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Are you an ENTP and wonder why you can't get things done when working for yourself?

Remiremi

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This post is relevant to the in-depth guide I did over at:

^^ Which breaks down into finding out your MBTI and Ennagram and using that to propel yoruself forward ( among other things )

Thanks for the share.

Yes absolutely! Actually @eliquid it's your post that subconsciously gave me the permission to write this post, as I used to think personality types research would be frown upon here. I was looking for specific ENTP advice for entrepreneurs and when I couldn't find enough to quench my thirst, I decided to condense my researchs here! Thanks for opening the way :)
 
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eliquid

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Look up cognitive functions, especially being a Ti dominant (INTP) vs Ni dominant (INTJ).

Sure.

I know all about cognitive functions. I've done some pretty in-depth research over the years.

The problem is with some of these tests is, there is no addressing the "strength of the ability" or that people fundamentally prefer one thing over the other, not a bit of both. Those that try to score a strength, really aren't scoring that.

As with all self-tests, they are just an indication of their probable overall type.

Most flaws with these tests are people not having the correct feedback or giving answers based on bias. There aren't too many people really touching their core when they do these tests.

I think you can be a balance of both Ti and Ni.

I know from personal experience how I think and make decesions, and many times its a mix of both. At times I lean Ti, at times I lean Ni
 
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Remiremi

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I am super intrigued. I've never heard of this. Ni Te Fi stuff.

Where did you learn about this part of it, and how did you get to the point where you can accurately predict someone's personality?

Any particular resources you'd recommend?

You might appreciate starting here : ENTP Personality Type: The Intuitive Thinker | Personality Junkie

It will introduce you to four of the eight functions and how they manifest within ENTP types, which will probably lead you to actionable insights. :)
 

Remiremi

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On another note, ever since reading this, I've been listening to some Youtube videos about this personality type. As an INTP I tend to be restless until I understand something on a fundamental level. As it turns out, these personality theories go a lot deeper than I thought! I'm excited to learn more about the nuances of each type as it compares to others.

If you ever want to get on a call and chat about being one of these rare breeds, let me know!

Yes that's quite the rabbit hole haha. Sure would love to chat about this let's set that up!
 
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Go meta - use all of those INTP, INTJ and others.
Decouple YOU from personality.

So to You that are finding reflection of themselves in those replies: ....Nah

I don't get it, sorry. Your writing language (do this, do that) and you being patronizing screams INTJ/ENTJ (high Te function) and your disregard of the theory + "decoupling yourself from personality" points to the Fi function, which again is also in the INTJ/ENTJ personalities' stack.

Like I said, MBTI and cognitive functions has shown me who I really am, but did not give me an excuse to be lazy or undisciplined because I'm an ENTP. Instead it has pointed my weaknesses out to me and I've been developing my inferior functions.
 

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I am super intrigued. I've never heard of this. Ni Te Fi stuff.

Where did you learn about this part of it, and how did you get to the point where you can accurately predict someone's personality?

Any particular resources you'd recommend?

A shit ton of tests, reddit, looking up famous people and fictional characters online to see what they are. With time I've developed my own framework for typing people. The personality database is cool.
 

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ENFJ-A Protagonist now, yay!

43%ENTP
17%ENTJ
12%ESTP
7%INTP
6%ENFP



You should sell this stuff.

Let's figure out whether you're an ENFJ or ENTP right now.

What were you like growing up? A smartass nerd or a dude with lots of friends? What about now?

Argued with the teacher or valiantly fought off bullies for others between classes?

Would you consider yourself a troll/prankster? What about people who know you?

If you hypothetically had a sister and she was known to sleep around and she comes crying to you because someone called her a whore, would you console her and feel sympathy for her or would your reaction be more akin to "Well, it is true though.."

Yeah I've thought about it.
 
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Sure.

I know all about cognitive functions. I've done some pretty in-depth research over the years.

The problem is with some of these tests is, there is no addressing the "strength of the ability" or that people fundamentally prefer one thing over the other, not a bit of both. Those that try to score a strength, really aren't scoring that.

As with all self-tests, they are just an indication of their probable overall type.

Most flaws with these tests are people not having the correct feedback or giving answers based on bias. There aren't too many people really touching their core when they do these tests.

I think you can be a balance of both Ti and Ni.

I know from personal experience how I think and make decesions, and many times its a mix of both. At times I lean Ti, at times I lean Ni

All functions work synergetically. Ne + Ti can seem like Ni.

You sound more INTJ than INTP to me.
 

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Hey guys, this post inspired me to write a draft for a (hypothetical) productivity/organization/calendaring email newsletter. It's about a specific tactic I've had in mind that is very aligned with the advice in the OP. I figured since I just wrote it all out, I might as well share it here.

---

I have a tendency to get enamored with project ideas that may a bit too grand in scope... One of those ideas keeps recurring for me, and it's closely related to why I love using a calendar (for stuff I've DONE, not stuff I plan to do) for my personal productivity.

I keep thinking I should go through all of my various types of personal records: journals, email correspondence, private messages, forum posts, software commits, passport stamps, plane tickets, invoices, rental agreements, etc. and use everything I can find as source material for an ultimate DONE list.

Imagine a private web page with a timeline of your entire life (at least your adult life) — mapped out, browsable, searchable, annotated, hyperlinked, tagged... personal stats, life events, and most importantly progress on projects. If I want to see every time I worked on some particular programming topic, I can pull up all of the relevant entries in my timeline. If I want have a project that's been on the back burner for 7 years, and now I feel like working on it, I can pull up all of my previous progress, see what I did, see where I left off, and jump right back into it today.

I'm a guy with dozens of projects on the back burner over years and years. The good news is, I do make progress on, and even finish, a lot of these projects. The appeal of this ultimate-life-timeline-done-list-thing is that I can get on track with projects a lot faster, and when I'm struggling for motivation, I can just browse everything I've done in the past and see what I find interesting to work on today.

In some ways, this is just too big of an idea, I can see myself going down a rabbit hole building an ill-conceived system that is too meta to every really be useful. But if I apply some of my favorite productivity principles, this becomes a very reasonable project.

What we need to make this work: a real commitment to a minimum viable product (meaning get my ego out of the way and find a solution that starts producing results this afternoon), an aesthetic of simplicity, and Larry Wall's laziness as a virtue.

In other words, if I get my head out of the clouds and get real, I can start getting exactly what I'm looking for just by using my calendar. I'm already using my calendar as much as possible to track my fuzzy plans and what I actually did, including notes about progress on projects, links to the context/resources I need to pick projects back up, sometimes notes about where I went and who I saw, and of course hard deadlines like meetings that I've scheduled with clients. I am also starting each week by creating a calendar entry that contains a "menu" of things I've been interested in recently, which serves the same purpose as being able to browse through my past projects and pick out what I want to work on.

