# Are NTs confident in their intelligence/competence?



## athenian200 (Oct 13, 2008)

I hear a lot of things about the relationship between NTs and competence, but I'm not entirely sure how this manifests.

Are NTs generally confident in their intelligence/competence, and prone to believing they are knowledgeable?

Are NTs generally uncertain of their intelligence/competence, but constantly striving to improve it?

I've heard both interpretations. That NTs are people who are confident in their competence being higher than others, and that they're people who lack confidence in their competence and try to compensate. Which is the case? Or is it something else entirely?

I'm interested in trying to get along better with NTs, so I'm wondering what the more reasonable assumption would be. Should I talk to an NT with the assumption that they're extremely confident in their own competence and believe they are more competent than other people... or should I speak to them with the assumption that they have doubts about their own competence and are constantly seeking to bolster it?

I've dealt with both kinds of people before, I'm just wondering which category NTs typically fall into.


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## Tzara (Dec 21, 2013)

we think we are knowledgeable but we also think that we should improve, no amount of intelligence is ever enough.


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## Hurricane Matthew (Nov 9, 2012)

I could be either, depending on the subject at hand. I'm assuming this would be true for any type, though. Undoubtedly, a person would be more confident when discussing a subject they've spent a lot of time on compared to a subject they are still new to learning about.

If I were you, I wouldn't make assumptions about this until you get to know the person on an _individual_ basis. Every person is different with different knowledge sets they are more confident with than other knowledge sets. NTs come in a wide range of colors when it comes to confidence as confidence or lackthereof, in my experience, is more related to life experiences than personality type.


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## theredpanda (Jan 18, 2014)

For me at least, it's pretty hard to explain. I'm confident, yet questioning and very doubtful at the same time.


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## braided pain (Jul 6, 2012)

It varies.

I'm confident in my intelligence, but my competence is another matter. I frequently don't trust myself, despite the evidence.


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## -Alpha- (Dec 30, 2013)

I feel I'm more competent than most, but it's almost never enough. I also am pretty good about handling people who I think of as more intelligent than I am.


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## SlightlyEccentric (Feb 13, 2014)

I personally am confident in my knowledge/intelligence depending on the subject, if it's something I don't know much about then I try and know as much as I can about it, I'm am extremely questioning (to the point of annoyance of those around me I suspect) so I'm always trying to learn something new or learn more. I'm open to most point of views on subjects given they are well thought out and logical.


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## RosettaStoned (Mar 11, 2014)

I can only speak for myself: I am an INTP and I am extremely confident in my intelligence and my competence in thinking. They are talent's I've worked on extensively my whole life and I believe I deserve to feel confident about them, but I do my best to bring it up as little as possible out of fear of being considered arrogant - but I'll make an exception for this semi-anonymous forum (I'm sure the NSA knows who I am).


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## Du Toit (Mar 2, 2014)

I know a lot but at the same time, I know nothing. Also, there's always room for improvement.


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## Thomas60 (Aug 7, 2011)

I'm confident that I have a practical intelligence that isn't afraid of taking on an unknown. One should generally cede such tasks to the more competent, but if you're there to do it and they are not, then just do it and communicate any issues along the way.


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## mercury (Mar 12, 2014)

Because I was bought up to be hailed as a prodigy, I am expected have high intelligence and I expect myself as well. Whilst I take pride in the usual ENTJ ability to absorb many different subjects and remember it all very clearly, we are tortured with feelers and sensors and perceivers until we reach higher education and find more of us there. I often feel unsuccessful and a failure because I am unable to have the expected level of ability I _want_. I am confident that my intelligence competence can be seen by others, but for myself, it will never reach my standards.


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## nordic entp (Mar 13, 2014)

I know that I am intelligent and knowledgeable, that is simply not a question. I used to doubt it a lot in the past because I didn't realize people were mostly just bullshitting and that once I began meeting other smart people, that those ideas less intelligent people thought were 'stupid and crazy' were actually not stupid or crazy.

Since then, I've been published in newspapers and I am selfemployed making good money, working with my mind, so I now really trust my instinct and intellectual ability. I wish I had in the past.

I don't need encouragement for my intellectual competence. I rather need moral support to deal with the people in the world who manipulate and like to shoot good ideas down. I also need someone who can understand my thoughts and ideas and find them interesting, while at the same time, giving me a gentle push to follow through and not jump on to the next great thing.

