Isaac Asimov

[Jack Flak]

I've never even questioned his being INTP, but others have. State your case.

YouTube - Asimov-Speech (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJN9Kws4G38)

YouTube - Isaac Asimov on The Golden Age of Science Fiction (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pySVYz4GfzE&feature=related)
Seemingly Pt. 2 of above: YouTube - Isaac Asimov on Changes in Science Fiction after 1949 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaSVsbgaQxo&NR=1)

Read this before posting a declaration, if you please.

The Last Question -- Isaac Asimov (http://www.multivax.com/last_question.html)

[evan]

Deep, detailed vision = Ni.

INTJ.

[Jennifer]

I've never even questioned his being INTP, but others have. State your case.

Why did you think he was INTP? *confused*

I had always assumed he was INTJ, and he matches up better with Six on the Enneagram.

[substitute]

No don't buy into this people, it's just part of Jack's desperate bid to distract and redirect attention by intuitively and spontaneously fiddling with the external environment, to postpone having to admit that he's not an introvert! Don't encourage his denial!



mwuhahahahaaaa

[Little Linguist]

LOL dear holy great googly moogly of a hell in a handbasket!!!!!!

[Uberfuhrer]

I agree with Jack. I'd say Asimov was more an INTP. He asked more questions without bringing them to closure; the INTJ would more likely answer those questions.

[Jack Flak]

Deep, detailed vision = Ni.
I have exactly the same tendency to analyze [the present state, the tendencies of people/society, the advance of technology], and predict the future--TENTATIVELY.

[Uberfuhrer]

I have exactly the same tendency to analyze [the present state, the tendencies of people/society, the advance of technology], and predict the future--TENTATIVELY.

The future is always tentative.

[edcoaching]

There's a tendency for INP authors to not be prolific. This would be my one consideration for INTJ over INTP since the guy finished over 400 books.

But you're right, he kept raising questions. I tend to think of Rice (RedMars) as more typical of an INTP author.

[Jack Flak]

There's a tendency for INP authors to not be prolific.
As I'm sure you know, if "stuck in an interesting rut," INTPs are quite content almost never to leave. He was more of a science writer/futurist than a trained fiction author--writing was his mechanism for enjoying his favorite subjects.

[edcoaching]

As I'm sure you know, if "stuck in an interesting rut," INTPs are quite content almost never to leave. He was more of a science writer/futurist than a trained writer--writing was his mechanism for enjoying his favorite subjects.

So processing all those interesting models through his fiction...then I'll go with INTP. I just get hired by so many NPs to help them finish their writing projects but I'll take your interpretation that for Asimov it was all one long project with royalty checks to make it possible....

[Jack Flak]

So processing all those interesting models through his fiction...then I'll go with INTP. I just get hired by so many NPs to help them finish their writing projects but I'll take your interpretation that for Asimov it was all one long project with royalty checks to make it possible....
That's my position. :) (In additon to everything else in the world which makes me confident he's INTP. I've read many of his works.)

[Jack Flak]

and he matches up better with Six on the Enneagram.
That's a stumper. I'd bet thousands he was a five, if there were any way to prove it.

[Jack Flak]

Myers Briggs INTP Personality Type: INTP Profiles & Famous INTPs (http://www.typetango.com/intp-personality.php)

And an account by someone named Willem Renzema:

Isaac Asimov INTP

Recently, after hearing much praise from an ENFP friend, I picked up some books by Isaac Asimov. I've never actually read any of his stuff before, so I figured it was time to take a look at his work. I purchased The Early Asimov, books One and Two.

Both these books contain the first stories that he had ever written. Or at least the first published stories. They are all short stories, as they were intended for magazine publication. In addition to the stories, there were commentaries, by Asimov, about the what lead up to their publication.

After only the first chapter of him writing about his early career, I discovered something intriguing: Isaac Asimov was INTP.

Now, the MBTI personality typing system had not yet been developed in his time, but it didn't need to be. How he described himself screamed INTP louder than any test could ever do. There were several characteristics that tipped me off, and distinctly reminded me of myself.