So if I really want to create this ultimate DONE list, I can start small, right now, by taking one source of data (e.g. one of the handwritten notebooks I've filled up with journal entries) and start adding historical information to my calendar. Then I can experiment with different ways of tagging, linking and otherwise organizing a small set of data... once I have a simple system for creating calendar entries that meets my needs (must keep it simple!) then the job of turning all of my unstructured source material into a structured data on my calendar just becomes one more project on the back burner that I can pick up and work on when it feels like the right thing to do!

Let me know if you think this is a dumb idea, good idea, or if you see ways that this idea could be a lot better.
 

Remiremi

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Hey guys, this post inspired me to write a draft for a (hypothetical) productivity/organization/calendaring email newsletter. It's about a specific tactic I've had in mind that is very aligned with the advice in the OP. I figured since I just wrote it all out, I might as well share it here.

---

I have a tendency to get enamored with project ideas that may a bit too grand in scope... One of those ideas keeps recurring for me, and it's closely related to why I love using a calendar (for stuff I've DONE, not stuff I plan to do) for my personal productivity.

I keep thinking I should go through all of my various types of personal records: journals, email correspondence, private messages, forum posts, software commits, passport stamps, plane tickets, invoices, rental agreements, etc. and use everything I can find as source material for an ultimate DONE list.

Imagine a private web page with a timeline of your entire life (at least your adult life) — mapped out, browsable, searchable, annotated, hyperlinked, tagged... personal stats, life events, and most importantly progress on projects. If I want to see every time I worked on some particular programming topic, I can pull up all of the relevant entries in my timeline. If I want have a project that's been on the back burner for 7 years, and now I feel like working on it, I can pull up all of my previous progress, see what I did, see where I left off, and jump right back into it today.

I'm a guy with dozens of projects on the back burner over years and years. The good news is, I do make progress on, and even finish, a lot of these projects. The appeal of this ultimate-life-timeline-done-list-thing is that I can get on track with projects a lot faster, and when I'm struggling for motivation, I can just browse everything I've done in the past and see what I find interesting to work on today.

In some ways, this is just too big of an idea, I can see myself going down a rabbit hole building an ill-conceived system that is too meta to every really be useful. But if I apply some of my favorite productivity principles, this becomes a very reasonable project.

What we need to make this work: a real commitment to a minimum viable product (meaning get my ego out of the way and find a solution that starts producing results this afternoon), an aesthetic of simplicity, and Larry Wall's laziness as a virtue.

In other words, if I get my head out of the clouds and get real, I can start getting exactly what I'm looking for just by using my calendar. I'm already using my calendar as much as possible to track my fuzzy plans and what I actually did, including notes about progress on projects, links to the context/resources I need to pick projects back up, sometimes notes about where I went and who I saw, and of course hard deadlines like meetings that I've scheduled with clients. I am also starting each week by creating a calendar entry that contains a "menu" of things I've been interested in recently, which serves the same purpose as being able to browse through my past projects and pick out what I want to work on.

So if I really want to create this ultimate DONE list, I can start small, right now, by taking one source of data (e.g. one of the handwritten notebooks I've filled up with journal entries) and start adding historical information to my calendar. Then I can experiment with different ways of tagging, linking and otherwise organizing a small set of data... once I have a simple system for creating calendar entries that meets my needs (must keep it simple!) then the job of turning all of my unstructured source material into a structured data on my calendar just becomes one more project on the back burner that I can pick up and work on when it feels like the right thing to do!

Let me know if you think this is a dumb idea, good idea, or if you see ways that this idea could be a lot better.

Hey have you look into Notion : here at Notion – The all-in-one workspace for your notes, tasks, wikis, and databases. it's a very powerful tool.


This person basically implemented a system that is similarly complex and flexible as what you are aspiring too.
View: https://youtu.be/4-TYSah25UM


He calls it a "life operating system", he actually uses it to organize the future but you can probably use it to organize your past and your achievements.

It's a very good idea! I have been logging my achievements for two years now because if I don't I just forget hiw awesome I am :p

P. S. : notion can do all the tagging, crossing and aggregating that you want, this means no need to develop an app on top of your system.
 
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Tom H.

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Hey have you look into Notion : here at Notion – The all-in-one workspace for your notes, tasks, wikis, and databases. it's a very powerful tool.


This person basically implemented a system that is similarly complex and flexible as what you are aspiring too.
View: https://youtu.be/4-TYSah25UM


He calls it a "life operating system", he actually uses it to organize the future but you can probably use it to organize your past and your achievements.

It's a very good idea! I have been logging my achievements for two years now because if I don't I just forget hiw awesome I am :p

P. S. : notion can do all the tagging, crossing and aggregating that you want, this means no need to develop an app on top of your system.

Yea, I've looked at Notion, Evernote, Org-mode, various implementations of Zettlekasten, various implementations of GTD. Every system like that sucks me in and seems promising, but ultimately ends up more distracting than useful. I definitely believe in the value of having some kind of personal operating system. About 12-13 years ago I registered the domain exohead.com with the idea that I would build an awesome personal operating system platform where you could plan your life and then it would run your life for you.

The tools that have actually ended working for me are journaling and calendering.

The benefit of journaling is that I don't have the overhead of a system to maintain. For example, in my journal I can create the massive to-do lists and contexts and stuff that would be the first start of setting up a GTD system, and I find that a very useful activity from time to time, but then I don't worry about keeping that system current. Or sometimes what I need the most to get back to being productive is just to write down all of the ideas that are distracting me, or to process emotions that are blocking me from working, so I just put it into journal entries and then I'm done with it.

I never worry about keeping my journals organized (besides just dating the entries), which is not something I can say about my experiences using Evernote and Org-mode.

Another way to look at it is that I do better with "testing" rather than "tracking".

I fail to maintain a system that tracks my goals or habits or tasks, but I get a lot of benefit from doing spot inventories on these things from time to time, taking snapshots.

To your point @Remiremi about using Notion for tracking the past, I definitely think it'd be worth looking into for that purpose. I have kind of settled on using the standardized, open iCal format as my productivity tool of choice, and I have a bigger idea of building tools to use iCal in more powerful ways, but test driving these ideas with Notion and other similar apps will probably give me good ideas for what kind of features I want to make work with iCal. Thanks for the suggestion!
 

Tom H.

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I don't get it, sorry. Your writing language (do this, do that) and you being patronizing screams INTJ/ENTJ (high Te function) and your disregard of the theory + "decoupling yourself from personality" points to the Fi function, which again is also in the INTJ/ENTJ personalities' stack.

