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Creative writers, designers, composers.

Coke

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Which type(s) match creative writers, designers (video games, especially), and composers? Second, can Sensors be creative with making stories, composing music, or designing?
 

Mr. Sherlock Holmes

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I think IN GENERAL Ps have a slight advantage over Js when it comes to creative arts because they have extraverted percieving functions, which help in percieving ideas and are open ended rather than focused. T and F and I and E seem to be MOSTLY irrelevant. Ns probably have an advantage in certain areas of design and art, such as surrealism etc. which rely on abstract ideas, while S's would be better at more aesthetic aspects.

That's just some generalisations. Of course, any type is capable of great creativity.
 

skylights

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^ true. though, i generally dislike surrealism. it's often super creepy, lol.

Second, can Sensors be creative with making stories, composing music, or designing?

absolutely!! i think my ESFJ mom is more creative than i am in some ways. she's always coming up with new ideas for games and books and systems (she's a teacher). they're usually less off-the-wall than my ideas, but they're more realistically achievable, which means that she often ends up actually creating more than i do. Ss also often have awesome aesthetic sense and a good instinct in terms of knowing what should go with what. i personally prefer to read S-ish fiction - more sensory detail, more action, less random philosophizing - do enough of that on my own!
:laugh:

though i do think T and F can make for interesting differences in terms of reason for creation/ "rules of the game" in creation. like my INTP brother likes to improv in music because he finds it really intellectually stimulating and likes complicated twists and turns of chords. i like improv because it lets me freely express my personal feeling through the music. obviously, we both overlap on both of these reasons, but the generalizations do correspond to our types, which i thought was interesting.
 

Grungemouse

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I'm a creative writing student. In one module I have to compose seven poems, and in drama I must write a postmodernist play.

One of my poems is an epistle (poetry in the form of a letter), titled "Letter of Complaint". It's addressed "to the occupiers", and you discover by the end that the sender is a house spider complaining of the treatment it is receiving (left unattended in a bath tub, chased with a vacuum cleaner, etc). Ending with "Yours faithfully, T. Duellica". The latin name of the species (Google at your own peril; they have very long legs).

I haven't started the postmodernist play, but I'm planning on Andre Breton becoming "President of the world", and his party's policies are based on "The Surrealist Manifesto". Followers of the Naturalist party are treated as second-class citizens. No idea of what's going to happen, but these are the bare bones of the play. A revolt would seem too cliché, me thinks. Perhaps Seamus Heaney's public execution, giving his poem "Death of a Naturalist" an ominous twist. Hmm.
 

Randomnity

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*sigh* yes, sensors can be creative.

My bf is a web designer and makes some pretty awesome designs.
My sister is a very talented artist thinking about art as a career.
Even I have some artistic talent, though it's more on the technical side than creative.

Given the huge number of artists and composers out there, I'm sure many are S. Even looking in the typing threads here some well-known creative types seem unquestionably S (especially xSFP). I'm prety sure you'd see a greater correlation with P, or even I. Mind you, it's usually a different "flavour" of creative, like F vs. T would be.
 

Stanton Moore

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Sensors can be just as productive creatively as intuitives.

I know lots of artists of all types; writers, musicians, sculptors, painters, composers, poets, dancers, choreographers...I know many.

Actually, the ability to make or perform art strikes me as intrinsically intuitive, which makes me think that whatever an individual states as their prefered mode of experiencing the world (N or S), is largely irrelevent in the process of making art. Remember that it's a dichotomy, not either/or. Everyone is a sensor and everyone is intuitive to some degree.
 

Mr. Sherlock Holmes

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I think in general artistic creation is mostly Pe and performing is mostly Fe or Pe.
 

Robopop

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I do notice quite a few more P musicians and artists than Js(but Pi can be very creative too, especially Ni), I myself am a very talented artist(I'm also in graphic design). I personally think a structured, controlled approach to art can be very limiting, like for me, the inspiration has to come spontaneously and I see this notion expressed alot in art. I also have an extremely over-active imagination, this is good for the creative arts but messes me up with more practical applications, like being very attentive(hence the NTP absent-minded professor stereotype).
 

