Your Cool Si - Talk About It

[OrangeAppled]

So 'round these parts, Se always gets the rep for being the "sexy function" and Si is painted as an uptight librarian.

But we all know about those uptight librarians!

And Si is undoubtedly much more Romantic than Se.

So what is awesome & intriguing about "your Si"?

Some fun facts about Si users:

- A Si type is more likely to be Willy Wonka, an eccentric wealthy benefactor & collector of exotics, like small orange people from the Amazon. - TRUE
- A Si type is also more likely to be Van Gogh, an eccentric & spiritual painter who lives in meager surroundings & captivates people with his blurry blobby, subjective reality long after he dies unrecognized in poverty. - FACT
- Okay, those two are probably INFP. - PROBABLY
- Which means Si types also have some Ne in there, which takes all of those arbitrarily collected facts & sensations & creates something massively innovative or hilarious with 50 layers of meaning ahead of its time that Se types will copy in 50 years as the trend du jour. And at the very least, the ISTJ will offer a wry & humorous observation which simply & accurately skewers reality or the ISFJ will tell you charming, rose-colored stories of the old days that never really happened - SPECULATION

I tend to experience Si in retrospect… In the moment, everything is kind of dreamy, blobby & atmospheric (VAGUE), and I focus on my impressions of facts over the facts themselves, but later, in reviewing them, they'll strike me more, and highlight something I had never considered before. In thinking of the same fact again at a later time, I continue to see something new about it, and my grasp of what is real about life deepens.

But a few things are striking in the moment when the metaphorical light hits them just so, and then again & again you can think of these things & feel exhilarated, like the sensation funnels down into the toes, and you sort of luxuriate in its nuances & examine its various angles so a new aspect of it can emerge, gleaning every bit of its reality by reprocessing it until it starts to fade out.

Tell me about your cool Si!

 

[lunalum]

Si is quite the kinky librarian..... it really is so much more quirky than people give it credit for. I'm sure INxPs here have some good things to tell but too often pin them all on their Ne. A picture-interpretation exercise would be good for displaying the cool side of Si......

 

[Giggly]

lol wut?

(I have secretly cut my ear off)

I definitely would be Willy Wonka if I were super wealthy. I would collect zany Ne users like there's no tomorrow.

 

[Southern Kross]

I'm going to give this a try, but may accidentally venture into how the Ne-Si cycle feeds into one another, as I can have trouble separating them. This is the way it works for me, anyway:

One of the ways I feel it's presence is through knowledge and understanding of the world. It's not just a bunch of useful facts, it's a convergence of many layers of information and meaning onto each of those facts. Si tells me the world is full of signs and once you collect/absorb/retain them, even unconsciously, you have an endless reference text to consult. Nothing can really be strange, elusive or devoid of meaningful information. You just have to read the signs; let them speak to you, and it's familiar again.

To use an example, I went to a pub quiz (which I regularly go to), last night. In the music section you had to guess the singer based on a picture (with the face covered) and an audio interview with the artist. The answer wasn't immediately apparent but it was just a matter of mining the information we had.

The voice I didn't especially recognise but it sounded like youngish guy. In the photo you could see a little skin, enough to tell he's probably white (or relatively light in skin tone). You could also tell from the quality of the image that it was taken in relatively recent years. All of which is pretty generic information.

But the photo looked like this...


...which immediately made me think of this...

It brought to mind images and impressions of Sinatra, big band music, jazz crooners, fedora hats, the mid 20th century fashion, and a whole list of other bits of information - a sort of Ne free association of Si stored up facts. Putting all these things together starts to form a picture of the person in question.

This line of thinking turned out to spot on, as answer was Michael Buble.

When I mentioned the jacket and tie to my team afterwards, they thought it was bizarre that I would even notice them, let alone make that connection; and I suppose it was. I'm not a particular Sinatra or Big Band fan (although I do enjoy some), and I know next to nothing about fashion history, but some time or another I unconsciously stored up that picture and all the little things associated with it - and all that was enough.

Later, I thought it about this in relation to Si. I really love those little things stored away in my head without me even knowing it. I really love being able to draw on them to help make sense of what is happening now. It like the comfort of knowing I have all the clues I need to solve the puzzles of life, I just have to work out how to put them together correctly. Of course, there is always more to be learned; more information to collect - and the more I do, the overall picture becomes clearer and clearer.

