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!
Not sure what your personality type is? Take our new personality questionnaire here. Or you can take the official MBTI® here.
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.
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What Do You Think?
Do you agree with these pet peeves? Would you like to share your own? Let me know in the comments!
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!
I don’t drive yet, but all of the rest of these are extremely accurate. Thanks for all of your informational posts!
I think you forgot the part where people (usually NF types) read too much into our matter of fact statements and assume there’s more to it than that. It gets annoying.
I will second this. I generally mean what I say and expect everyone else to also say what they mean. Verbal jousting should involve wit, not emotional indecision lol
True!
As an ISTP, I silently judge my friends driving abilities. Always.
From the other “side”. I’m 50yrs old and still can’t fully tell if i am an ENFP or an ENFJ… but what i do know, is that the love of my life is a full-on ISPT. and reading about his type from this perspective is hugely re-affirming and helpful. it’s easy to push the envelope of annoyance with an ISPT because they are so dang tolerant and steady and rarely show that you are actually annoying them. Also— i appreciate your factual, yet super creative writing style!
When I was a child and a teenager, (Introverted) I dreamed a lot of adventure and action, so turned to the futur. I didn’t realy lived the present, and underwent much the school. The story is rich in adventure and epic character. So the past can be a reference for an ISTP.
My mother was ESTJ, my father ISTP. A very complementary couple. Paradoxically, my mother was never able to understand me. I am also more sensitive than my father. That why I’m not totally shure of my type.
Except “5” (Ni) and “8” (Se) of ways to annoys an INTP all the rest can be aditionned to the ISTP:
https://www.psychologyjunkie.com/2017/07/02/10-things-never-say-intp/
So true x)
As a hard core ISTP (I have all of these 4 traits pretty high on my assessment), I must say that the thing that annoys me the most is definitely “lack of logic”. When people speak or act in a way that is not logical (eg when people keep bitching about how they are fat, and when we get into a food court on a mall they go directly to order pizza + donuts), it really drives me mad. Bad drivers I accept, if I can’t do anything about it, I don’t let it get in my way.
All so true….
yes.
Very accurate representations of my personality. Driving definitely brings out my bad side. Being around people who do not pay attention to everything around them while driving is hard for me to comprehend let alone deal with.
I accept the bad drivers exist and they are part of the system so they don’t anger me. I expect the other driving might be stupid so I learnt defensive driving.
100% accurate. ISTP female here.
I definitely hate inconsiderate drivers, when people don’t know how to park their car and ignorant drivers. The ignorant ones I can forgive, but the other two piss me off!
Royal pet peeves of mine include being fussed over (I did well, I know it, why are you holding me hostage listening to you—I am a classical musician and I get this most of the time when I play) and being asked if something is wrong. ISTP female and I guess I look PO ‘d most of the time. Most of the time I’m chilled out watching and listening.
It’s funny, before I read the article, I thought of some of my own pet peeves. (ISTP, female) #1. People who drive with their parking lights on. #2. Vaguebooking. (Posting a passive-aggressive rant or a vague cry for help, and when some dupe in the comments asks for details, they suddenly don’t want to talk about it.) #3. Grinding the pace of an anecdote to a halt with stupid details that have no importance to the story. (“So, the cashier, I think his name was Bob, but it could have Jim, but I’m pretty sure it was Bob because my cousin’s name is Bob and that’s why I noticed his name. Anyway, so the cashier hands me…” Grrrr…)
As far as I can tell, this list was spot on!
This is so interesting to me, I’m also an ISTP female. I literally thought of the same things as you and actually physically cringed at your vaguebooking comment as it really REALLY bothers me haha. I agree with everything you said.
This is incredibly accurate of my ISTP husband.
I’m an ISTP female *shout out to the few others* and certainly identify with these, especially how frustrated I get with inconsiderate people (like drivers who don’t use their blinkers…). I think some of them depend on how well developed your Extroverted Feeling trait is, and knowing my own tendency to go on an emotional roller-coaster when I’m stressed, it helps tone down how annoying some things like complaining and emotional outbursts are. I also agree with others who point out that you can’t control other drivers, that thought often saves me from a long mental rant.
Maaaan, I cannot stress to you how much of a 100%, 5/5 this was for me. As much as I would LOVE to go into detail about which ones bother me the most/least, I’ll just say THANK YOU.
I’m so glad you enjoyed this!
Absolutely on that same page!
Wow! Thanks for posting this. This is really helping me narrow down whether I should room with my (ISFJ) ISTP friend in college or not.
5 out of 5. I can’t believe the way some folks drive, wow. The ppl who don’t ever seem to end the conversation, they keep adding a sentence/info well after the facts are delivered…done already?? And why can’t you see my efficient way saves time to do this task….? Posted with tongue in cheek 🙂
signed, Learning to smell the Roses (ISTP female, Ontario Canada)
Totally me. Perfect! ????
Very true
Female ISTP here and all of this is soooo true! I just started driving (I’m 17) and I never could have imagined how impossibly horrible other drivers are
I just had a situation occur that prompted me to google what annoys ISTP types. Obviously the circumstance that annoyed me made the list in two areas. Perfect list.