ENTP

ENTPs as They Typically Are

ENTPs are spontaneous and jocose individuals who tend to approach things with a keen sense of curiosity. They often have an intellectual and cerebral bent where they prize learning and love tinkering with concepts and exploring new ideas. ENTPs may come to see the world as their intellectual playground and as a place for them to unfold their experiments just to see what will happen.

ENTPs tend to be highly adaptable and are often good at seeing the same thing from multiple viewpoints at once. Though their thinking is logical, they are not primarily rationalists or systems thinkers, but tend to operate on the basis of highly original (if also fleeting) inspirational insights that come to them as unexpectedly as they take flight again: In a single moment, an ENTP might see how a thing could work, how it could be harnessed, and what it could mean for humanity several years from now. However, such ideas may take flight just as easily as they came upon the mind of the ENTP in the first place, leading the ENTP to suddenly drop the whole thing cold once the fire of novelty has died out.

Whereas ENFPs tend to be passionate champions of whatever they believe in - be it a person's potential or a political agenda - ENTPs place more weight on confronting others with their reasoning than on getting them on board with their conclusions, and in the eyes of people who want to know where others stand ENTPs may therefore seem both impersonal and irresolute. In general, ENTPs tend to think in terms of ideas rather than causes, and in terms of principles rather than value judgments. In spite of these differences, however, both ENFPs and ENTPs tend to excel at getting others excited at some future possibility or project and at getting them to work together in order to blaze new and unknown trails in the quest to discover something new.

Although they are normally quite laid-back and easygoing, ENTPs can nonetheless be a bit interpersonally abrasive at times, especially in regards to intellectual matters. ENTPs tend to have high expectations of themselves and others, and they will often be disappointed by a world which is inevitably seen as too mundane and slow-moving to satisfy their restless minds. Hence ENTPs can often become frustrated, or even misanthropic, when others fail to grasp the inspirational value of their ideas or fail to get excited over the inspirational vistas that the ENTP is laying bare before them.

Of the 16 types described in Jung's typology, the ENTP is perhaps the most Promethean of them all: ENTPs are often deeply invested in the advancement of humankind - they tend to see scientific and philosophical progress not just as methods or tools for the betterment of the human condition, but as steps towards transcendence. In this way, ENTPs tend to take a panoramic, "grand view" of developments where they de-personalize and de-individualize the content of their perceptions. ENTPs may therefore get excited about the various social and technological developments that take place in the world, but inevitably they will view them as impersonal in nature and forget to give much thought to how these prospects should be implemented in practice, or how they could personally stand to gain from them.

In interpersonal matters, ENTPs will often strike a challenging and humorous pose. In conversation they tend to bounce from subject to subject, making sly remarks and engaging others in playful banter. While ENTPs may be both amiable and personable, they are nevertheless more often interested in learning about people's thoughts than about the personal details of their lives. Hence while most ENTPs are friendly enough, they can sometimes come across as somewhat cold or intimidating since they are less interested in people than in the ideas that people are able to think up. In this way, others may sometimes experience a sense of uneasiness at the risk of being thought boring or tedious while around the ENTP.

This critical gaze is also a double-edged sword, however, as ENTPs can sometimes be overwhelmed by existential alienation and isolate themselves from others if they feel they are surrounded by simpletons.

In their professional lives, ENTPs are generally drawn to jobs that challenge them intellectually and continually introduce them to new ideas. ENTPs tend to approach their work in a highly unstructured and chaotic fashion and they may easily become resentful if they feel that others are forcing routine or an undue focus on practical matters upon them. ENTPs usually do not like directing others or ordering them around, and for this reason most ENTPs are not natural managers. On balance, ENTPs tend to do much better in mentoring or teaching roles where they can simply inform the student about the general principle and then have the student take it from there.

Overall, ENTPs tend to make excellent communicators, and they are frequently able to explain even complex academic ideas with ease and in simple terms that laymen can understand. They are good at getting people excited, and they often try to entice them to commit a bit more to the intellectual side of life. In general, ENTPs are very giving intellectually, sharing freely of their thoughts and ideas without necessarily thinking about how they will gain from it themselves. Like Prometheus from Greek mythology, they truly cannot help but give fire to mankind.