was a link to the spiritual crisis:

”…(also
called “spiritual emergency”) is a form of identity crisis where an
individual experiences drastic changes to their meaning system (i.e.,
their unique purposes, goals, values, attitude and beliefs, identity,
and focus) typically because of a spontaneous spiritual experience.”

and also a link to Dan Howell, which has nothing to do with this post, but I found it kind of funny.

The
existential crisis made me think of ENTPs, who like to throw that one
around a lot.  The spiritual crisis reminded me of ESTPs, many of whom
seem to have late onset spiritual epiphanies.  (I’m not trying to claim
that these are the only two types with these crises, just that a
disproportionate number of ESTPs and ENTPs talk about or seem to have
them a lot.)

Neither one is
exactly what I experienced.  I’ve been calling it an existential crisis
for years (I’ve even thrown myself down on the floor a time or two and let me tell you, letting the floor take your weight while it realigns your back actually makes you feel better in a pretty tangible way), but I’ve never actually questioned whether I’ve had any value
or what my purpose was.  My crisis focused topically on spirituality,
but nothing I believed in changed – I just figured out how to define my
beliefs.

To jump around a bit, I’ve been searching a while for how
to best explain Fi, and I think I’ve found it.  The INTJ sister
recognized herself in my analogy and infj-zen couldn’t relate at all, so
if you’re wondering whether you’re ENTP (Fe) or INFP (Fi), this might
help.

Okay, I want you to imagine that as a baby, your fairy
godmother gifts you with an object that will help you make all major
decisions in your life.  That object is…

…a mood ring!

(Yes,
I know.  Is it even reading moods?  Isn’t it reacting to your body
temperature?  One of the many things you have to deal with when you have
Fi is skepticism, both your own and whatever logic-bias everyone around you shares.  Lucky you, you’re only a baby and don’t have to worry
about it until later.  I feel extremely sorry for the 3rd and 4th
function Fis, who grow up with rationality as their guiding light and
have to confront the least rational thing possible later in their teens,
twenties and later.  More on this to come – I’m kind of thinking your
major life crisis arises from the conflict between your 1st and 4th or
2nd and 3rd function pairs.)

To start, you basically go to Fi
kindergarten.  Here is a picture of someone making a face.  This face is
angry.  When you make this face, your mood ring is red.  Do you like
being angry?  (Mood ring stays red.)  Your decision becomes: I will do
the thing to not be angry.  When other people make the face, you also
learn to avoid making them angry.

You learn your primary colours,
your secondary colours, you get some tints tones and shades.  You can
define a huge range of subtle emotions.  The problems start when you get
complicated questions that result in microscopic patterns and
textures. 

Fi is great at “how are you feeling?”  (hunter green!)

It’s not great at, “Do you believe in aliens/ghosts/God/abortion/etc., etc. etc.” (What is this… paisley?  Why are you shifting to argyle?  Are you…?  No!  Stop sparkling!!!  …Je refuse.)

It’s not even great at, “What’s your favourite colour.” (I can’t even with the fractals…)

I
want you to imagine getting a survey meme (mine was an email forward,
which is dating myself – do people even send those anymore?) that asks a
bunch of these kind of questions one after the other.  Your answer to
every single one is “I don’t know.”  This may be kind of frustrating. 
If you don’t know these things, who are you?  Are there people out there
who can actually answer these questions for themselves and why can’t
you?

The answer is that these are complicated questions with many parts, and Fi feels differently about each part – and it feels definitely about each part as well (I’ve never felt like I’ve had control over my beliefs – they’ve always just been. 
I can influence them by taking in new information, but for the large
part, they almost seem like a separate entity from me and I don’t always
like or agree with them).  You need to put your mood ring under a
microscope to catch all the subtleties.  You need to break down your big
questions into smaller questions (they had better be the right
questions, too), and see how it feels about each thing.  If you’re ever
wondering why Fi doms seem moody, well – haha.

