"The Moriarty Fear" is the textbook phobia of INTPs that if anyone is better than they are in the area in which they specialize, that they will not only be outshined, but rendered meaningless, worthless and obsolete.  IP's are the specialists, loving detail and preferring depth over breadth, but this means the areas in which they sink all their time and energy are very precious to them.  INTPs especially tend to get the most inside their own heads as they love to use their minds to explore the world by themselves, using abstract thought to find solutions to problems.  For them, smart often becomes a moral thing and the only battleground worth winning. But, especially if they let that battle make them arrogant and self-righteous about the areas in which they specialize, pretentiously believing that they are the only ones that can know the things they know, an INTP can end up overlooking important details outside themselves and someone with a wider scope of field can end up surpassing them even in their own area of expertise.  Rather than recognizing that they need to learn more, an INTP can dig in their heels and instead insist on beating down their "usurper," making sure they rise to the top again, not by self-improvement, but by being the last man standing.   Even if they are able to weed out the competition, an INTP at "the top" will constantly be watching their back, waiting for the day they secretly fear will come, when others will see their gaps in wisdom and knowledge, call out their weaknesses and that they will have no recourse. But if an INTP instead seeks for improvement for its own sake, rather than as a competition, they indeed can be exceptional in what they do; in fact an INTP can't truly excel in the ways they are needed unless they stop comparing and learn again for its own sake.

Calise Sellers 

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