Hope it helped.


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## starscream430 (Jan 14, 2014)

For me, it depends on the subject in question in regards to confidence in my intelligence. In something like writing or history, I am quite confident in my abilities because I not only am quite knowledgeable in such topics, but also enjoy them as intellectual hobbies. In something like science, I tend to shrink away and try to be invisible since my science skills are sub-par :dry:


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## Razef (Nov 24, 2013)

On a level, yes.

I know I'm not intelligent, but I do know that most people are just ignorant and don't think enough (they tell me I think too much, but they think too less).
I'm just curious about most things, and becoming more intelligent along the way is just a bonus, I don't care for it in itself, I just like learning new interesting things and trying out all the different combinations. As I said, you lurn things along the way and that's a bonus but I don't do it for that.


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## Lurianar (Apr 17, 2013)

delphi367 said:


> Are NTs generally confident in their intelligence/competence, and prone to believing they are knowledgeable?


Yes



delphi367 said:


> Are NTs generally uncertain of their intelligence/competence, but constantly striving to improve it?


And yes. I might be speaking for myself, but truth be told, I often am confident in my intelligence because I know what I can do and what's my limit. However, I will often doubt about my competence. I'm basically always trying to gather as much information as possible, mix it, and come out with a result. The fact that this result is highly variable is what makes me doubt of my competence. Don't get me wrong though, I know when I make something bad or good. I just don't know how to always achieve something good - but I know I can most of the time.


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## TruthDismantled (Jan 16, 2013)

I think I'm quite intelligent/competent but not so much knowledgeable. I have bad verbal memory which can sometimes can it difficult for me to articulate myself. Also, my general knowledge isn't the best, but I'm like an encyclopedia when it comes to my areas of interest. 

My common sense is always not too commonly of help to me. When it comes to the kitchen for instance I feel like an idiot. My house mate would come in to me cooking and a plastic spatula would be leaning on the frying pan, apples would be on the microwave and a series of other things would be in stupid places.

But mehhh I learn things very quickly, have awesome spatial skills, good kinesthetic understanding and some other good attributes.

So my view of self is constantly changing, dependent on what I'm pitted against.


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## athenian200 (Oct 13, 2008)

Thank you for the replies.

It seems that my assumption was correct, that NTs DO generally have more self-confidence with regards to their intelligence.

As an NF, I generally tend to doubt my intelligence, and no amount of study or experience ever makes me feel that I am actually intelligent. 

If someone else says I seem intelligent, that doesn't mean much to me either... it could just be a compliment, an expression of their own lack of self-confidence, or it could simply mean that I'm more intelligent than THEM, but that I'm merely average and they're below average.

It's not that I don't value intelligence, or that I don't seek it, just that I never feel that I actually possess it. To me, it's something you can chase forever, but never quite reach.

The contrast here is definitely interesting.


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## Razef (Nov 24, 2013)

delphi367 said:


> Thank you for the replies.
> 
> It seems that my assumption was correct, that NTs DO generally have more self-confidence with regards to their intelligence.
> 
> ...


That right there gives me the impression that you're not dumb either. In fact, that you're fascinated gives me the idea that you're intelligent. But ofcourse, I have no right to speak since I do not know if I'm intelligent either.

Even so, it also depends on ''what kind of intelligence'' you're talking about. Do you mean remembering facts? Or perhaps being interested by concepts? Most people are intelligent though, but not in the way the NTs (and NFs I think) are.
Most people seem not to like talking with me about interesting concepts of what could be, and why; etc.

Those people are most likely sensors though, not to say that they're not intelligent, they just learn for experiencing things themselves; it's just a different way of learning.

So.. to make it shot. Yes you are (most likely) intelligent, not sure on what level or in what way though.


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## Pendit76 (Jul 31, 2013)

I feel pretty confident in my intelligence, but I'm always looking to improve it. I'll do memory tests often, and I enjoy puzzles for two reasons: I enjoy winning, but I value far more the intelligence they will garner. I often doubt my intelligence, even though I have people constantly telling me how smart I am. That's not enough. I'll do a quick arithmetic problem mentally like 22 times 24, and I'll still input it on my calculator for the sake of accuracy (damn you Epicurus and your skepticism). 