I find that really cool, even if most people would think it lame and nerdy.

 

[21%]

This might have nothing to do with Si, but I witnessed my ISFJ mom's superhuman talent the other day:

There's this weird running joke/nonsense in our family that when we phone home to say we're on the way and someone asks "Where are you right now?", we would choose the most obscure thing we see at that moment to tell them. Last week when I tried this on my mom by reading out the name of a rickety shop (amongst hundreds) that we pass on our way home, she knew exactly where it was.

I know this is probably *not* impressive, but, well, it was something I would never in a million years be able to do

 

[21%]

This might have nothing to do with Si, but I witnessed my ISFJ mom's superhuman talent the other day:

There's this weird running joke/nonsense in our family that when we phone home to say we're on the way and someone asks "Where are you right now?", we would choose the most obscure thing we see at that moment to tell them. Last week when I tried this on my mom by reading out the name of a rickety shop (amongst hundreds) that we pass on our way home, she knew exactly where it was.

I know this is probably *not* impressive, but, well, it was something I would never in a million years be able to do

 

[Cellmold]

Si isn't cool. At least not when it is dominant.

Si is that silent kid that sits in the back and appears mysterious for all of 3 seconds, until he/she opens his/her mouth and comes out with a string of snore-fest descriptions of things they have seen and facts they have heard...all in excruciating detail.

"I did this and went here and he said this and she responded this and then we went there and did this thing and the thingwasgoodandthenwewentsomewhereelseanddidsomethingwithsomepeopleandblahblahsnoresnore....death"

 

[Tabula]

Its coolness doesn't lend itself well to written descriptions. Mostly, I'm amused by strange this-reminds-me-of-that impressions and feelings that I can't exactly explain, but are really cool to experience.

I remember when I was in dance class as a child, one of the songs reminded me of a giant, crimson, smirking tiki face. I "saw it" in my mind's eye whenever it was played. I can't say how or why that's what it made me see, but it was amusing, nonetheless. These sorts of strange associations happen to me all the time.

I get "feelings" a lot, which are sort of cool, I guess. Whenever I go on vacation, it takes me a long time to "feel" like I'm at home. The feel of homeness is physical to me. I don't know how the hell to explain it. But I carry around this foriegn feeling in my gut which takes awhile to go away.

Now that I think of it, none of this is probably very cool to anyone except me.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I think Si also involves itself in a lot of the natural sciences. Like, looking at a leaf, and comparing it to descriptions and pictures in a book to determine what species it comes from. (I'm trying to learn tree identification, now, so this is on my mind). And of course, there's finding the constellations, also. Most of them don't even really look like what they are supposed to, so you're basically trying to find the right pattern of dots, and some of those dots might be hard to see.

I mean, that's Si, right? I suppose most people wouldn't think that type of thing groovy or bodacious, but it is in my book.

 

[Cellmold]

I mean, that's Si, right? I suppose most people wouldn't think that type of thing groovy or bodacious, but it is in my book.

I agree, but ive always wondered what the point of dominant Si is? As a secondary and tertiary it makes sense, even as an inferior it makes sense, but as a dominant?

It just sounds like an extremely bizarre way to perceive information. It also sounds like an incredibly miserable life as well as it appears as a very melancholic function....always wishing it were back at some other point, as the future becomes more grey and dull with each passing moment.....

Bearing in mind I am possibly Si dominant myself.

 

[greenfairy]

I'm not sure if I'm an Si user, but here is what makes sense to me as fitting the description:

good sense of my internal state
good muscle memory, able to "learn" things by watching others and feeling how it would be to do it
physical sense for energy, including a sense for how old objects and buildings are
unconsciously routinize things- it's hard to get into habits and hard to get out of them
little memory for facts unless they stand out somehow or are triggered by something
everything I see reminds me of things I associate with that kind of thing (Si-Ne?)
good navigation skills, both visual and kinesthetic
Edit: Another thing: I have a lot of what I feel like are past life memories, and I can sometimes sense other people's.

These things could be Se, and I'm an INFJ; either way I'm very curious.

 

[OrangeAppled]

Its coolness doesn't lend itself well to written descriptions. Mostly, I'm amused by strange this-reminds-me-of-that impressions and feelings that I can't exactly explain, but are really cool to experience.