First, was how he got started in the selling of his stories. After first visiting the publisher one month to inquire (complain) about his missing issue (they changed the production schedule so it was delivered on a different day and week of the month than before) he built up the nerve the next month to actually walk in ask to speak to the editor and to show him one of his stories.

After convincing himself he would get thrown out for having the nerve to ask to speak to the editor, he was instead surprised to find that the editor would not only see him, but took Asimov's manuscript and promised an immediate opinion on it. The over-thinking something to the point of panic is certainly something I tend to do.

Another big tip off was his alternating between dismissive humility, and over-weening pride and arrogance. On one page he makes claims to being vain, but not vain enough to have kept his first attempt at writing a story for publication. The story was never published, so he didn't pay much attention to it, and it got lost much like one loses a sock in the dryer from time to time. He was apologizing to those historians who were dismayed that he never kept this first story.

On the following page though, he distinctly plays down the quality of his first published work, The Callistan Menace. Granted, the story was far from the best I'd ever read, but its the flip flopping between arrogance and humility that I so recognized. He even does it again in a later chapter, this time separated by only a couple of sentences.

I do the same sometimes. I love that I am the same type as Einstein. The absent-minded professor type. Yet usually quickly follow that up with the fact that I find myself more absent-minded than professor-like.

The third big indication to me was Asimov being a sucker for praise. I know I sure am. Many of my friends compliment me on my writing skills in my blog, and boy I tell you, I just lap it up. I can't quite find the example I was looking for in the book (it's difficult to dig for one little piece of information somewhere hidden in the first 100 pages), Asimov also stated he was a sucker for praise.

None of these by themselves really made him an INTP, but together, along with other indications showed me pretty clearly that he was. Tangents, (you know, stuff written in parenthesis to explain certain things without distracting from the main discussion) and his love of explaining technical scientific concepts are two other traits.

Personally, I'm thrilled to discover another famous person that is of my personality type. Reading his work even briefly made me consider becoming a writer myself. After all, everyone seems to love my writing in this blog.

[Uytuun]

Are you bringing this answer to closure?

...

[Jack Flak]

There is no closure!

What do you think, though?

[Colors]

From his books (read his nonfiction The Sun Shines Bright, his Robot Dreams short story collection and his three Robot novels), I'd say he's an ENTP.

[Uytuun]

There is no closure!

What do you think, though?

So sure, eh?

I have absolutely no idea, he might be an INTj, they tend to be pretty brilliant!

[Hexis]

He wrote mystery/detective books about robots, of course hes an INTJ, psh!

[Jack Flak]

So sure, eh?

I have absolutely no idea, he might be an INTj, they tend to be pretty brilliant!
Personally? I'd stake eternity in Heaven vs. Hell on INTP, but since it's not provable, oh well.

[Uytuun]

That wasn't what my question was about. :p

If your interpretation works for you, so much the better.

[6sticks]

The guy was ridiculously INTP.

Last Question ftw.

[Jack Flak]

The guy was ridiculously INTP.

Last Question ftw.
*exhale* Thank you.

[evan]

I forget which one Last Question was, but Last Answer is totally INTJ.

[evan]

Just read Last Question again, and it seems ridiculously INTJ to me (how does anyone get P out of that?). Some of the characters were INTP, but that doesn't mean Asimov was.

[6sticks]

Just read Last Question again, and it seems ridiculously INTJ to me (how does anyone get P out of that?). Some of the characters were INTP, but that doesn't mean Asimov was.
I was talking about Asimov, blocks of text don't have personality types. Anyway, I've read a biography about him and he's clearly INTP.

[evan]

Ah. Well you cited the story as evidence, so I read it. It seems like typical INTJ writing (and story), but you're right. Not enough information.

[Jack Flak]

Gotta tell you, dissonance, if I were a writer in the early 50s, I would have written the exact same story as The Last Question.

And like 6sticks, I've read not only at least one full autobiography, but many, many essays by Asimov which were written in closer to his "true voice" than his fiction. "Asimov was INTP" will be carved into my F'n gravestone.