Like I said, MBTI and cognitive functions has shown me who I really am, but did not give me an excuse to be lazy or undisciplined because I'm an ENTP. Instead it has pointed my weaknesses out to me and I've been developing my inferior functions.

I'm unclear on this argument (maybe that's the openness and perceiving at work...).

I definitely do not believe it's easy (if possible) to just change personality types at will. That seems blatantly ignorant of the fact that we are all caught up in a process of cause and effect. At the same time, I suspect that personalities are not exactly hard-coded.

I'm attracted to the idea that I could at least passably pretend to be a different personality-type, but then there is my life experience that shows this has never really been true for me. Sure, I have self-control, I can control my behavior, but the compulsions in my gut don't seem to change.

I could convince myself that I'm going to become the kind of personality type that can set like a bodybuilding goal and create a plan, and execute it for 6 months. And for a week or two I can convince myself that I really am becoming that person, but really it's just not in me, after a few weeks I am completely bored of dumbass bodybuilding and my gut is telling me to do something different. If I really had an INTJ personality-type (or whatever type is good at robotic execution) then I wouldn't have the urge in my bones to resist the plan, I would just happily plod along executing the plan and reaching my goals.

I know that I have changed in major ways over time, but that probably has more to do with the maturation of my personality-type than an actual change in personality. If personality types are malleable, the change at least has to be part of a process or major shock - just deciding to change overnight is delusion and self-will temporarily trying to override reality.
 

Simon Angel

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I'm unclear on this argument (maybe that's the openness and perceiving at work...).

I definitely do not believe it's easy (if possible) to just change personality types at will. That seems blatantly ignorant of the fact that we are all caught up in a process of cause and effect. At the same time, I suspect that personalities are not exactly hard-coded.

I'm attracted to the idea that I could at least passably pretend to be a different personality-type, but then there is my life experience that shows this has never really been true for me. Sure, I have self-control, I can control my behavior, but the compulsions in my gut don't seem to change.

I could convince myself that I'm going to become the kind of personality type that can set like a bodybuilding goal and create a plan, and execute it for 6 months. And for a week or two I can convince myself that I really am becoming that person, but really it's just not in me, after a few weeks I am completely bored of dumbass bodybuilding and my gut is telling me to do something different. If I really had an INTJ personality-type (or whatever type is good at robotic execution) then I wouldn't have the urge in my bones to resist the plan, I would just happily plod along executing the plan and reaching my goals.

I know that I have changed in major ways over time, but that probably has more to do with the maturation of my personality-type than an actual change in personality. If personality types are malleable, the change at least has to be part of a process or major shock - just deciding to change overnight is delusion and self-will temporarily trying to override reality.

You can't change, ever. Supposedly your functions can change due to extreme trauma, but I'm not sure how extreme that is considering what I've gone through. I'd assume brain injury.

By the way, ENTPs and INTJs are complimenting types and can really get eachother. They're also shadow types. Let me explain.

ENTP stack: Ne Ti Fe Si
INTJ stack: Ni Te Fi Se

Quick recap of Ne and Ni - Extroverted Intution (Ne) is the function that sees endless possibilities and often is unable to weigh them against eachother. Introverted intuition (Ni) is the one that sees "the one" best possibility.

Mirrored functions but same order. ENTPs are said to become literal INTJs during severe stress. But not usually in a healthy way. ENTPs in INTJ mode stop seeing all the various possibilities and become very narrow sighted and it often ends up being a mistake. INTJs in ENTP mode lost their ability to accurately judge the possibilities that lie before them and usually end up at a crossroads sitting ducks.

By the way, shadow functions are pretty advanced stuff and not everyone agrees on them. Most people settle on types under stress having their own function stack but inverted.

So an ENTP with Ne Ti Fe Si would become an ISFJ with Si Fe Ti Ne. I think this is the more plausible scenario so take everyrthing with an open mind and judge for yourself.

You definitely sound like an ENTP by the way. ADHD is something people with the Ne function suffer from and it's a shame kids and adults alike are being medicated for.. something totally natural.

We all bring our gifts to the world and when you put a Ne dominant/auxillary person (ENTP, ENFP, INTP, INFP) you're literally turning them into robots. I've talked with ENTPS on antidepressants, Aderall and SSRIs and they're like "It feels like being an INTJ or something, sharp, focused and can stick to a task all day long".

Another ENTP who got a lot of shit done in their life but didn't believe he used his potential to the full extent was Leonardo Da Vinci. He hated himself for his procrastination, yet his legacy remains.

And just for fun:

Fictional characters who are ENTP: Tony Stark, Tyrion Lannister, Jack Sparrow, Deadpool, The Joker (The Dark Knight trilogy and DC comics), Chandler Bing, Tyler Durden, Saul Goodman, Emmet "Doc" Brown, Bugs Bunny, Negan from The Walking Dead, Alex DeLarge from A Clockwork Orange, Pennywise from Stephen King's IT, Jerry Mouse from Tom & Jerry.

Real life people: Benjamin Franklin, Niccolo Machiavelli, Steve Wozniak, Mao Zedong, Jeremy Clarkson, Salma Hayek, Adam Savage, Hugh Grant,, Matthew Perry, Voltaire, Leonardo Da Vinci, Richard Feynman, Barrack Obama, Alexander The Great (tied between ESTP and ENTP) Nero, Caligula, Socrates, Fidel Castro.

Of course, all of the above real people and fictional characters come with a range of enneagram types. Your enneagram CAN change over time and it has a lot to do with how you behave and what you perceive yourself as, want from life.

Personally I've always been a 8w7 over the years. That would put me next to Tyler Durden, Socrates, Satan (yup, Satan is typed as an ENTP 8w7 by enthusiasts), Negan from The Walking Dead, Thomas Edison, Fidel Castro, Alex DeLarge, Mao Zedong, Caligula, Jeremy Clarkson.
 
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Tom H.

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You can't change, ever. Supposedly your functions can change due to extreme trauma, but I'm not sure how extreme that is considering what I've gone through. I'd assume brain injury.

By the way, ENTPs and INTJs are complimenting types and can really get eachother. They're also shadow types. Let me explain.

ENTP stack: Ne Ti Fe Si
INTJ stack: Ni Te Fi Se

Quick recap of Ne and Ni - Extroverted Intution (Ne) is the function that sees endless possibilities and often is unable to weigh them against eachother. Introverted intuition (Ni) is the one that sees "the one" best possibility.

Mirrored functions but same order. ENTPs are said to become literal INTJs during severe stress. But not usually in a healthy way. ENTPs in INTJ mode stop seeing all the various possibilities and become very narrow sighted and it often ends up being a mistake. INTJs in ENTP mode lost their ability to accurately judge the possibilities that lie before them and usually end up at a crossroads sitting ducks.