I remember when I was in dance class as a child, one of the songs reminded me of a giant, crimson, smirking tiki face. I "saw it" in my mind's eye whenever it was played. I can't say how or why that's what it made me see, but it was amusing, nonetheless. These sorts of strange associations happen to me all the time.

I get "feelings" a lot, which are sort of cool, I guess. Whenever I go on vacation, it takes me a long time to "feel" like I'm at home. The feel of homeness is physical to me. I don't know how the hell to explain it. But I carry around this foriegn feeling in my gut which takes awhile to go away.

Now that I think of it, none of this is probably very cool to anyone except me.

This is the kind of random stuff that can blur lines for me with Ne & Si also. I'll have some random, visual associations with things, or a visual image associated with a feeling that I find very interesting. I think connecting concrete symbols to impressions is very Si.

I've read Si types are more inclined to find a random mental image "morbid", but I imagine sometimes it's simply amusing too.

A difference I sometimes find between me & an actual Si-dom is they can be a bit uncomfortable with the foreign feeling. I guess they will want to sort of attack it, so as to subjugate it to their inner world (find a way to relate it to something known?). I think that's where associations with acquiring and reviewing facts/concrete experience comes in. I know a lot of Si types who like to look stuff up before going somewhere or doing something new. They like to know what to expect I guess (?).

With Ne, you're drawn to & fascinated by novelty because it oozes potential, and lack of a foreign feeling can make you restless, as familiarity feels like a cage. Sometimes though, when something is very, very physical & new, I can get overwhelmed in not knowing how to navigate it. I may rather like the idea of something over its reality because of that, as the reality can turn out to not have potential but just require a kind of physical adaptation that demands too much energy from me. I literally like to go new places, but not be the one to navigate.

In some ways, I see Si types as adapting better there because they DO have a more solid grasp of what is predictable in a tangible way, so even new landscapes can have enough predictability for them to get footing quickly.

they prefer to stick to the familiar, and find it difficult to adopt anything new. This is connected with their need to see things in a clear setting. If they can bring themselves to accept anything new, they tend to occupy themselves with it until it has become absolutely clear to them. Here is revealed the obstinacy of instinct, with its ever-renewed attack until it has learned to control its object.

I agree, but ive always wondered what the point of dominant Si is? As a secondary and tertiary it makes sense, even as an inferior it makes sense, but as a dominant?

It just sounds like an extremely bizarre way to perceive information. It also sounds like an incredibly miserable life as well as it appears as a very melancholic function....always wishing it were back at some other point, as the future becomes more grey and dull with each passing moment.....

Bearing in mind I am possibly Si dominant myself.

And yet you often sound like a Ne-dom to me, incuding this massive aversion to Si

Since in most cases there is little external evidence of this inner satisfaction, the lives of these people may sometimes appear to others as anything but happy, arousing compassion, for which there is no real reason.

Your impression is not uncommon though, which is why I made this thread. I too have a bias against Si, but sometimes I realize my own Si and see how very bizarre & romantic it is & think "Damn it, this is COOL" (see [MENTION=5871]Southern Kross[/MENTION] 's post - I often cannot trace connections though).

There's an arbitrary consistency to a Si-dom that is absolute bizarre to me also (this is Si that I do not relate to). I knew this ISTJ once who wore a plain white shirt & jeans every single day for a year. He had many pairs which were nearly identical. Why did he do this? He just wanted to. He could offer no rational explanation for what compelled him to repeat himself day-in and day-out. It certainly is bland on one hand, but also WEIRD. Most people are not that consistent, especially for no reason. Most people take some comfort in ritual, but it's like this preoccupies the Si type.

 

[Tabula]

This is the kind of random stuff that can blur lines for me with Ne & Si also. I'll have some random, visual associations with things, or a visual image associated with a feeling that I find very interesting. I think connecting concrete symbols to impressions is very Si.

What do you think would be the Ne equivalent or the Ne>Si take, if connecting concrete symbols to impressions is Si? Abstract symbols? I have trouble understanding the N function.

I've read Si types are more inclined to find a random mental image "morbid", but I imagine sometimes it's simply amusing too.

Hmm. I suppose, for me, it depends on the nature of the mental image. Though, it might just be that way for me because I'm a really visual thinker. I'd be interested to know what other SJs think of that.

A difference I sometimes find between me & an actual Si-dom is they can be a bit uncomfortable with the foreign feeling. I guess they will want to sort of attack it, so as to subjugate it to their inner world (find a way to relate it to something known?).

