Season 7, Episode 10 Transcript
Chase: 00:01 Hey guys, it’s CS Joseph with CSJoseph.life. Nice windy afternoon, or evening technically, here in the Bay Area. So tonight our episode is going to be the next in our series on virtue and vice. We’re gonna be doing another one of the see-it-through types, the ISTP. Introverted sensing, thinking, perceiving, also known as the craftsman. They’re a see-it-through type, which is direct responding movement… and part of the artists and temperament. So they are a freedom based creator, similar to the ESTP. Now, if you remember the virtue and vice of the ESTP, who was chastity versus nymphomania, however, the ISTP is a little bit different. It’s kind of interesting that they’re both STPs but they have different virtues and vices. Not so… not so connected. It’s just another example of how people think that the types are so similar with their letters when in reality they’re completely different, and I find it annoying that everyone’s like, “Well, you know, today I’m an ESTP but sometimes I’m an ISTP.” Yeah, that’s retarded and wrong. Don’t ever talk about that again please. Stick to the cognitive functions. It’s good times that way, you know, because then you get to like enjoy being, you know, accurate for once. So the ISTP virtue and vice. This virtue and vice I would say is probably one of the more difficult ones for me to pin down.
Chase: 01:48 And… I quite frankly owe this one to my mentor who first taught me Jungian analytical psychology when I was learning it, when I was living on the street in those days. So learning it in an attempt to save my marriage, which didn’t work out, but at least I know how things work, so definitely not a waste of time. So, yeah he taught me what he believed was his virtue and vice, and then long time after looking into ISTPs that I’ve come to know and understand over time, I have to agree with him. I really have to agree with him. My cousin who’s near and dear to my heart is an ISTP, as well as my former boss at my last [my last] job actually, he’s also an ISTP. So I really enjoy working with them even though majority of the time I trigger them, because what ENTP does not trigger an ISTP? Yeah, I don’t even know.
Chase: 02:53 {So forgive the wind, but it’s nice and refreshing so I’ll keep the camera a little closer here so that you can hear me. Hopefully it works out}. So anyway, the virtue and vice of the ISTP is joy versus melancholy. So I have got to say ISTPs can be the happiest people you have ever met. I… mean elated, super joyful. It’s kind of like when you hand my cousin an AR-15 or really neat shotgun, and he is like, “Oh man, this is so dope,” and he is like the most excited little kid in a candy store that you have ever met. Same if you were to take him to a strip club, or a party, for example. He is just all in, very excited to be a part of the experience, very excited to give other people the experience, very excited to be inundated, you know.
Chase: 04:01 This is the ISTP. {chuckle} Yet they’re introverted. Well how does that work? Well, they spent so much time during the day, usually alone working on things, right, because I mean a lot of ISTPs I know are contractors, right? So they’re working on stuff and they’re by themselves. They’ve had all day in solitude to just be who they are, right? And then they want to spend that solitude energy out and about, and they just get so joyful and they gets so overjoyed sometimes. But then take that away and they’re in the doldrums, like when they’re bored for example. [IST]. Like I could have said that boredom was their vice, but honestly the melancholy is more [more] prevalent than the boredom. Yes ISTPs can get bored so quick.
Chase: 04:58 Actually for example I was talking to an ISTP engineer a couple of weeks back, and he was super, super annoyed with me to the point where he was just so bored while I was delivering my presentation to him he just started doodling on the paper, right? Insanely bored. And then after awhile he just looked like the most depressed person in the world because all he could think about is, “I got to get away from this guy. I don’t want to be here, I don’t want to deal with this. I need to move on. He’s wasting my time.” He just got so depressed, and then I started feeling guilty because of how depressed he looked, right? So I moved on and I got out of that ,and I even said to him, “Hey man, I’m going to get out of your hair right now because I could tell that you’re not interested.” So I moved on. So what does that mean? How does the vice of the ISTP really manifest itself? Well, they can be very melancholic usually as a result of boredom, or they can just get kinda like sad or depressed, but it’s not so much that they’re depressed.
Chase: 06:23 They just, they run out of something to think about. They run out of a challenge, they run out of [some] or they’ve had their freedom taken away, right? Where they’re stuck. They’re absolutely stuck in a situation and they have no idea how to get out of it, and they just feel trapped, right? And then this super depression melancholy comes over them as a result of them feeling trapped. Like they just can’t handle it, right? And that can be on a day to day thing with their life, but that could be like, “Well, I’m trapped in this relationship, I’m trapped with, you know, this job.” They really just end up going [so] super melancholy mode, right?
