NFs and Romanticized views of their intellingce...

[Babylon Candle]

1. It might make sense that NTs would base their worth on intelligence more than NFs... but at a second glance I have noticed there might be a fundamental difference: NTs maybe find worth in their value of intelligence, as it is, period. NFs maybe find worth in a romanticized view of their intelligence.

2. I will cite myself as an example. extroverted intuition has given me a mind that NEVER TURNS OFF! Because of this, I often confuse the depth and length of analysis as intelligence. Second, I have a profound interest in ideas and people who postulate interesting ideas. I once again, confuse interests in these areas, with actually having the intelligence required to excel in those areas. Thirdly, I am a good mimic and enjoy trying to mimic those are the great idea people. Fourthly, I'm extremely competitive. I refuse to ever doubt the ability of my Ne...which can get me into trouble. Fifthly, I have learned over the years that I do best in school when I go into Te mode; I literally have a split personality when it comes to me in class versus me not doing those things. Yes, MANY people claim this dichotomy of work/play personalities. However, I feel that my contrast is much much stronger than normal. The point is, this highlights my affinity for mimicking and gaining too much confidence in my Te abilities (which I associate with being smart...so it drives me to mimic Te even more)...

3. Beyond the deceptions I have mentioned in point 2, many NF stereotypical activities do require some form of skill and abstract thinking. Writing good poetry, fiction, and exercising tact in human relations all require a degree of skill. NTs can obviously be good at these things as well. however, for the sake of conversation I am working with the archetypal view of NT intelligence being more quantitative. The fundamental difference I see here then, is that most of these NF intelligences are not quantitative. This leaves a lot of wiggle room for believed intelligence to extrapolate its perceived weight into fields that it may not actually excel in.

4. I often experience the dangers of being an NF who feels smarter than they actually are based on incorrectly extrapolating intelligence in verbal and arts to areas that my intelligence really does not excel at.

5. I am curious if anyone else ever experiences this romanticized view of their intelligence? I wonder if its a NF thing or even just a N thing?







edit: my inspiration for this post was how my sister challenged me to beat her score on an IQ test... I couldn't really figure out why I would get so bothered about a score (I beat her but I still was very upset about my score)...then I realized that I must be romanticizing my intelligence to something far above what my actual IQ is.

[heart]

I know, admit and grieve my limitations.

[ajblaise]

Have you made an effort to be more succinct in your analysis, conversation, debate....?

I think being overly verbose might not be due to your romanticized view of intelligence, but by the fact that people who aren't able to intellectually express themselves efficiently will compensate with bloviating.

[Cypocalypse]

If we view the cognitive process as measures of intelligence, then that alone would already give us 8 perspectives of looking at it. Si, Se, Ni, Ne, Ti, Te, Fi, and Fe.

School, most of the time, only emphasizes Si and Te.

Now, are they more important forms of intellegince than the others? I don't think so, but they're pretty much the archetypal way of looking at intelligence.

[Mondo]

I can relate to this.
Simply for the reason that intelligence is one of my only positive qualities.
Without it, I'm not anything else.

[Mitzy]

idk..depends on your definition of what 'intelligent' means to you...

[placebo]

Originally Posted by Mondo

I can relate to this.
Simply for the reason that intelligence is one of my only positive qualities.
Without it, I'm not anything else.

Something like this.

You grow up being told you're 'smart' as if you have nothing else to offer, and that's kind of what you grasp on to in the end.

[nolla]

At the moment I think intelligence is fine, but nothing special. I don't value it as it is. I like what you are saying, though. But, to me the "wiggle room" seems more like intelligence combined with creativity. And this is something I appreciate a lot more than intelligence alone. Even if it means that the creative person is less intelligent than the pure intelligent person.

[ajblaise]

Originally Posted by nolla

Even if it means that the creative person is less intelligent than the pure intelligent person.

I've read that the most creative people tend to have IQs around 110.

[Cypocalypse]

More like someone who has a jacked up Ne, in my opinion.