By the way, shadow functions are pretty advanced stuff and not everyone agrees on them. Most people settle on types under stress having their own function stack but inverted.

So an ENTP with Ne Ti Fe Si would become an ISFJ with Si Fe Ti Ne. I think this is the more plausible scenario so take everyrthing with an open mind and judge for yourself.

You definitely sound like an ENTP by the way. ADHD is something people with the Ne function suffer from and it's a shame kids and adults alike are being medicated for.. something totally natural.

We all bring our gifts to the world and when you put a Ne dominant/auxillary person (ENTP, ENFP, INTP, INFP) you're literally turning them into robots. I've talked with ENTPS on antidepressants, Aderall and SSRIs and they're like "It feels like being an INTJ or something, sharp, focused and can stick to a task all day long".

Another ENTP who got a lot of shit done in their life but didn't believe he used his potential to the full extent was Leonardo Da Vinci. He hated himself for his procrastination, yet his legacy remains.

And just for fun:

Fictional characters who are ENTP: Tony Stark, Tyrion Lannister, Jack Sparrow, Deadpool, The Joker (The Dark Knight trilogy and DC comics), Chandler Bing, Tyler Durden, Saul Goodman, Emmet "Doc" Brown, Bugs Bunny, Negan from The Walking Dead, Alex DeLarge from A Clockwork Orange, Pennywise from Stephen King's IT, Jerry Mouse from Tom & Jerry.

Real life people: Benjamin Franklin, Niccolo Machiavelli, Steve Wozniak, Mao Zedong, Jeremy Clarkson, Salma Hayek, Adam Savage, Hugh Grant,, Matthew Perry, Voltaire, Leonardo Da Vinci, Richard Feynman, Barrack Obama, Alexander The Great (tied between ESTP and ENTP) Nero, Caligula, Socrates, Fidel Castro.

Of course, all of the above real people and fictional characters come with a range of enneagram types. Your enneagram CAN change over time and it has a lot to do with how you behave and what you perceive yourself as, want from life.

Personally I've always been a 8w7 over the years. That would put me next to Tyler Durden, Socrates, Satan (yup, Satan is typed as an ENTP 8w7 by enthusiasts), Negan from The Walking Dead, Thomas Edison, Fidel Castro, Alex DeLarge, Mao Zedong, Caligula, Jeremy Clarkson.

>Pennywise
:rofl:
 

Remiremi

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For anyone reading this, scratching their head asking themselves: "Am I doomed, enslaved to my personality type?".

Even if the outline about how your mind works doesn't seem to change without a big trauma, nobody can know how your mind works, it will always be a mystery.

In a nutshell, you are not your cognitive functions (what MBTI ultimately attempts to determine are your cognitive functions, personality types are only a classification system) YOU ARE MORE THAN THAN THE SUM OF YOUR PARTS.

Your results from different tests may be different (because tests are far from perfect). A test doesn't determine shit about you.

A test only gives you insights about how your unique minds work. Those insights might be wrong or might be right. A test is not absolute. You are the ones who must determine for yourself, are those insights actionable or not.

A test doesn't determine your life.

Only you can determine it.


It's ultimately your choice.

Thinking, "if only I could change my personality type... " is a blatant excuse, and you might want to re-read Unscripted , especially:

  • Chapter 16 -- "Our Self-Imposed Prison: Beliefs, Biases, and Bullshit"
  • Chapter 19 -- "The Special Scam: "I 'm Not Good at That" "
  • Chapter 23 -- "The Luck Scam: You Don't Play, You Don't Win"
  • Chapter 26 -- "The Biases: Your Brain's Delusions"
  • Chapter 27 -- "Bullshit from Bullshitters: Crutches, Clichés, and Cults"
  • Chapter 38 -- "Executing Excellence: You Can't Predict the Unpredictable!"
 
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Remiremi

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PS: If you are curious about how to use Personality Tests to better your life and are looking for a guideline about how to do it. You can follow this guide written by @eliquid here:

 
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I am super intrigued. I've never heard of this. Ni Te Fi stuff.

Where did you learn about this part of it, and how did you get to the point where you can accurately predict someone's personality?

Any particular resources you'd recommend?

For a detailed account you can consult this resource :


Its great as it's very thorough and also starts with an extensive disclaimer against common misconceptions.
 

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Told ya.

For anyone that's confused, he's not 37% ENTP, 23% INTP, 14% INTJ and etc. He's 100% ENTP. All the test is saying his most likely type (37%) is ENTP due to his answers.

The INTJ and ENTJ that's popping up (happened me to as well) is because of his entrepreneural journey which has influenced the way he answered the questions.

This is why it's crucial to do this test by answering what you've always been like i.e not what you think the answer should be, but looking back at yourself when you were 10, 15, 20 years old and what you were like then in order to get your accurate type.
 
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GoodluckChuck

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Told ya.

For anyone that's confused, he's not 37% ENTP, 23% INTP, 14% INTJ and etc. He's 100% ENTP. All the test is saying his most likely type (37%) is ENTP due to his answers.

The INTJ and ENTJ that's popping up (happened me to as well) is because of his entrepreneural journey which has influenced the way he answered the questions.

This is why it's crucial to do this test by answering what you've always been like i.e not what you think the answer should be, but looking back at yourself when you were 10, 15, 20 years old and what you were like then in order to get your accurate type.

I would agree with that. I've changed a lot since I started my business. It took me 3 years to understand why certain parts were so hard while other parts were easy. Personality tests have been hugely valuable.
 

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I've been a fan of all forms of typology for many years now. While I have scored as an ENTP after several MBTI tests, I personally prerer the enneagram (I'm a 7) for any instropection, peace of mind and for leisurely reading. That being said I do strongly agree with how I behave based on the ENTP summary, I just see myself as a 7 more than anything else.

As for your post, I was initially going to skim through it as it's very long (lack of attention spans heavily found amongst ENTP), but realized you made some interesting points and gave it the whole read.

Thank you for typing this out as it's not something I have ever really come across, at least not in the way you presented it. I have been in a heavily extended period of being stagnant, lackadaisical, and distracted.

Taking hours to do something simple, laying in bed for 5 hours before I can even fall asleep, waking up dejected and unable to get out or bed even if I'm technically awake. This has led me to pondering the past few weeks how to best live with the organized chaos I seem to naturally prefer but you have laid out a great blueprint.

Thanks again.
 

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This was incredibly accurate and spoke directly to me. Well done!

I fall right on the ENTP/INTP line and will try to implement a lot of these.

Any thoughts on who to surround yourself with/hire as an entrepreneur to balance out some of the less productive ENTP tendencies?
 
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The first time I read this, I just skimmed through it and thought, 'what a load of crap.'

And then I reread it in detail.

I'm an INTP.