Random Ness

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I think IN GENERAL Ps have a slight advantage over Js when it comes to creative arts because they have extraverted percieving functions, which help in percieving ideas and are open ended rather than focused.

I agree. I don't think outside the box very much. :/ My box is very defined by previous experiences.
 

XYZ

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Overwhelming majority of creative artists are dominant intuitives (Ni or Ne as their lead function, particularly Ni).

ISFP (more artistically orientated) and ISTP (more technically orientated) tend to be the most common creative artist type amongst the sensors.
 

KDude

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I've played guitar for 20 years, draw a little, would like to get more into writing. I guess I'm a sensor. I know two possible ISFPs who are painters - and a lot more creative than I am. One is semi-famous even (Which is a pretty hard to thing to pull off these days imo.. Painters aren't as recognized as they used to be. Point being, he's creative, and making a good living from it to boot).
 

Snuggletron

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Second, can Sensors be creative with making stories, composing music, or designing?

600107-oh_you_super.jpg


I'm an NP and I draw, and this requires observational and coordination skills obviously (sensor realm). If I'm doing conceptual stuff, well that is giving Ne a go at things. Which is equally amusing.
 

Mr. Sherlock Holmes

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Overwhelming majority of creative artists are dominant intuitives (Ni or Ne as their lead function, particularly Ni).

ISFP (more artistically orientated) and ISTP (more technically orientated) tend to be the most common creative artist type amongst the sensors.

I thought the N/S line in artists was usually close to even.
 

OrangeAppled

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When I was in design school, most people seemed to be Pe users, and there were a lot of introverts. There were people of all types though; I'm sure the kind of art makes a difference too. I might venture to say that EJs seemed underrepresented, followed by the ISJs. There were a lot of FPs (I felt quite at home - but then I tend to with artsy/creative people). I'm quite sure I encountered other INFPs then, but it's too hard to sort out acquaintances' types in retrospect, especially when you just saw them in class here & there. I mean, they could be another FP type or something else altogether.
 

KDude

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Apparently, there aren't even that many N's in the population as a whole. Especially introverted intuitives. Yet, there are a ton of creative people in the world. Hundreds of millions.. maybe a billion. Who knows. A fuckton - that's my educated guess.

To see just how much it plays out, I would suggest one simply walk into a guitar shop and observe every Tom, Dick, Harry, Mary, Sue, and Jane shredding on the guitars there (and most are good! I'm humbled half of the time).. Or go to an art class or a theater workshop or writing group or look in the phonebook for someone who designs dresses or would paint a mural for your workplace or design a website. Creativity is everywhere.. it's kind of common in my view. Not as common as being an SJ or SP, but common enough that they can't be leaning heavily to NF or NT. It's just part of being human in general.

I know it might be different to be N and for some, it feels like you're unique.. therefore you need to latch on to whatever else is special or unique in the world - art being one of those things. Except being creative really isn't that unique, and none of this is type related.
 

XYZ

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I thought the N/S line in artists was usually close to even.

It's quite skewed - I see creativity as a product of intuition, so it helps if you have an intuitive function high up in your cognitive hierarchy.

Creative ISFP/ISTP are generally well in tune with their tertiary Ni, although strictly speaking, they are feeling and thinking types respectively as that is their dominant mode of operation.

Dominant sensing types whilst they have other good abilities are rare to see as creative artist because intuitive functions are their inferior/hardest to master, least preferred and the environment rarely calls on them to develop it to a great extent like it does for an dominant intuitive type to develop inferior sensing functions.
 

Randomnity

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Overwhelming majority of creative artists are dominant intuitives (Ni or Ne as their lead function, particularly Ni).

ISFP (more artistically orientated) and ISTP (more technically orientated) tend to be the most common creative artist type amongst the sensors.

It's quite skewed - I see creativity as a product of intuition, so it helps if you have an intuitive function high up in your cognitive hierarchy.

Creative ISFP/ISTP are generally well in tune with their tertiary Ni, although strictly speaking, they are feeling and thinking types respectively as that is their dominant mode of operation.