The other
answer is that Fi actively resists categorization.  It doesn’t like
being defined, and it doesn’t see things in either/or (you are an
individual!  You can’t extrapolate useful information from a sample of
one!).  Also if you have Ne, it keeps dredging up new possibilities and
exceptions to rules, which doesn’t help.

You know what does like that kind of organization, though? 

That’s right.  Te.

Your
incredibly poorly developed 4th function is actually the thing that is
stopping you from understanding your first function, because as much as
you dislike defining and categorizing, that is exactly what you need in
order to keep using your Fi mood ring to make decisions about your life.

And there you have it – my major crisis, pretty continuously from age 10 to 18 was a vocabulary crisis
while I learned enough words and concepts for the things I felt to be true
but couldn’t explain to come to terms with myself.  And if that sounds stupid, that’s probably why
it doesn’t get its own wikipedia entry.

Back to the ENTPs and the
ESTPs.  The ESTP spiritual crisis I get – you’re used to doing, and
being able to trust implicitly the information gained through your Se,
because it’s sensory and you can verify it. 

And then
suddenly you get hit with Ni (which I jokingly call “the voice of god”,
because my 6th function Ni feels as though it’s coming from outside me
as very certain pronouncements, even though mine only kicks in about
very stupid things), which… suddenly being hit over the head with thoughts that seem to come out of nowhere and can’t really be verified??  I can definitely see late onset Ni as part of the reason for a
spiritual epiphany.  Taking some time with Ni would definitely give a
shape and purpose to a life filled with action.

I’m not
entirely sure how the ENTP existential crisis would work.  If you’re an
Ne teeming with possibilities, I guess you might well be smothered under
their weight and anxious about what to actually do.  Si is the function
that looks backwards, so maybe it helps you list out the things that
actually have given you purpose and meaning?  ??  I don’t know, this one
could use some work.  It’s hard guessing at other people’s brains from
the outside.  Anyway, ENTPs seem to contribute a lot (ENTP work output
is vast) in many, many areas, so maybe part of that is allowing your Si to tell you that you’ve followed through on a lot of your
possibilities and your legacy is secure.

Enh.  Larval theory in larval stage.  I hope any of this was helpful – it’s been interesting to think about.

i’ve seen people argue that kendrick lamar is infp and not isfp, and i mean i think i agree. he doesn’t speak like other isfp’s i’ve seen (he does the thing where you can tell he’s choosing his words carefully, but he doesn’t really speak as slowly or as monotonously), and every mainstream album he’s released has been a concept album. he’s also a big believer in the spiritual concepts of god. just curious in your reasoning for isfp.

I took another look…

Definitely IFP.  I have a hard time telling between S or N, which usually means I skew S (sometimes incorrectly, so I’ll keep checking back when I have a better idea).  I get stuck on the lack of irony (whichever he is, he’s high on Fi) and this isn’t the right set of words, but the rapper arrogance?  Just the confidence of being the best – most INFPs wouldn’t be able to talk about how awesome they are without irony, but maybe there’s a cultural or showbiz sort of side to it where it’s expected (or just a been through some awful things, don’t need to pretend kind of thing)?  I don’t know – I haven’t watched enough rappers to be able to get a read on him from that perspective.

Anyway, I’ll keep him in mind.  Thanks for pointing him out.

Melanie Berliet considers herself an INFJ according to her writing. Why do you believe that she is an ENTP?

and:

Anonymous said to mbti-sorted:
One
of Melanie Berliet’s friends on ThoughtCatalog who writes about MBTI
says that Melanie is an INFJ.  (See the blog heidipriebe on tumblr.)

Okay, this just crossed a line for me, so I’m taking down her post.  For future reference (and I’m not saying this is what happened this time), if you know someone who is blogging about their MBTI type in more than an “I took this test one time” kind of way, kindly don’t ask me to type them.

What I want is examples of types that make as much sense to me as the theory does, and I can find them without being the MBTI police.