I want to be the cliched "smartest person in the room", and I will often belittle or embarrass people (perhaps without them knowing) to show that I'm probably pretty smart. Chances are, I'm probably not an Einstein, but it matters more if people think I am. I'm probably just above the median in actuality. Serving a dual purpose, I often tell people I'm not that smart (I say my IQ is around 110, but I've never been tested, and I refuse to be), because it makes smart people think I'm smarter, and gives me legitimacy among them, and it gets "dumb" people to believe I'm closer to their level than they had originally thought. Hell, I know, it sounds Machiavellian, but it's effective. Make the potential allies wary and aware, and make the people you'll ignore disregard you as a threat. 


With respect to my knowledge, I always like to remind myself, and others, of the infinite ignorance of humanity. No one can know everything, and that's the key to learning more. I like to test myself and others to see what I/they do know quantitatively, but I do let people know when I'm an expert. Nothing angers me more when people talk out of their ass when they are woefully ignorant. Those people deserve no pity, and I will excoriate them if I can. Don't speak about subjects you only have a basic level of understanding in. I will call you out on it, I will embarrass you, and most of you know that ENTJs can volatile when angry. 

I ask a lot of questions when I feel my knowledge on a subject is lacking (so literally every subject) when I have the opportunity to speak to someone I deem an expert. I have no problem talking about the philosophy of Hobbes among my friends, but when I meet someone who has written a thesis on Hobbes, I'm "all ears". That, to me, is common intellectual decency, and should be expected from all. 


So in a sense, I have confidence in my ignorance, and I possess a confidence that others are slightly less ignorant. Ignorance is definitely not bliss—that's trite trash made by some ignoramus—, it obscures the potential clarity of the mind.


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## Scelerat (Oct 21, 2012)

Razef said:


> Even so, it also depends on ''what kind of intelligence'' you're talking about. Do you mean remembering facts? Or perhaps being interested by concepts? Most people are intelligent though, but not in the way the NTs (and NFs I think) are.
> Most people seem not to like talking with me about interesting concepts of what could be, and why; etc.


I think facts and concepts are linked in a way. You can derive concepts from facts or facts from concepts. One thing I do notice that seems to be a "gap" is the tolerance for abstraction from the facts.


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## Razef (Nov 24, 2013)

Scelerat said:


> I think facts and concepts are linked in a way. You can derive concepts from facts or facts from concepts. One thing I do notice that seems to be a "gap" is the tolerance for abstraction from the facts.


Well ofcourse they're linked. If you want to make a concept reality, then you also have to take the facts in consideration, if you don't then a concept would just be fantasy without a chance of becoming reality, well not entirely though, but it wouldn't have much of a chance.

And where I live, (the educational system) focuses more on the facts than an concept. They don't seem to care if the facts aren't all compatible with the concept behind it, and when I try to discuss it they try to ignore it. I guess this is what you mean?


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## outsidedogdiner (Mar 15, 2014)

i think your right on every view. for me an nt you must get to the j or p to decide.


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## Scelerat (Oct 21, 2012)

Razef said:


> Well ofcourse they're linked. If you want to make a concept reality, then you also have to take the facts in consideration, if you don't then a concept would just be fantasy without a chance of becoming reality, well not entirely though, but it wouldn't have much of a chance.
> 
> And where I live, (the educational system) focuses more on the facts than an concept. They don't seem to care if the facts aren't all compatible with the concept behind it, and when I try to discuss it they try to ignore it. I guess this is what you mean?


The reason why I wrote it the way I did was that you seemed to separate the two into different forms in your initial sentence, and it's an unnatural separation, because a fact is really a concept. What you seemed to define as a concept was an abstraction of a series of concepts. 

I think what you're referring to is "rote learning" which is a method that is largely used up until you start working on your bachelors and beyond that they start letting you think for yourself. It's problematic because you "train" people in a certain way and then change the script when they hit higher education.


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## yentipeee (Jun 19, 2013)

delphi367 said:


> I hear a lot of things about the relationship between NTs and competence, but I'm not entirely sure how this manifests.
> 
> Are NTs generally confident in their intelligence/competence, and prone to believing they are knowledgeable?
> 
> ...


You should try make no assumptions, some NTs are confident and some are retards.:tongue:


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## feeg1 (Feb 12, 2014)

I'm confident about what I know, and I'm confident that I don't know what I don't know.


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