Holy crap. You've described me, exactly. And not in some voodoo-magic 'this could apply to everyone' kind of way, but you've described what numerous people have said about me since kindergarten. "When he's interested in something, he's voracious. But when he's not, he couldn't care less."

Now, to apply what I read and not just move on to the next interesting thing....
 

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Hello friends, are you an ENTP? Are you struggling with finishing things? Are you wondering why you can't seem to follow the monk-like discipline you crave so much?

This post is for you. (ps: This post may also apply to INTP, INFP, and ENFP, but it's not guaranteed. It has been primarily written for my fellow ENTP in mind.)

If you are a bit like me, and you probably are, you admire people of the ENTJ or INTJ types. The Elon Musks, the smart lads with the incredible power of execution.

They decide to do something and they just do it.

And you want that power, you want to be awesome at execution...

You have so many ideas (that you believe are amazing and revolutionary) if you concretize those ideas you will be on top of the world, don't you?

But when you start to work on them on your own, as a side-project or a business, your work ethic is gone, nowhere to be seen.

That's weird because you have an incredible work ethic everywhere else, be it at your job or in a team. You are always craving to learn more and become better. You always produce top-grade stuff and you are relentless. You are proud of this. And people agree with that statement.

You then, think you can make it out on your own, as skillful as you are, it would be a shame not to try.

But when you take the leap, you come to quickly realize, it's gonna be hard than expected.

First obstacle? Yourself.

You just can't seem to do what you know needs to be done.

You face a procrastination level more intense than anything you've never met in your life. Except maybe for that time you wanted to confess your love to your crush as a teenager.

You need to understand you are not a cold-blooded strategist that will follow a plan to completion.

You must understand this: You are an explorer! You go where your interest leads you. And when you are motivated by a will to explore your curiosity, YOU ARE UNSTOPPABLE.

The other side of the coin says, when you are disinterested in the tasks at hand, you feel bored as hell and will probably find a way to escape from doing the tasks at hand.

Your driving force is not the perspective of making shit loads of cash, neither it is the perspective of freedom, and sorry to break it to you, your driving force is not your desire to change the world for the better.

Your driving force is your curiosity. This is your motor.

With curiosity, you are a tsunami. Nothing will get in the way of the answer you seek.

Without curiosity, you are very good at finding excuses to not do what bores you out.

Why does it matter?

It matters because you will probably do the following mistake...

You will decide on a goal and following contemporary advice decide to make it S.M.A.R.T. Which basically means realistic with an arbitrary deadline.

Your strategizing mind will help you devise a sound plan of action, and your knack for creativity help you discerned a way you can even kill two birds with one stone.

You talk about it with whoever might be willing to listen and you feel on top of the world.

The first day? You are killing it. The second day? You are killing it.

The third day, you get sidetracked...

One month later? You haven't even achieved 10% of what you set out to do.

You were supposed to be able to do it in three months by focusing intensely.

Now, this seem very compromised. You feel miserable and guilty. You wonder if you are any good at anything.

This scenario keeps happening again, again, and again... Until you give up or you stumble upon the truth.

Let's give a closer look at your primary hypothesis.

So you were thinking you can do it in just three months by focusing intensely?

Well good news, you were half right.

You can do it...

...But not in three months.

Why?

Because even though you can focus intensely consistently on the subject you are curious about.

You can't stay curious about the same subject consistently.

So your curiosity will lead you to places you can't predict.

You just know one thing for sure, if you were interested in something one day, you will be interested in that thing again. You just can't predict when.

You will actually bring that project to completion effortlessly, but not in the shortest time possible.

Instead of the three months, you estimated, it will likely be six to nine months.

And that's ok, because that won't be the only thing you have done in those six to nine months.

You have an unprecedented capacity for multithreading, you just can't allocate all your threads to one project. It must be different projects. This is how you are.

If you are curious about something, you will want to drop the ball on your current project to satisfy your curiosity. And you must do it.

But every time you follow your curiosity you must find a way to get away with more than just knowledge.

Unused knowledge is ephemeral, vanishing as swiftly as it was acquired.

You must build something from the fruit of your recently acquired knowledge that will stand the test of time and bring you a small but lasting advantage.

It doesn't need to be perfect, it just needs to be there.

THE KEY THING TO TAKE AWAY FROM THIS: You must shift from a consumer to a producer.

You must start producing stuff. Start businesses, start a blog, do everything you want, but DO. (keyword do, not just read about/learn about etc....)

It's normal for you to getting informed about something you are interested in, but you need to act on it. You must build something out of it. You must share it with the world.

You must create things and release them in the world. I REPEAT. You must create things and release them in the word.

You don't have to follow a great mastermind plan, you don't have to follow a routine or fixed planning. You don't have to torture yourself to heck out every last bit of productivity there's inside you.

You just need to listen to yourself and follow your curiosity. And to do it everyday.

Your strength is the speed at which you can pivot.

You can change your mind and start working on something different than what you were doing, at full speed, and immediately.

You can survey a complicated question an bring back multiple possible answers at the speed of light.

You are impulsive and adaptable. You can do anything you want because you will always find a way... As long as you are interested.

This surges of productivity come at a cost. Your interest in a particular thing has a very short shelf-life.
One to two days top. Sometimes it's less than a couple of hours.

If you don't catch the wave of curiosity, it's gone, and sometimes it's gone for several weeks or months.

So expecting yourself to work on the same project, without interruptions every day for three months in a row? ... You are being oblivious to your own nature, my friend.

You probably know that by now, the biggest predictor of entrepreneurial success is consistency.

Then how can you expect success if you can't stay on track and schedule for more than two weeks?

You need to build a different kind of consistency than a rigid routine and prison-like tight schedules.

You need to play on your strength: Explore and Exploit ASAP.

Don't explore something without bringing back a treasure from your adventure.


Examples:

  • You were curious about nutrition and muscle-growth gym regimen? You binge-learned every possible way to do it (instead of doing your job lol). You just acquired way too much knowledge to expect yourself to remember it a week from now. So applying it consistently? Out of your league.
    The solution? Swiftly assemble a training and nutrition guide based on what you just explored, package it in a nice PDF, and then share it with the world. You can decide to monetize it or just to share it for free on a forum, it doesn't matter. It will help some people, and that's good for your karma. Second benefit, the day you will want to actually go to the gym, you can just follow your own guideline. Two birds, one stone.
  • You are learning Python and discover the weird world of Decorators and Closures. This stuff is basically out of your league and at your level you will probably never use it. But you can't shake off the feeling. You start binging and learning mystical stuff. Before you go back to the real world to what will actually move you forward in the grand scheme of things, put on together in one shot a blog post that you will publish on Medium behind the paywall. Boom! Three birds, one stone: Personal Branding & Portfolio : check; a very slim source of additional passive income: check; a quick way to retrieve your long-lost knowledge about closures when you finally need it, three years from now: check.
  • Well you see the idea, indulge your instinct and before the honeymoon ends, build something that will last. In this way, you will shift from an inconsistent being to a prolific and polymath builder. You will shift from consumer to producer.