Chase: 07:11 But turn that around. Put them in a position where they don’t feel trapped. Put them in a position where they have full freedom to do whatever they want for whatever reason, you know, be the master of their own destiny. That Ni child will light up like a Christmas tree, and they are literally the most joyful person you’ve ever been around, to the point where it’s like, “If I’m going on a rollercoaster, I want to go with that guy because that guy is going to be hilariously fun.” Like when he shows up, the ISTP, to an amusement park, you know, and he’s young, he’s not, you know, bored of them, right? It’s like the thing to do, and he[‘s] goes full on YOLO. ISTPs are literally the YOLO type. You only live once, right? They live and breathe YOLO. They are YOLO. YOLO is the source of their joy in life.
Chase: 08:11 They like taking those risks. I mean, it’s often said that ISTPs, like, they build some crazy contraption and they’re the first one that gets tested. They’re not even afraid, they’re going to do it, you know? It’s kinda like the skeleton in the Winter Olympics, right? You have to know that that sport was invented by an ISTP. “Here, I’m going to put myself on a skateboard and go down super quick, like a bobsled headfirst. Yeah, that sounds like great fun to me.” You know, or even skydiving, you know, because ISTPs are awesome like that. They have Se parent plus Si critic, so not only are they doing it to show off and give others a good experience. But that Si critic, when they’re skydiving for example, is also having a really good experience, you know. ESTJs it’s the other way around. They do it for the experience, right?
Chase: 09:07 They have to get that experience going, but they’re also kind of subtly doing it to show off, “Hey, look what I can do and you can’t,” you know. But the ISTP takes it so much further with their joy, right? That whole sense of YOLO is everything. Taking risks, but they get so bored and they get so melancholic, so depressed when there is no more energy, when there’s nothing left to think about, when there’s no risk to be taking. When everything is stagnant, when nothing is moving, when there is no progress, and they feel trapped. They feel trapped by life, they feel trapped by their job, they feel trapped by their relationships. They, they’re not going anywhere, and they just [they just] can’t live with themselves. They can’t deal with it, and they just get depressed, and depressed, compressed and super melancholy. Now, it’s funny though, a lot of people would say that the INFJ is the type that gets the most depressed.
Chase: 10:12 No, no, it’s the ISTP actually. Although, funnily enough, or interestingly enough the ISTP… {had a wood chip in my foot there} the ISTP has the same four cognitive functions as an INFJ. Well same with the ESTP and the ENFJ as well, but they’re just in a different order. So all four of those types in that quadra, the STPs and the NFJs together, yeah, all of those can be pretty emo, let’s be honest. But no one takes it further than the ISTP. It’s just looks like, they look like in their melancholic state like a little kid that’s just had their lollipop taken out of their hands, you know. It’s like your mom went to the candy store with the kid and bought them a lollipop, right? And [the lol] the kid was like so happy, “I have this lollipop.” And then just some random dude comes by and just steals the lollipop out of the kid’s hand.
Chase: 11:12 That feeling, that is what their melancholy looks like. It’s just like they’ve had their entire world completely put upside down, and [that’s how] that’s where their melancholy can go, right? So, so look at it further, you know, there’s some other examples. Joy? Here’s a great example of joy the ISTPs have. So imagine that a small child, an ISTP small kid, you know. Parents doing a home improvement project, right, and they take their ISTP son to the hardware store, you know, and they got a lot of errands to run. They, you know what? They just leave that ISTP kid at the hardware store for hours, and he’s tinkering around. He’s super happy. He’s looking at all the parts, trying to figure out how it all fits together, you know. He’s like… like that total gearhead, right, in that situation, going full on ISTP mode because he’s a craftsman. He’s got a craft.
Chase: 12:07 He has to have the freedom to craft. If you don’t have the freedom to craft, well that’s a really sad world. You know what I mean? So what do you do when you’re in a relationship with an ISTP who’s like super mega depressed, super mega melancholic, right? Well first of all, the first thing you got to address is freedom. Is there anything holding the ISTP back? Is there anything getting in their way? Is there… is there a lack of freedom somehow? You know for example let’s say you’re married to an ISTP woman, right, and you’ve noted that she’s pretty depressed. She’s very melancholic all the time and it’s kind of bothering you, right? What do you do? Well, you get a babysitter for one. Like seriously, give her some freedom, give her some time, you know. Handle the children yourself or hire a babysitter, you know. Outsource some of that parenting work so this ISTP woman has more freedom to do the things that she actually wants to do.
