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I've Figured it Out: Distinguishing Someone as S or N

The Ü™

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Well essentially yes but I was more pointing to the inability to divide the word plasticrete into two words plastic and concrete and then get her to accept that it's just a combination of the two. For some reason this did not sink in.

I wonder if Ss tend to enjoy science fiction which either is based in the past or has explained technology where as Ns would enjoy the concepts developed in these stories which are new to them?

When you really think about it, though, plastic concrete doesn't really make much sense...

In a way that could be an N function, particularly Ni, because Ni tries to make sense of everything in their focus (i.e. they question "What's the point?"), never taking it at face value.
 

Natrushka

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Hmm. I feel dumb asking this, but what exactly is daydreaming? Is it imagining that unicorns are prancing across meadows, ie thinking about random hypothetical situations, or just musing over solutions to real-life problems? The latter I do often, you'll often find me oblivious to the world while trying to debate internally what I should do about some situation. The former, almost never, and briefly then.
For me it's putting myself in situations that are an escape - a fantasy. I can keep a 'story' going for months, adding characters, taking trips, living a daily life (one that isn't the one I live now).
 

curmudgeon

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When I daydream, I often work through events and scenarios that I envision happening in the future.

I used to love taking very long solitary car rides without listening to music, spending hours inside my head. I was always amazed at how fast time passed.
 

indigo2020

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So my ISFJ mom and I were talking; she mentioned how someone had commented to her that my little bro (INFP) was sitting alone in the field at his school; should they be worried? She replied, "no"... anyway she was relating the story to me, my response was, "of course not, he's just daydreaming".

She looked at me blankly, and said, "no. i've done stuff like that too. Sometimes I just like to sit and listen to teh birds and look at the beautiful grass and enjoy the nice clouds..."

And I was like, "No. He was daydreaming".

And she responded, "No. You're brother's a deep thinker" We bickered; I knew I was right.
I asked her how often she daydreamed. She replied "never". She asked me, I said "several times a day, often for long periods".
---

When I told my bro about this later, he laughed until he realized I was serious when she thought he never daydreamed. His response? "What does she think deep thinkers do?!"

Anyway.

So we asked my ESFJ sister; she daydreams "maybe once a month". My bro talked to three of his friends; two thought he was crazy for "having conversations in his head" and one could totally relate.


I think we've stumbled on the jackpot, guys. Just ask someone if they daydream, and if so, how often. There yah go. That's the divider!

(Although a very balanced S/N might not give a definitive answer, I suppose.)
yea, I must say I think this is a deciding factor. I was talking with my roomate who is an ISTP and I was telling her about how I was "daydreaming" for about 30 minutes while driving a few weeks ago. She was like, "what, you thought of all that?" and I said, "yea, don't you do that? I mean what do you think about when you are driving?" She said she does not day dream at all! She said she is thinking about what is going on right in front of her always - looking at the mountains, the sky, the clouds, the other cars, making sure she is not too close to the other cars and maybe she thinks about what is happening later that day."

I think about what I want to do in the next five years and then 30 minutes go by before I go, oh, wow, the mountains look really pretty. then I go back to daydreaming again.
 

curmudgeon

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Driving can be weird while daydreaming. Sometimes I will arrive at my destination and have no memory of the trip. It's like I wasn't even there.
 

indigo2020

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Theory: It has more to do with being I--P (dominant Fi and Ti) than with being N/S.

Any ISxPs want to knock me out of the water?

(Inward processing is nearly the definition of daydreaming, is it not?)
I have Ni and Fe as my dominant and second functions and I daydream a lot!

Ti is my third function and I did read that we develop our functions in a certain order. Since I am at the age where I would have developed my third function maybe this is why. I do tend to think deeply and daydream for much longer periods of time than I did when I was a teenager or in my twenties. Still working on Se.

From age 7 to 12 we develop we develop our first function, age 12 to 20 our second function, age 20 to 35 our third function and age 35 on we develop our fourth function.

Anyway, I think your idea that daydreaming has to do with I...P only is incorrect. I do think that intuitive types and expecially introverted intuititive tend to daydream far more than sensors or probably any extroverts. IMO.
 

Dansker

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I daydream a lot.

And it pisses me off when people touch my computer screen.
 

Res Ipsa Loquitur

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Driving can be weird while daydreaming. Sometimes I will arrive at my destination and have no memory of the trip. It's like I wasn't even there.

I often daydream while driving as well, especially if I am driving along a familiar route or there is very little traffic. It's like I'm on autopilot.

It's the same thing when I'm walking my dog - we just start out walking and I let my mind wander. The next thing I know, we're back where we started.
 

ptgatsby

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Anyway, I think your idea that daydreaming has to do with I...P only is incorrect. I do think that intuitive types and expecially introverted intuititive tend to daydream far more than sensors or probably any extroverts. IMO.

Well, fair enough. I was mostly thinking it out in theory. From what I can tell, the daydreaming amount is pretty close across the board, except maybe the I/E divide. I wasn't claiming anything specific... I have no real reason to believe the N/S or the I/E or the J/P or the functional order have anything to do with it :D

(I do have a little bit of reason to believe that FFM I/E has something to do with it, along with the FFM J/P equivalent, which is the only reason I would say anything at all. But besides being weakly correlated, the research is based upon attention span and reaction times more than daydreaming exactly.)
 

The Ü™

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Driving can be weird while daydreaming. Sometimes I will arrive at my destination and have no memory of the trip. It's like I wasn't even there.

My grandma thinks that's really dangerous.
 

Wolf

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My grandma thinks that's really dangerous.
I did this for about 1200 miles one night a few years ago. I popped back to reality for all four deer, two pedestrians, and canyon traffic. When I was "here" at some points it was more like a video game in my mind. I do long distance drives pretty easily... That one I averaged something like 105 MPH, if I recall correctly.
 