So by now, if you are an ENTP, you are probably envisioning what I am talking about.

I want to add a couple of other points... Playing on your strength also means you need to mitigate your weakness.

Your strength and weaknesses are two faces of the same coin. You can't get one without the other.

During my short time on earth as an entrepreneurial ENTP, I have summarized below everything I know about mitigating our innate weaknesses.









Weakness mitigation tips #1: You can only respect HARD DEADLINES.

There's two kind of deadlines: HARD deadlines and SOFT deadlines.

HARD deadlines are deadlines you must respect. When you are under hard deadlines, you work like crazy to respect them. Those are often imposed by a promise or the external environment. Hard Deadlines are why you have so much work ethic when you work for somebody else.

SOFT deadlines are deadlines you don't have obligation to respect. Basically they are deadlines you can bullshit yourselves out of easily. Often those are arbitrary and self-imposed, for example, SMART Goals. Soft deadlines are why you have so few work ethic when you work for yourself.

The litmus test is simple, "Can I find a way to not respect that deadline?".
If you start generating a thousand ideas about how to do so, then it's a soft deadline and this deadline means nothing to you and will bring you nothing. (except guilt)


So you being too clever may start to think? "Oh, gotcha I just need to change every deadline into a HARD deadline".

NO! Don't do this. The only way to do this is to take risks and to put yourself at a disadvantage. You are basically gambling on yourself just to create the pressure necessary to do the work. This is a horrible way to live your life.

(ex of this destructive behavior: Damaging relationships just to be sure you will do something. Wasting all your money to let the pressure of feeding your family let you work like crazy, etc...)

As an ENTP what you crave is freedom, this way of proceeding (a.k.a. burn your bridges) is the polar opposite of freedom. It will make you feel miserable and burn you out, also it sucks because you are destructing what you build to build more. This is terrible. Don't do it.

Just understand that soft deadlines mean nothing to you and plan accordingly.

Don't gamble on a deadline you can bullshit yourself out of.

Soft deadlines are a distraction to you, those are noise. SMART goals stuff like that, forget those, they don't work with you.

But also, don't take on too many hard deadlines at the same time.

Those hard deadlines are like prison chains to you. And what you crave is freedom.

If you enchain yourself too much, you will burnout.


This leave the question. How an ENTP can get stuff done?

Weakness Mitigation tip #2: Boredom is like a steel wall to you. You can't get through it and have to wait for the door of curiosity to open.

So what should I do? The ENTP equivalent of taking massive actions.

You must play to your strength and mitigate your weakness.

Follow your curiosity and build something from your exploration. Build it quickly, in a couple of hours or max. You must build it before your curiosity wither.

Understand that boredom is your limit. You can only go through boredom excruciatingly. This is your hard deadline for every project, you must finish the milestone before boredom takes you and your curiosity wants to go somewhere else.

A quick note about perfection?
What you build must never be perfect. Perfection is your enemy, it makes you anxious and buries you in analysis paralysis. (= you don't do shit and feel shitty about it)

What should I do when I am bored with a project and want to do something else?

You must stop and do something else. You will get back to the project eventually if you were interested once, you will be interested twice.

Weakness Mitigation tip #3: Don't make plans more detailed than a rough outline.

A detailed and carefully crafted plan is wasted on you... You will never follow it through.

Don't spend time creating detailed stratagems to get to your goals. THIS IS A WASTE OF TIME, DO SOMETHING ELSE INSTEAD.

You are tactical and agile. The time horizon you can plan on is limited to a couple of hours. It's very short.

For the long term, you can guess how things are gonna roughly. Your intuition power is often on point.

It's even more powerful when you feed your intuition with data. How do you get your data?

Every time you want to plan your future, turn to your past instead and log what you have been doing in the last few days.

You want to empirically determine your speed of production. Take the time to keep track of what you did during the day.

You can use this basic template:

Questions to gather data about your explorations:
1. What have I been interested in the last few day?
2. How did I go about exploring that interests?
3. What did I get out of it?
4. How long did it took?
5. What have I build-out of what I discovered? How have I used it?
6. How long did it took?
7. Is there thing I can do better next time? Things I need to avoid next time?


Answer those questions every two to three days. (Optimally, every time you finish a cycle of Exploration / Exploitation)

Store those answers in a way you can easily access those later. (Don't just write on a spare napkin and throw it away).

Weakness Mitigation tip # 4: Don't try to follow a perfect routine.

In the same way, hard deadlines are a chain to you, trying to respect arbitrary daily planning will lower your available energy for the day.

Instead, have a shortlist of 5 mandatory items you must do during the day and that you can do quickly.

If you can't cross every item of that list in less than 100 minutes, the list is too long.

An example can be:
  • Meditate 10 minutes.
  • Walk the dog.
  • Do the dishes.
  • Quick workout at the gym.
  • Write in my journal.
Sometimes you will meditate in the morning, sometimes before you go to bed, sometimes during the commute. Doesn't matter, you need the flexibility to do things when you are ready for those.

What matters is that you crossed every item of the list, not when you crossed those.

The rest of the day, follow your curiosity relentlessly and get something out of it.

Weakness Mitigation tip #5: Keep your Anxiety in check... It keeps your from entering a Flow state.

First of all, You must strive to get into Flow. Getting into flow every day is your bread and butter as an ENTP.

Though there's one thing that can keep you from entering a Flow state even if you are well rested, in good health, and will push you to immediate-rewards behavior.(ex:... alcohol, infinite scrolling, eating way too much sugar, gambling, buying spree, opening 200+ tabs on your web browser about a shitty subject you don't even care about)

This thing is Anxiety.

You must learn to effectively manage your anxiety level. Because when highly stressed and without a hard deadline, you are basically dysfunctional and will get nothing done.
(Please remember that high-stress level and hard pressure to get things done is a miserable way to live your life. It's okay once in a while but don't abuse it.)

So do things that help you rest and recover. Make a conscious effort to recover and balance your innate restlessness.
Examples:
- Sport you genuinely enjoy
- Meditation
- Light encounter with your social circle
- Playing games
- Read books unrelated to your goals. (fiction, or history)
- Get a massage.
- Dance, Concert, Restaurant
- Journaling, gratitudes etc...

Weakness Mitigation tip #6: Inject a bit of order in your life.