Chase: 13:07 As long as the ISTP is doing what they want to do they will stay as joyful as possible, and really positively contribute to your relationship. And of course they’re not going to, like, you know, they’re not going to let go of their parental duties all the way. Parenting, they take parenting very seriously. And of course, you know, if you start feeling bad because, “Crap, I’m doing all the parenting right now,” they’re going to feel bad about themselves with guilt, right? Because they have Fe inferior and then take over. It’s not a permanent thing is what I’m saying, so don’t be afraid to give the ISTP freedom in that way. They’re not going to take advantage of you, right? If… that’s the great thing about ISTPs. You can continue to give them freedom, and more freedom, and more freedom, but they’re never going to abuse it for the most part unless they’re like super depraved. Which it’s really hard to get an ISTP super depraved unless they’re, like, addicted to drugs and, like, major hedonistic. Then, okay, yeah, that could be a problem, but that’s very rare because most ISTPs just don’t usually have that problem because usually [they got] they’re on a mission.
Chase: 14:14 They’re, they’re, they’re all about what they want to do, and they’re trying to build something, trying to craft something. Who knows, right? You know, life is just a giant project, and they’re trying to constantly work on it and challenge themselves. But again, if you take away that freedom – super melancholy. So if you’re in a relationship with them, give them the freedom that they need to flourish. It is crucial you give them the freedom. Give them, give them gifts of new tools or new things. Ask them to build something for you, build something for them and then they could see it and then make it better for you, et cetera. They’re always going to criticize it, right? Because people think ISTPs are, like, huge assholes because of Ti hero, and because of that, “Well, Ti heroes just gonna criticize me all the damn time, you know {er},” you know. No, that’s not what it’s about.
Chase: 15:02 They’re just trying to improve. They’re just trying to fix. Another way to really engage the joy of an ISTP is allow them to teach you something. If there is something that ISTPs get off on… if there’s something that ISTPs get off on, it is teaching. They love to make themselves the mentor and teach others, and not only that ISTPs will lose respect for you if you’re not teachable. Same thing. They’ll even lose respect for their own children if they’re not teachable because an ISTP lives in the real. They live in the moment. They expect reality, right? They don’t care about theory that much, at, like, at all. Theory is not real to them. Of course if they have a theoretical intuitive child I am so sorry, because that theoretical intuitive child is, like, going to have a really hard time with an ISTP parent. Because ISTP parent is going to be trying to, like, show them how to use tools, but the Se, the low, low Se in the intuitive child just gonna be like, “Nope, not doing it, not really interested in it.”
Chase: 16:03 And then the ISTP is going to feel guilty about being a bad parent that [that] child is not going to go, and that, you know, because they’re not able to teach that child what the ISTP knows, right? And then they get even more melancholic, right, as a result, because they take it so personally, right? So again, you have to expand the horizons of the ISTP, give them the freedom, be teachable, allow them to [to] teach you and show you things. Let them get off on the reactions that they’re giving you, right? And, you know, especially in the bedroom, you know, surrender. Surrender to the ISTP, you know. You’re giving them full freedom, and by giving them full freedom it’s a form of surrender. And that’s what gives them the most joy in the world, and when they are super full of joy they always deliver the absolute best and well crafted experience. That is exactly everything you want in a relationship with an ISTP, and it’ll even go on towards their children as well.
Chase: 17:05 So {breath} anyway, that is the virtue and vice of the ISTP, enjoy versus melancholy. If you found this lecture to be useful, educational, insightful, please subscribe to the YouTube channel or on the podcast, that’d be fantastic. If you have any questions about ISTPs and their virtue and vice please leave it in the comment section below which is also helpful. I read every comment on every [every] YouTube video that I got. So, and thank you all for the video requests. I am getting all of them written down and I will be doing them. May be doing a few of them after this series is done before we launch into compatibility, which is probably going to be a very long series. So we’ll see how that works out. Otherwise got more to do, so I’ll see you guys tonight.