The feeling itself isn't the uncomfortable part, for me. What bothers me most about it is that it takes awhile for it to abate, so my feelings aren't matching up the way they should, to my mind (i.e., "I'm home, so why do I still feel like I'm not?") It's like I have to steep in my surroundings for a bit before those internal feelings are finally affected in a way that makes sense to me again; the lag is where the uncomfortability is, for me. There is still an element of connecting it to something known, though; if not for my little cache of sense impressions, I wouldn't even know what "homeness" and "foreignness" felt like.

I think that's where associations with acquiring and reviewing facts/concrete experience comes in. I know a lot of Si types who like to look stuff up before going somewhere or doing something new. They like to know what to expect I guess (?).

Absolutely.

It's more that I need to have an idea of what's expected OF ME in that new situation. [Fe?] Maybe that's the same thing? I dunno. I'm a little hesitant about this one, though, because I know that a lot of my "figuring it out beforehand" is related to having social anxiety disorder. I don't want to embarrass myself by looking foolish in this new situation, so I make DAMN sure I know what I'm getting into, so as to blend in as much as possible. I've found that as I've been getting better, more secure, more confident, I need to know less and less about the new situation. That said, I'm not sure I'm the best one to comment (even though I did ).

With Ne, you're drawn to & fascinated by novelty because it oozes potential, and lack of a foreign feeling can make you restless, as familiarity feels like a cage.

I think we mean different things by "foreign feelings." I should've said "feeling of foreignness." But anyways.

Sometimes though, when something is very, very physical & new, I can get overwhelmed in not knowing how to navigate it. I may rather like the idea of something over its reality because of that, as the reality can turn out to not have potential but just require a kind of physical adaptation that demands too much energy from me. I literally like to go new places, but not be the one to navigate. In some ways, I see Si types as adapting better there because they DO have a more solid grasp of what is predictable in a tangible way, so even new landscapes can have enough predictability for them to get footing quickly.

I think we have this in common. It'd seem to be something Se-ers would have the best/easiest/most natural handle on, I think.

 

[OrangeAppled]

What do you think would be the Ne equivalent or the Ne>Si take, if connecting concrete symbols to impressions is Si? Abstract symbols? I have trouble understanding the N function.

Jung very simply put it as "sensing is seeing what is & intuition is seeing where it's going". Ne is not about abstract symbols so much as Ni is. Ne is a perception of what something external (yet still often intangible) could become. It's seeing potential for things to morph, in which case, a symbol becomes irrelevant because it's too static. The unconscious projects "ideas" onto things, which make them seem "alive" or in a fluid state. The disregarding of common symbols in a culture by using them differently or not at all can look disrespectful; Ne types get accused of such things a lot. Se types do this too; things have no meaning beyond their current context (an extreme Se view). I guess Ni focuses on symbols from the subconscious more than internalizing concrete objects & experiences.

 

[The Iron Giant]

Every damn stupid thing, regardless of its apparent insignificance or sometimes because of it, can without warning rise into a mythical splendid thing that is both completely removed from reality and so deeply derivative of it as to be utterly relevant. My special someone picked a flower for me on her way home and showed it to me on camera in late 2011, and just earlier today I was gazing at the photo of her holding it with such deep appreciation for everything she and that flower mean to me. If the flower still existed, I would have it here and keep it always. All she did was pick a flower for me on the way home.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

^That sounds like connecting concrete symbols to impressions.

So saying stuff like "it smells like the beach" when someone is wearing sunscreen, is Si, I guess. Or maybe that's too general to really apply. I dunno.

 

[OrangeAppled]

^ Agree. I like [MENTION=15167]Stephen[/MENTION] 's description though. It's more like what a process feels like as opposed to a dry, scientific definition.
I again get the sense of gleaning as much from a sensory impression as possible by "reliving" it through concrete symbols. Breadth (Se) vs depth (Si) stuff.

 

[skylights]

Every damn stupid thing, regardless of its apparent insignificance or sometimes because of it, can without warning rise into a mythical splendid thing that is both completely removed from reality and so deeply derivative of it as to be utterly relevant. My special someone picked a flower for me on her way home and showed it to me on camera in late 2011, and just earlier today I was gazing at the photo of her holding it with such deep appreciation for everything she and that flower mean to me. If the flower still existed, I would have it here and keep it always. All she did was pick a flower for me on the way home.