Then, because you are so future and possibly oriented you need help to organize things that happened in your past.
  • Some of us are a mess when it comes to meetings and time constraints or remembering special events like birthdays. Get a calendar, note everything inside, check it often.
  • Your life memory is foggy at best and can't remember specifics even if you try hard, it often means you are totally wrong about your achievements and efforts (often wrongly believe you never did anything right) ⇒ Spend time every day to journal about your life, log your decisions and log your achievements. Include specifics like mood, time spent on task etc... When in doubt about what you have been doing, you can read those logs to help you access data you would have forget otherwise.
  • Revisiting your life is very difficult for you as you get immediately distracted. If you believe you have a trauma from your childhood (and most people have) Consider going to a psychologist who will guide you through the fumes of your past.
  • You want a boost of productivity and increase your odds of success in the short term. Get an accountability coach that will help you add some order in your life. (Getting a coach is one of the ways to help you achieve soft deadlines you would not be able to honor otherwise), it also helps you clarify and be more surgical about your focus.
  • You forget the things your family / entourage needs you to do (do the laundry, send wishes for birthday etc...)

Weakness Mitigation tip #7: Become more aware of your mind, thoughts and body.

You must strive to be aware of your mental state, to identify when you start to get bored and must finish asap or to identify when you are curious about something.

The best way to do so is to practice mindfulness meditation (yes seriously) and to do sports that demand to be aware of the mind-body connection.

This will help you be more tuned toward your sensations and thoughts. Which is key to live a more fluid and free life.

Weakness Mitigation tip #8: GET RID OF YOUR PHONE / SOCIAL MEDIA
Phones are engineered to suck your attention away from whatever your doing. Your attention is a raw resource they monetize.

As an ENTP you are curious and novelty-seeker, and you are very competent at indulging your curiosity for hours on end.


Attention vampires have access to brilliant minds that they pay a lot to spend their day engineering way to suck your attention for the sake of ad profits.


Against a phone, you are at the bottom of the food chain.

PHONES ARE YOUR NATURAL ENEMY.

Possible solutions to mitigate the damage from your phone:
- Destroy it.
- Use apps blocker like
STAY-FOCUSED (android)
- Use phone blocker like FOREST.
(ps: it doubles as a Pomodoro app, and is gamified which makes you less likely to bypass it, you sly fox)
- Use a way to track and realize how much time you waste on your phone, like STAY-FOCUSED. (prepare to be shocked)
- Change the color of your phone in grey-scale or invert white/black, attention vampires use flashy colors to suck you in, you can fight that by getting rid of colors.
How to do it with iPhone here, and how to do it with Android here.
- Destroy it.

- Buy a NOKIA 3310, a hand-held GPS, a vintage MP3 player, a nice watch, and a paper agenda. If you think about it, everybody has a phone so you don't really need one, as you can just ask to borrow the functionality you lack.

I repeat. GET RID OF YOUR PHONE. Thank me later.

Weakness Mitigation tip #9: You don't do well in a pond of sharks, you need a supportive and encouraging environment.


You are trusting and willing to see the best face of everyone you meet. You want to collaborate and share your knowledge.

You are good in a team and with people, especially when you can assume everybody is on the same side.

You want to trust people, and you usually demonstrate trust first. Keep doing that, it's one of your competitive edges.

But a word of caution, trusting people first doesn't mean people should be safe double-crossing you.

Of course, some foe will want to abuse your willingness to help.

If somebody abuses your trusting identity YOU MUST RETALIATE. I am serious.

You will know when somebody abuses your kindness. Your Machiavellian side will know immediately. DON'T MAKE EXCUSES FOR THE VILLAINS.

THEY CROSS YOU, YOU CROSS THEM. PERIOD.

ONCE YOU HAVE DEMONSTRATED YOU CAN BITE AS WELL AS YOU CAN SMILE
and both sides are bleeding, YOU CAN THEN SHOW FORGIVENESS.

AFTER ALL, YOU DON'T LIKE CONFLICT.


This assumes that you are evolving in an environment where people willing to screw you are an anomaly, and most people are on your side.

If you realize that people wanting to screw you over are the norm, then you are in a pond of shark AND YOU MUST RUNAWAY ASAP.

Let the evil political game and the House of Cards vibe for the people who thrive in those corrosive environments.

This is not you.

You will thrive more in a group that is trusting and encouraging, united in a common cause.

The fact that you have a developed Machiavellian mind doesn't mean you must use it at 100%.

If people around you are mean, calculating, or vain. Leave, without looking back.

Weakness Mitigation tip #10: Don't bet on speed. Build an advantage for the long game instead.

Because, when you start out as an ENTP, you will never be the first to arrive somewhere...
(When you will become an experienced ENTP, this will change, as your tactical velocity will be unheard of, but when you start, well... You are not the fastest.)
... You must not pick your battles based on rewards correlated with a short time to arrival... (Example, you are starting out with dropshipping, you see everybody is going for fidget spinners. Don't go for it, you will arrive after the battle.)
... Instead, You must pick your battle based on long term compounded rewards. (Example, learning skills that are difficult and valuable to master. Code, Copywriting, Writing, Consulting.)

Then once you start to have an edge that is difficult to replicate...(Example; you are a blockchain enthusiast, but you probably know things more in-depth than most of the other blockchain enthusiasts.)
... Pick a battle that will complement it and that triggers your curiosity (Example, starting a blog about blockchain + learning how to do first-class SEO).

Even though everybody was faster than you in the short run... (Example, your accountability partner Tom became a millionaire just in two years, and you were still in your parent basement)
... On the long run, you will establish a valuable strategic advantage that is hard for anybody else to replicate. (Example: Five years later, your Blockchain blog is ranked first on google and is monetized with ads, You keep getting people asking you to interview you and you started a consulting business about blockchain. You never made that much money in your life and you now have a strong network. You basically do what you want, when you want, with who you want, from anywhere you want.).




....


Alright I am getting bored, just one last thing before we go...

TLDR: implement the code written below in your daily life. It will do the trick, I know you will figure out the specifics on your own.


ENTP?

Be Patient and Restless




You must be patient in the long term.

You will get where you want.

But you won't get there in the shortest amount of time possible.

Because you will take so many detours.

So be patient.




You must be restless in the sort term.

Want to explore an option, fine, do it.

Go all the way.

Unleash your curiosity.

... But you must make a pact with yourself.

Every time you unleash your curiosity, you must build a memento and share it with the world.

A simple recipe...


1/ Explore until bored.

2/ Quickly build something valuable for others.

3/ Share it to the people who most need it.


You are an explorer and every time you go on an adventure, you bring back wonderful treasures, undiscovered before.

Promise yourself you won't keep those treasures to yourself and will share those with the world.

Once your oath is taken, go.

Explore.

Follow your curiosity relentlessly.

Everyday.

You are free now.