Dominant sensing types whilst they have other good abilities are rare to see as creative artist because intuitive functions are their inferior/hardest to master, least preferred and the environment rarely calls on them to develop it to a great extent like it does for an dominant intuitive type to develop inferior sensing functions.

Just wondering if you have a source for this "overwhelming majority of artists are not only N, but dominant N" or you're just making shit up? From my experience, others' experiences, suspected types of popular creative people, and even theoretically reasoning, this is a load of steaming bullcrap unless you start by defining "creativity" as "intuitive"....which is frankly dumb as well as pointless. And even if we assume that every single dominant N type in the world is creative (they aren't, in case you were unsure), that's a pretty small pool for the number of professionally creative people that exist, let along creative hobbyists.

:)
 

XYZ

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The majority I've read about, listened to and come across etc... it isn't backed up empirically, but nothing anyone says about the MBTI is, because MBTI isn't backed up empirically!

It's a speculative theory, if you want solid verified facts then MBTI is not a place you will find them.

It is hard to fault from a theoretical perspective - the most comprehensive definition I could find on the net for creativity is the "mental process involving the discovery of new ideas or concepts, or new associations of the existing ideas or concepts, fueled by the process of either conscious or unconscious insight."

This is basically what intuition does for us, as sensing sees what's literally there - it makes sense (NPI) that people with intuition dominant i.e. as their lead way of functioning, sense of identity and biggest strength, would be geared towards creative pursuits moreso than other types who don't have intuition playing this role in their psyche.

Every type has an intuitive function, so everyone does have creative potential - I never said all dominant intuitive had the market cornered, were always super creative or composed all of the worlds creative people - although I do think they have the greatest potential to be, if they can realise that potential in themselves and make best use of it.
 

Randomnity

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it isn't backed up empirically, but nothing anyone says about the MBTI is
That isn't a get out of jail free card, you know...especially considering the empirical facts (such as they are) argue against your theory.

It is hard to fault from a theoretical perspective - the most comprehensive definition I could find on the net for creativity is the "mental process involving the discovery of new ideas or concepts, or new associations of the existing ideas or concepts, fueled by the process of either conscious or unconscious insight."
Uh, ok? I guess I missed the memo on sensors being unable to discover new ideas or form new associations. Most definitions of creativity also focus on creating new things, which you conveniently didn't mention - that part sounds more geared towards sensors, doesn't it?

If we were talking about discovering new creative ways to solve differential equations, you'd have my attention. And clearly many creative people are intuitive, and you could make a fairly strong argument that intuitives are overrepresented for their population, especially in certain areas. But seriously, all creative things? Creativity in choosing paint colours, in combining food flavours, in composing music, in writing novels, in the performing arts, in designing clothes, it's all dominated by intuitives, a small minority of the population? That's quite a stretch (and not backed up by the evidence).

I would actually agree that most creative people would probably have a strong intuitive side, but I disagree that they need to be full-blown intuitives, as sensing confers several strong advantages to the creative process. I would also wager that intuitive creative people, especially in more physically creative areas, would have a strong sensing side as well.
 

KDude

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The only big difference I can see with a stronger intuitive type and myself is that they probably conceptualize more. If I get creative, it's more hands-on.. my wheels aren't spinning right off the bat. If I pick up a guitar, I often don't have anything in mind on what I want to do. I just start searching for it. People who've never met me might even think I suck at first. :laugh: Some of my introversion and perfectionism might be holding me back too, but I think it's also because I don't find my place in things until I'm really engaged. The conceptual/intuitive switch I have may turn on later. I think that's somewhat the case for both ISPs. Lenore Thomson touches a little on it, in how they both sort of "think" with their bodies. I'd quote her, but I can't find the book right now.

This goes without mentioning that she goes on about ISTPs doing things like playing their guitars all day...She also touches on the writing style of ESP authors. She's an INTJ, and immersed in theory more than most of us, and even she wouldn't take artistry or creativity away from SPs. On the flipside, she doesn't take away athleticism or physical activity from INJs either, for example. With that mind, I think all of these things aren't exactly type related. Lately I've been trying to figure out where exactly MBTI applies and leaves off... what it's real intent and purpose is, and what is or isn't exclusive to certain types. I don't think it's any of these things though - they're too general.
 
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