Architect Personality: 6 Contradictory Traits of INTPs That Confuse Other People

People with the architect personality type or INTP are some of the quirkiest and hardest to understand. Many things they do and say may confuse others.

INTP is one of the rarest personality types, according to the Myers-Briggs classification. These people seem to have their own perception of the world, which doesn’t make much sense to those around them. The architect personality is known for a set of quirks and contradictory traits that contribute to this misunderstanding.

Here are some examples:

1. INTPs don’t care about people’s opinions but feel awkward and anxious at social events

INTPs are of those people who value independence and freedom of thought most of all. Among other things, the architect personality tends to be independent of social expectations and the opinion of other people.

Commonly, INTPs just don’t find things like social acceptance, admiration, and attention worth spending their time and energy on. They simply don’t care about this stuff so much.

On the other hand, the architect personality type is one of the most socially awkward ones. They have a hard time trying to establish and maintain social contact.

Being around other people often drains them and makes them feel uncomfortable and anxious. It feels particularly intense at large social gatherings and in the company of people who don’t have much in common with the INTP.

This is quite contradictory because an INTP will never make conscious efforts to win everyone’s attention and admiration. At the same time, they may get disappointed and angry with themselves because of their social ineptness and inability to easily find a common ground with other people.

2. INTPs may seem cold and distant but are sensitive and caring deep inside

INTPs often seem indifferent and overly rational when they deal with interpersonal relationships. For example, someone with the architect personality type will never pretend to be nice and interested in someone just to show that they have good manners. They simply see no sense in having a nice chitchat with their neighbors or tolerating a distant relative who asks embarrassing personal questions.

An INTP always looks for a reason and meaning in everything, so if these don’t exist, they won’t bother wasting their time on it.

At the same time, INTPs are some of the most loyal and sincere people when it comes to close relationships. No matter how reserved and distant they may be with others, they are funny and easygoing with their loved ones. They just have a different comfort zone around different people.

Moreover, INTPs are deeply sensitive – even though they rarely show it – and get hurt easily. They tend to bottle up their emotions and spend hours overthinking and worrying about their relationships. The architect personality type just doesn’t like to show their feelings to others, even the closest ones.

No matter how cold and distant they may seem sometimes, be sure that your INTP is fiercely loyal and deeply cares about you.

3. INTPs long for deep conversations but fail to express themselves well when actually talking to people

INTPs are deep thinkers who can’t live without reflecting on existential matters and trying to understand the essence of everything.

If you have the architect personality type, you will know that feeling when you can’t sleep at night because of your overactive mind. You just lie in your bed, desperately trying to find the answer to an eternal question or the solution to a life situation. You think over different scenarios and finally, reach some conclusion. It all sounds so sensible and well-formulated in your head.

However, when you try to share your thoughts with your colleagues in the next morning, they look confused and don’t quite understand what you mean. Thank social awkwardness for that – it often makes an INTP sound less capable and intelligent than they actually are. But it’s not the only problem the architect personality faces here.

An INTP can’t always find someone to have a deep conversation with. It often happens that those around them are not really interested in all these matters that fascinate and puzzle an INTP. This can be a real struggle, especially in today’s shallow society which cultivates narrow-mindedness and stupidity.

The truth is that the architect personality type loves to talk to people, but only when the conversation topic is worth it. Why spend your time having a boring small talk about TV shows or food when there are so many intriguing things to discuss? This is the way an INTP sees it.

4. INTPs are good at analyzing personalities and relationships but are clueless when they are involved

The architect personality type is highly analytical and perceptive. They are really good at reading people and predicting the outcomes of relationships.

They often see people’s hidden motives and inconsistent behaviors before everyone else does. While an INTP tends to be socially awkward in practice, they are great at the theoretical aspect of interpersonal relationships.

If your best friend is an INTP, I’m sure that they have given you many useful tips about your relationships. Sometimes they are able to predict what will happen between people or how a relationship will end. And usually, they are right.

But what happens with their own relationships? For some reason, this insightfulness disappears when an INTP is involved themselves. They often don’t see the most obvious things and get genuinely astonished when their partner wants to have a “serious conversation”.

INTP women may particularly struggle with relationships and family matters as many of their perceptions and behaviors are not typical of women.

Maybe this happens because the feelings they have for their partner mess with their analytical ability. Also, an INTP is a rational thinker in the first place, so making sense of feelings and love matters is not their strength.

5. INTPs have numerous ideas and plans but rarely take real actions

The architect personality has a vivid imagination and an endless creativity. They are constantly thinking about new projects, ideas and questions.

The purpose of their life is to entertain and expand their mind with new knowledge and ideas. For this reason, an INTP will often have a whole plethora of projects and plans they get enthusiastic about in the beginning.

However, when it comes to implementing these plans, this enthusiasm fades away somehow. The INTP tends to overthink things and this is what happens when the time to act comes. Before they do anything, they think about all the possible obstacles and scenarios why it may fail. As a result, the project often remains just it – a project.

It’s because INTPs are purely theoretical thinkers and often struggle with the raw reality of everyday life.

6. INTPs can be highly intelligent in theoretical subjects but not so good at dealing with practical issues

The architect personality type is considered one of the most intelligent ones. In fact, statistically, INTPs tend to have the highest IQ scores among the MBTI types. They often excel in theoretical fields like physics, mathematics, astronomy, etc. and become notorious scientists and innovators. Albert Einstein is the most remarkable example of this personality type.

INTPs are deep thinkers and passionate learners who often have vast theoretical knowledge about all kinds of subjects. But what happens when they have to deal with mundane everyday problems like doing some paperwork? They may find such a simple task really draining and challenging.

If you know an INTP, you may often wonder why such a highly intelligent person has such a hard time dealing with these insignificant issues. Despite all their intelligence, they can be unbelievably impractical in certain situations in daily life.

It’s not only their theoretical mind to blame for this but also their tendency to overthink things. When faced with a task, an INTP will need some time to think about all the possible ways to perform it and choose the best one. No need to say that this approach is not always effective when you need to make a phone call or buy a tablecloth for your dining room.

And most importantly, INTPs hate all kinds of mundane stuff, whether it’s some paperwork or just a boring and monotonous task. They like to spend their time and energy only on the things that challenge their mind and stimulate their creativity.

Final Thoughts

People with the architect personality may seem weird and quirky at first. You may struggle to understand them in certain situations and decode the way they think about some things. However, if you manage to get closer to them, you will see a deep person and a loyal friend fun to spend time with.

If you are an INTP, can you relate to any of the above-described traits? Do you often face misunderstanding? Please share your thoughts with us.