Here's a description of the Myers-Briggs Personality Type ENTP Category, of which I am an extreme case. There are basically four binary categories, so this is one of sixteen possible types. Roughly 5% of the human population are ENTP. You can also check out a summary of the sixteen types.
This information was borrowed from the ALT.PSYCHOLOGY.PERSONALITY archives.
Extraverted iNtuitive Thinking Perceiving
by Brian Yamauchi (yamauchi@ces.cwru.edu)
ENTPs are inventors, innovators, explorers, entrepreneurs, and visionaries.
ENTPs are always looking over the next horizon, trying to push the edge of
the envelope, and trying to do what other people say can't be done. What
is -- is never good enough. ENTPs have a vision of what could be and a
powerful drive to turn their visions into reality.
ENTPs value progress and change, both in their personal lives and in the
world as a whole. The idea of a static, unchanging life -- appealing to some
SJs -- is abhorrent to an ENTP. ENTPs are always seeking out new experiences,
new ideas, and new achievements. While other types may worry that the world
is changing too fast, ENTPs are more likely to be frustrated that the world
isn't changing fast enough -- in the direction they want it to move.
Like other NTs, ENTPs tend to have a rational, empirical view of the world
and often have a strong and early interest in science and technology -- but
this worldview and these interests are expressed differently in each of the
types.
While an INTP may be content to design a system or even just prove it is
possible to design a system -- ENTPs want to design and build the system and
see it working with their own eyes. In this way, they resemble INTJs in
their goals -- but not in their approach toward achieving those goals. INTJs
tend to work carefully and methodically with a detailed plan of action --
ENTPs are more likely to have bursts of inspiration that are translated into
reality through intermittent periods of extremely intense activity.
ENTPs tend to be sociable -- they enjoy interacting with interesting people
and doing interesting things with others. The key word is "interesting".
ENTPs have a low boredom threshold, and unlike EF-types, they have little
desire to be around other people simply for the sake of being around other
people.
More than other NTs, ENTPs value intense experiences -- including emotional
experiences -- and are less likely than other NTs to attempt to suppress
their emotions. When ENTPs are up, they're on top of the world, facing
unlimited possibilities, unbounded horizons, and an exhilarating future.
When ENTPs are down, the universe lacks any redeeming qualities, whatsoever.
ENTPs are risk-takers -- flying, skydiving, scuba diving, hang gliding,
mountain climbing, and fast cars all have a strong appeal for ENTPs. Unlike
STP risk-takers, however, ENTPs are less likely to become experts in a
particular activity, and more likely to sample a wide variety of different
experiences.
ENTPs have little respect for rules that fail to serve a useful purpose.
Rules that significantly inhibit the ability to get things done will be
changed, finessed, or simply ignored.
While ENTPs value their personal relationships, they find it easier than some
other types (in particular, NFs and SFJs) to leave those relationships behind.
An ESFJ, for example, might be terrified by the thought of leaving all of
their friends behind and moving alone to a new city. An ENTP in the same
situation may miss those friends, but at the same time be looking forward to
the new people, new places, new experiences, and new opportunities they may
find in their new environment.
Famous ENTPs:
U.S. Presidents:
John Adams
James A. Garfield
Rutherford B. Hayes
Christopher Columbus
Wernher von Braun
Richard Feynman
Arthur C. Clarke
Francis Ford Coppolla
Steven Jobs
Neil Peart
Fictional ENTPs:
Indiana Jones
Geordi LaForge (of Star Trek: TNG)
Calvin (of Calvin & Hobbes)
Jason Fox (of Fox Trot)
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Extraverted iNtuitive Thinking Perceiving
by Marina Margaret Heiss (mmh0m@poe.acc.virginia.edu)
"Clever" is the word that perhaps describes ENTPs best. The professor who
juggles half a dozen ideas for research papers and grant proposals in his
mind while giving a highly entertaining lecture on an abstruse subject is a
classic example of the type. So is the stand-up comedian whose lampoons are
not only funny, but incisively accurate.
ENTPs are usually verbally as well as cerebrally quick, and generally love to
argue--both for its own sake, and to show off their often-impressive skills.
They tend to have a perverse sense of humor as well, and enjoy playing devil's
advocate. They sometimes confuse, even inadvertently hurt, those who don't
understand or accept the concept of argument as a sport.
ENTPs are as innovative and ingenious at problem-solving as they are at
verbal gymnastics; on occasion, however, they manage to outsmart themselves.
This can take the form of getting found out at "sharp practice"--ENTPs have
been known to cut corners without regard to the rules if it's expedient -- or
simply in the collapse of an over-ambitious juggling act. Both at work and
at home, ENTPs are very fond of "toys"--physical or intellectual, the more
sophisticated the better. They tend to tire of these quickly, however, and
move on to new ones.
ENTPs are basically optimists, but in spite of this (perhaps because of it?),
they tend to become extremely petulant about small setbacks and inconveniences.
(Major setbacks they tend to regard as challenges, and tackle with determin-
ation.) ENTPs have little patience with those they consider wrongheaded or
unintelligent, and show little restraint in demonstrating this. However, they
do tend to be extremely genial, if not charming, when not being harassed by
life in general.
In terms of their relationships with others, ENTPs are capable of bonding
very closely and, initially, suddenly, with their loved ones. Some appear to
be deceptively offhand with their nearest and dearest; others are so demon-
strative that they succeed in shocking co-workers who've only seen their
professional side. ENTPs are also good at acquiring friends who are as clever
and entertaining as they are. Aside from those two areas, ENTPs tend to be
oblivious of the rest of humanity, except as an audience -- good, bad, or
potential.
Additional famous ENTPs:
Alexander the Great
Confederate General J. E. B. Stuart
Sir Walter Raleigh
Fictional:
Mercutio, from _Romeo_and_Juliet_
Horace Rumpole, from John Mortimer's _Rumpole_of_the_Bailey_ series
Dorothy L. Sayers' detective Lord Peter Wimsey
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From: jabutt@sacam.OREN.ORTN.EDU
Subject: Re: ENTP Profile (was Re: populational distribution of types?)
Date: 30 Jun 94 (revised)
From an outsider's (non-ENTP's) view, for 'typewatching' purposes, there are
a couple of characteristics I'd like to add:
1) the need to have areas of expertise/excellence/uniqueness in which one is
second to none. I've never beaten an ENTP at his/her own game--not in the
final analysis. (e.g., just tonight, my neighbor who is recuperating from an
illness received a call from an ENTP friend offering his special recipe for
tea. The instructions required only the finest ingredients, a particular
brand of orange juice, tea made with a ball--none of those horrid
teabags--..., which will of course make the *best* tea of which he himself
drinks 50 gallons each winter!)
2) members of this type could easily fit under the rubric: _intelligensius
anarchus_. As one of my coworkers put it recently, "speaking of anarchists,
how's [resident ENTP] doing?"
I would also like to offer a few famous ENTPs:
U.S. Presidents:
John Adams, 2nd US president. [Adams appears to have been competing with
[Thomas Jefferson to see who would live the
[longest. ("Jefferson surv...")
Thomas Edison, definitely a 'working model' man
Lewis Carrol (_Alice in Wonderland_)
Sir Winston Churchill
Valerie Harper
Bill Cosby
Suzanne Pleshette
Tom Hanks
John Candy
John Sununu
Weird Al Yankovick (?sp)
Marilyn Vos Savant
Alfred Hitchcock
Fictional Characters:
'Q' (ST-NG)
Bugs Bunny
Wile E. Coyote
Garfield
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