BONUS:

What does it look like when you are not playing to your strength and mitigating your weakness?:


You are doing something, let's call it interest A. You begin to be interested in interest B.
You decide to keep doing interest A.
You slowly get bored and pick up your phone.
Five hours later, you haven't finished working on interest A.
You feel guilty and have trouble falling asleep this evening.
You wake up, lethargic, it takes you four hours before finally getting to work on interest A.
It's excruciatingly boring but you manage to finish it. You begin to be interested in interest C.
You repress it and start working on interest B.
And so on and so on....

It feels like an uphill battle.

Also, it's depressing because you know your current velocity of execution is nowhere near your actual potential...


What does it look like when you play to your strength and mitigate your weaknesses?

You are doing something, let's call it interest A. You begin to be interested in interest B.

You switch your focus on interest B.
Five hours later you know everything you could know about interest B. You are still hungry for more.
You decide to produce something about your discovery.
(for the sake of example and to give you an idea of what it could be, let's say it's an article you will put on medium behind the paywall and you include a bait to your newsletter.)
Three hours later you are done with the building phase, you share it with the world and go to bed.
You feel good and sleep well.
You wake up, early in the morning, your interest for interest A is back and you feel the urge to do something about it.
You jump out of bed and start working asap, forgetting breakfast. By noon you are done with interest A.
You begin to be interested in interest C. You start working immediately on interest C.
And so on and so on.

You are prolific and restless. Your cumulative speed of production is unheard of. You are proud of you.

Could you have been done with interest A sooner if you had double down on it? No. You can't get away with boredom. This is your limit.

This is why you need to be patient. You are like a wind vane, you keep turning. So you will get there. You just won't get there by the shortest path.

This is why you need to be restless. Because you have to take the detour and answer the calling of your curiosity, you have to move as fast as possible, or you will never finish anything.



....


Hope it helps,

Rémi

P.S.: Btw, from my slim understanding of typology, this can maybe apply also to INFP, ENFP, and INTP.
Thanks for this post.

I don't really subscribe to these personality test things. For instance I've taken Meyers-Briggs test 3 times in the past 2 years for various work related things, and each time it's been slightly different (I always get the "I" though).

That said I can definitely relate to many of the things you wrote down and I'll be trying out some of the tips you brought up. Thanks again.
 

Tom H.

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@Remiremi I really respect that initial post. To get you to expand a bit more: how do you think about goal setting in the context of the advice you gave for ENTP personalities? How useful is it to set goals? Should ENTP personalities just multi-track lots of goals? Is it better to have a single clear over-arching goal (e.g. "I'm going to get rich, here is why, this is what it will look like") and then try to coordinate our many different endeavors towards that end?

Just interested in seeing you write more about this topic. Anything you can write about goal-setting as an ENTP will be useful for me. Thanks!
 
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Remiremi

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@Remiremi I really respect that initial post. To get you to expand a bit more: how do you think about goal setting in the context of the advice you gave for ENTP personalities? How useful is it to set goals? Should ENTP personalities just multi-track lots of goals? Is it better to have a single clear over-arching goal (e.g. "I'm going to get rich, here is why, this is what it will look like") and then try to coordinate our many different endeavors towards that end?

Just interested in seeing you write more about this topic. Anything you can write about goal-setting as an ENTP will be useful for me. Thanks!

Hey of course, let me answer this in a rush and then feel free to ask more questions if you need clarification.

# 1 / Decide what the end-game looks like.

TLDR: Decide what you want to have accomplish in twenty-five years.

I believe an overarching goal is a way to go but it has to be very detailed. Just one sentence is not gonna cut it.

Details, lot of details. Also, use your deducting power to understand what your goal prerequisites are.

What I mean by that.

Want to be rich? Ok, how rich?

Why do you want to have that amount?

Why can't you be satisfied with less?

What does it mean if you have that much money?

Do you want to get rich in a specific way? By writing Sci-Fi books? By making the world a better place?

What attributes (skills, strategic position, special knowledge) do you need to have to be able to realize that?

What will you do once you are rich? What do you want to do for the rest of your life?

What do you want to be written on your grave?

Imagine you're in the future, old, you smile, you are going to die tomorrow, yet you are happy, why?

You don't have to create that vision in a day, but you can start thinking about it now. (WRITE IT DOWN, OFTEN).

Then ask yourself what it would mean to realize that vision. If you can find one way to do it, it means there's more way to do it.

If there's a Will, there's 1 Way.

If there's 1 Way, then there are 999 other Ways.

Figure out, different ways to reach your goal. What do they have in common? Is there one that excites you more than the other.

Example:

I want to be rich... Why? Because I don't want to be poor? Why? Because I want to be free and go on adventures. What kind of adventures? Creating businesses, helping people, doing science stuff... I want to have time to study and make progress in the field I want without caring about money! Ok, how much do I want to be able to have that life style? I want to have 10k$ net a month to spare on life, fun and pursuits. Why 10k, because Food X, travel X blabla... (write your santa claus list then do your maths). Ok let's find five different ways to reach that goal!... (One can be, as suggested in Unscripted , 5 millions dollars invested at 5%). Ok what does each one have in common? Ok so I need skill X, skill Y skill Z. Is there one that I prefer? Oh I like that one. Do you see yourself trying at this for the next ten years? Yes sounds good to me. Ok.. Now...

# 2 / Find the One Thing that is instrumental to reach your goal and that you can do EVERY-DAY (even on holiday or hangover)

Okay listen, this is probably the most powerful piece of advice I can give you.

It's actually so important that I think it will be better and faster if I share it in a video.

Let's do this.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crOV0a_vZwE
 

rockit11

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Bit of a slowlane question! but I'm curious, what jobs are recommended for an ENTP? This could also help be an indicator for businesses that are good for ENTPs too.
 

Remiremi

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Bit of a slowlane question! but I'm curious, what jobs are recommended for an ENTP? This could also help be an indicator for businesses that are good for ENTPs too.

Hello, you should not box yourself in based on the results on a scientifically dubious test.

Basically every kind of business or jobs are viable. Your type doesn't matter.

If you still interested by the answer to your question, here is a list, but beware.

If you like what to see you will suffer confirmation bias.

If you don't like what to see, remember that this is no better than using an horoscope to make an important decision.


P.S.: it's important to realize that type is an indicator of how you think and perceive the world.

It's by no means an indicator of cognitive abilities or emotional abilities.

Meaning that ultimately becoming competent at anything is determined by your effort, never by your type.
 
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Last edited:

rockit11

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Appreciate the reply! I will admit, I have never felt my personality fit into my current career, which is writing government contracts. Most in the job enjoy minutiae and working by themselves. I enjoy neither as an extrovert and strategic thinker. I'll take a look at the list but will also bear in mind it's an indicator for how one perceives the world, thanks!
 

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