The Ü™

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Yeah, I know what you mean. I zone out and my body is put on auto pilot...though I don't currently drive.

I just said "My grandma thinks that's really dangerous" because that's what grandmothers and old people think, in general.

Though, ironically, it is the old people that are more more dangerous behind the wheel.
 

Usehername

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What about intuitive types that don't read fiction at all? I consider fiction to be boring because it's a waste of time I could be spent learning something. I would say though if I did read fiction it would have to be something relationship-oriented dealing with struggles within the human nature/condition.

I totally can relate. While I enjoy fiction, I can't bring myself to buy a fiction book unless it's by a personal fave author or something. Nonfiction just means so many more foundations to spring forth new ideas and worlds from!
 

Xander

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When you really think about it, though, plastic concrete doesn't really make much sense...

In a way that could be an N function, particularly Ni, because Ni tries to make sense of everything in their focus (i.e. they question "What's the point?"), never taking it at face value.
The point is that I assumed that it's some kind of polymer that, although it is plastic, is as hard as concrete and hence has some of the properties on concrete and some of the properties of plastic.
 

FFF

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For a while, I didn't do much daydreaming (not counting sexual stuff), but was more into pondering ideas and theories and such like you'd expect for an INTP. Recently, I've been doing more daydreaming though.
 

LadyInWaiting

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girlnamedBLESS, what do you daydream about?

I have to admit, I don't buy this notion that Ss don't daydream. Some of them don't, but I think some of them do. I think SFJs probably daydream quite a bit about relationships and interactions. But if you ask an S if they daydream, they might have a negative association with it. So if a mother insists that her son NEVER daydreams, it's more likely she has a negative association with the word. Because why would someone be so sure about something like that? It's like when extroverts constantly tell me that I am really not an introvert, I know that they don't understand the word. It's always EPs who say this.

As far as reading goes, I go through phases. Long periods of time when I'll read only non-fiction (mostly sociology, psychology, self-help, personality typology, opinion books like political books), and then long phases where I'll read only fiction (mostly fantasy, action thriller mysteries, and humorous looks at humanity). It's usually either one or the other, and I'm very discriminating about what I'll read.

My brother has ESFJ preferences. He has great difficulty reading, he says he is too easily distracted. I think he may read one fiction book every few years. Mostly he acquires non-fiction books and takes a long time to read them. But the kind of non-fiction he reads is different from mine. Very practical and concrete, books like "Mastering Stock Options", "How To Win Friends and Influence People" and "Optimal Marketing". Also religious books. He takes all of these books seriously though, underlining and studying them. That's why it takes him so long to finish books and why he feels like he is easily distracted. He doesn't want to fantasize while reading as I like to, he wants to understand and apply exactly what he's reading.

He also doesn't watch TV with the exception of "ER" and "Heroes", and it takes him a while to watch those off DVR. He spends more time cleaning and running errands than anything recreational, something I can't fathom. Work before Play? I say never! But my brother is constantly going to movies and renting movies. He doesn't do TV or books, but he loves movies.
 

The Ü™

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I agree. I think everyone including Sensors daydream. Sensors are just probably less willing to admit it because they don't think it's something positive.
 

girlnamedbless

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girlnamedBLESS, what do you daydream about?

I daydream about corny stuff (falling in love). A lot of the times I daydream about weird stuff, like having the power to be invisible. Other times, I imagine what it would be like to live with no pain or suffering. Sometimes I wonder how certain things exist, such as the concept of "forever". So it definitely varies.
 

substitute

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I actually wish I was more able to simply sit and take in the beauty of the world for more than just a passing moment, to just look and appreciate without my mind automatically going off on it's own...and I just can't. But I wish I could and I'm trying to be more mindful of my surroundings, to pay more attention (it actually is something I'm working on).

That aside, I also have an ISFJ mom and I know when I've told her I spend a lot of time in my head, she doesn't quite get what I mean, at least not the extent of it.

I relate to this. I've also been really working hard on 'becoming one' with my surroundings and engaging with the physical world (Se?), and also on actually remembering things, dwelling on things that've already happened and recalling the details to my mind (Si?). It seems that I'm immune to nostalgia, like the chip was never installed in me or something. I realised how extremely crap I was at this when I was away for a week without the kids, and at some point realised that six days had passed before I even recalled that I had any kids, and when I tried to think about them, I just couldn't recall their faces clearly in my mind. Also, when I went with my sister back to the house we lived in as kids, and she was pointing to things and laughing and exclaiming about how she remembers so clearly we used to play here, used to do this there, how that happened right over there, reliving the details and stuff - and I was just like, "Meh."

I struggle to convince myself that I care about my kids and other people because of how easily I forget them when I'm away for just a few days. Makes me feel quite guilty... but I can't seem to help it - my mind just pulls me out of the past all the time and wants to fire all cylinders on conjecturing and playing with possible futures, based on what I'm currently perceiving.

My mom is ESFJ, and I remember her saying to me when I was about 13, "You often see things that I wouldn't think to see, you make connections between things that other people wouldn't notice, but once you say it, it seems silly that we didn't see it before."

I also remember her saying to me one day when we were on a long journey and she was driving, that she'd started reading 'spiritual' books (not serious philosophy or theology, just that populist stuff like von Danniken etc). She's always been an avid reader, but it was romance novels and generally that kind of thing. She started telling me about how amazing it was, how I just had to read these books, saying they were the most amazing thing ever because they actually kept her awake at night because her brain was buzzing too much to get to sleep. I rolled my eyes and thought, ha, at 52 years my mom's just discovered what my life's been like since I was 3!
 
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