5 Ways To Annoy An ISTP
Today I’m excited to talk about one of my very favorite personality types: the ISTP. ISTPs are quick-thinking, tactically intelligent, adventurous, and creative. They are the best types to have around in a crisis, because they don’t tend to panic like many of us would. They’re the ones who think quickly, find a solution, and keep a calm, steady outlook on the situation. ISTPs have a cool, aloof, devil-may-care persona that many of us find intriguing. Chances are, you have a favorite ISTP celebrity; Clint Eastwood, Scarlett Johansson, Bruce Lee, and even Bill Murray are all ISTPs!
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I talked to a lot of ISTPs about their pet peeves, and afterwards, I was surprised by one thing. ISTPs are the only types I’ve talked to that mentioned “bad drivers” repeatedly as one of their pet peeves. I was expecting this particular annoyance to come up more often, but it didn’t. So while all of us may find some of these things annoying, ISTPs mentioned these particular pet peeves more than most other types did:
5 Ways to Annoy an ISTP
Bad Drivers
It’s not hard to see why ISTPs would mention driving skills as a major pet peeve. ISTPs are extremely aware of their current physical environment, due to their auxiliary Extraverted Sensing (Se). They are quick to react, skilled with handling a vehicle, and can’t abide people who absent-mindedly forget to use their turn signals, cut them off, park badly, or don’t take other drivers into consideration. That said, I made more driving mistakes the night of my wedding than I have in my entire life – and the entire time my ISTP husband sat next to me and didn’t say anything to judge me. He’s just made fun of me for it for the four-and-a-half years that followed 😉
Complaining
ISTPs don’t see the point in complaining or moping. To the efficiency-minded ISTP, everything has to have a reason or a solution. Listening to someone complain for no particular purpose is irritating for an ISTP to deal with. They don’t mind listening to someone who legitimately wants a solution or help, but they’re not interested in listening to someone re-hash the same problems over and over again.
Inefficiency and Incompetence
ISTPs like to find the most efficient and thorough way of accomplishing a goal. They prefer to ditch procedure and manuals in favor of finding their own creative route to bypassing unnecessary steps. This can look to other types like the ISTP is taking shortcuts, but they put a lot of thought into accomplishing things, and their shortcuts are usually brilliant if you take the time to understand them. ISTPs also can’t stand working with people who are sloppy, ignore logical steps, or who are in a position of leadership and pass down unnecessary rules and agendas.
Chatterboxes
“Whatever you want to do – just do it! Don’t talk about it, get on with it.”
– Christian Bale, ISTP
ISTPs can enjoy long conversations with their close friends, but they tend to be on the quiet side around people they don’t know. When they do talk, they prefer to talk about things that are relevant to their daily lives, or else they like to tell jokes or swap interesting stories. Having to sit and listen to a string of trivial details will drive the ISTP crazy (even if they may not show it on their face).
Emotional Overreactions
ISTPs keep their emotions on a tight leash, and are surprised when others don’t do the same. While they can appreciate that other types are more emotionally-minded than they are, they don’t like it when people have outbursts that seem disproportionate to the problem. Crying over a cracked nail, yelling and screaming about a sarcastic jab, or otherwise overreacting will cause the ISTP to seriously question their respect for you.
Find out more about your personality type in our eBooks, Discovering You: Unlocking the Power of Personality Type,  The INFJ – Understanding the Mystic, and The INFP – Understanding the Dreamer. You can also connect with me via Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter!
What Do You Think?
Do you agree with these pet peeves? Would you like to share your own? Let me know in the comments!
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Nailed it! I was described as extreme ISTP by the person that administered the MBTI & I can with out a doubt say all of those things make me crazy 😀
Hi Laynie! I’m glad you enjoyed this post! I hope you don’t experience any of these things too frequently 🙂
WOW SUSAN! I THOUGHT I WAS AND MBTI JUNKIE. I AM THRILLED TO FIND YOU!! I AM EXTATIC TO FIND YOU. I AM AN ESTJ WHO IS TOTALLY BLOWN AWAY BY YOUR TALENT AND ENERGY. WHAT A GIFT YOU ARE AND I THANK YOU SOOOOOO MUCH. YOUR INFORMATION WILL HELP ME IN MY MBTI MISSION.
THANK YOU, JO
Thanks so much, Jo! I’m so glad to meet an ESTJ on here 🙂 I hope you are able to enjoy this page and if you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask! Thanks so much for the kind words and encouragement 🙂
Thanks for the post, these are dead on. The 1st one could be extended to anytime someone is inconsiderate but I am glad you chose driving because I really enjoy driving and it’s very frustrating when it’s ruined because of this. I will take less used back roads regardless of how much time is added just to avoid this. Windy back roads are more fun to drive on anyways making it a win-win. Some other things that bother me are people taking up the whole sidewalk even when people are coming in the other direction, people who instead of holding the door tuck their arms and run through so they don’t have to touch it like a 3 year old would, people who walk slow in the left blocking faster traffic, smart phone users who stop short short, block high traffic areas or are just generally oblivious of those around them and don’t care, etc. These are such small concessions to make for your fellow human beings that would not inconvenience you at all but I see them them every day on my walk/subway ride to work.
Thanks for reading! I completely agree with you on everything you just said. My ISTP husband is extremely aware of all those things you just mentioned. I think it might have to do with having that sensory awareness of your environment (Se), and also the Extraverted Feeling that ISTPs have, even though it’s their fourth preferred function. My husband also takes backroads and new ways to get places just so he can avoid bad drivers or get a change of scenery 🙂 Anyway, thank you so much for taking the time to read this post and for sharing your thoughts!! I’m very glad to hear from you!
I complain a lot. I complain about bad drivers, inefficiency and incompetence.
What? Nothing for ISFPs?
I’m still working on that one! It should be posted next week 🙂
I’m an ISTP to my core and this is scary accurate lol
Good to know! I’m glad I’m not way off on this 🙂
My husband is an ISTP and this is spot on, especially the driving part–both his anger at bad drivers and his own ability to drive skillfully. He’s equally handy with tools and I’m not and I think it causes him actual physical pain to watch me fumble around with a paint scraper or other gadget. It’s all he can do not to snatch the tool out of my hand and do it himself. I guess that’s the “inefficiency and incompetency” part! The chatterbox part is probably why he’s married to me, another introvert. I’d have to say it’s a tie as far as our both getting irritated with inconsiderate people, whether it’s drivers cutting you off or people failing to hold the door for the person behind them. And it probably won’t surprise you to learn that he’s a firefighter.
My ISTP husband read your comment over my shoulder and we both had to laugh. Your husband sounds A LOT like mine! 🙂 My husband is in the military. I think ISTPs are just drawn to those types of careers naturally many times. Thanks for taking the time to read this post and share your thoughts 🙂
I agree about the career part. And my husband was in the Navy.
Spot on, but for the sake of brevity…which I guess is not the best idea when writing something informative like this blog, you could have just typed ‘Other people’
or is that just me ?
Thanks Susan. Fun and informative. You have a gift!