^That sounds like connecting concrete symbols to impressions.

So saying stuff like "it smells like the beach" when someone is wearing sunscreen, is Si, I guess. Or maybe that's too general to really apply. I dunno.

As far as I understand - Si leaning on a Ne foundation. (Just as dominant Ne leans on a Si foundation.) Si deeply knows what "sunscreen" smells like, and deeply knows what "the beach" smells like. Ne provides the background link.

I agree, but ive always wondered what the point of dominant Si is? As a secondary and tertiary it makes sense, even as an inferior it makes sense, but as a dominant?

It just sounds like an extremely bizarre way to perceive information. It also sounds like an incredibly miserable life as well as it appears as a very melancholic function....always wishing it were back at some other point, as the future becomes more grey and dull with each passing moment.....

Bearing in mind I am possibly Si dominant myself.

With the caveat that this mostly comes from observing my ISFJ significant other - I have often read that Si is intimately linked to the past, which I understand because static entities necessarily exist across through the past-to-present timeframe (unlike Se processes which change through time), and that automatically anchors Si in the past, but Si as a dominant function seems to operate very much in the present. My ISFJ's Si databank (as fixed on a Ne matrix) grows and deepens daily, and is far more up-to-date than my own databank. He is a keen observer of people, places, institutions, organizations, and other static entities. He's quick to know of a new entity, he's quick to know when it changes, and he's quick to know when it is no longer. I don't think there is necessarily always a wishing for the past, though there seems to be a keen awareness of what was better in the past. There also seems to be plenty of room for future anticipation, though future visualizations are generally built with blocks of past experience. Si doms don't seem to be as impacted by the melancholy idealism that NFs are sometimes lost in and seem more ready to work with whatever is at hand, trusting that the past isn't a lost utopia but a re-creatable and improvable reality.

 

[Fluffywolf]

A wild and free spirit in a vast world full of sheep and cattle.
I am the wolf in sheep's clothing.

If the world is a playground. I am the curious fella observing from the bushes. That's not creepy at all...

 

[Southern Kross]

With the caveat that this mostly comes from observing my ISFJ significant other - I have often read that Si is intimately linked to the past, which I understand because static entities necessarily exist across through the past-to-present timeframe (unlike Se processes which change through time), and that automatically anchors Si in the past, but Si as a dominant function seems to operate very much in the present.

Thanks for this - I like the clarity this comparison brings.

It makes the cogs turn in my brain (in regard to the functions).

[/Ne flight of fancy]

My ISFJ's Si databank (as fixed on a Ne matrix) grows and deepens daily, and is far more up-to-date than my own databank. He is a keen observer of people, places, institutions, organizations, and other static entities. He's quick to know of a new entity, he's quick to know when it changes, and he's quick to know when it is no longer. I don't think there is necessarily always a wishing for the past, though there seems to be a keen awareness of what was better in the past. There also seems to be plenty of room for future anticipation, though future visualizations are generally built with blocks of past experience.

Yes, that connection from the past experience and expectations to what actually eventuates, is strong in Si doms. My ISFJ mum often speaks about this sort of thing. She talks about how strongly she felt about the women's lib movement in the 60s and 70s, and how the way contemporary young women have turned out has undone all that (in her opinion). She's not romanticising the past, because the way it was before was worse; she's romanticising the hope she had for the future back then, so to speak, and lamenting how people seem to have turned their backs on it.

Si doms don't seem to be as impacted by the melancholy idealism that NFs are sometimes lost in and seem more ready to work with whatever is at hand, trusting that the past isn't a lost utopia but a re-creatable and improvable reality.

Interesting claim. It may be true in part but it's not entirely so for my Mum. She's quite a sceptic and is prone to pessimism (BTW she's probably a 6w5 Sp). Granted, it's an unwilling pessimism; she hates that it brings her down and would prefer things to be otherwise. It's not like my sort of exploration of the dark and depressing aspects of life. I face it more openly, with more curious interest, and perhaps take a sort of perverse pleasure in wallowing in it. My mum really dislikes depressing movies, for example. The way she talks afterwards watching one (because inevitably, I've been the one that forced it upon her ) it's like it disrupted her happy reality and made her think of unpleasant issues that can't be solved. Perhaps it's that drawing attention to negative things breaks her established trust in a better future or her faith in people. Or maybe it's a Judger's dislike of open-endedness, which in many ways, is what unhappy endings are.