How do you perceive your mortality? Is it something you just don't think about? But as you get older isn't it inescapable to think of death and aging? What causes you to think about death and aging?
I'm 21 years old and I don't think at all about the possibility of my dying. The only time I really thought about this way when my dad (who I was very, very close to, closest to him over anyone else in my family) died. And all I really did was think "okay I need to get this shit done before I'm 25" which was simple stuff, like have a skill or job that brought in better money than minimum wage, and be either getting through school or be done with school. I didn't want to end up being one of those people who worked in a grocery store the rest of their life.
All of my grandparents save one of my grandmothers is dead, my dad's friends who I've also gotten close to have been dying due to crazy shit (my dad was an INTP who was a professional drummer for 50 years) and just old age. I've had friends die. I've only really thought about who they were as a person and how they touched the world and what their existence really meant. It has never made me think about my own mortality. My dad's passing made me think about that slightly just because he was such a huge part of my life, and even then I spent more time appreciating the things that he did rather than the idea of dying.
I feel like if I just thought about when I'm going to die then it kind of would defeat the purpose of living. Duh we are all going to die. That's just about as far and as interesting as that train of thought will go for me. When I die, well, that's just going to be it. I'm gonna be dead. Life is about the present for me generally, even though I consider myself pretty smart and I enjoy a lot of different deeper subjects like spirituality, I still live in the present for the most part.
I think that when my body and mind starts becoming incapable will I think about aging, and even then I will probably just automatically adjust to that and continue trying to live my life the best that I can and not think about it. That's what I do. I live and learn, get a good experience to mold how I interact and what I find to be of value and then forget about the negative and all that shit. I never really reference the past (if you'll notice Si is very, very last, even before Te in my preferred functions order). People who reference the past are really grating and annoying to me, and people who talk about the future all the time get on my nerves and I can stand to talk about the future for about 20 seconds unless it's relevant to me and/or the other person. Even then it's generally about something specific and tangible. I guess I feel like I don't have time to think of that stuff. I'm only really up for talking about the future specifically if it can be attained with the resources available right now, so I guess it's apart of the present to me even though it's going to happen at a later date.
As an added note, I really appreciate it when people tell me ways the present could change or be interpreted, I like knowing that I'm on the right track.
It's really challenging for me to understand how an SP might think about these things. I'd imagine an SP just wouldn't really think about their past or even their future much. It'd be like you just are what you are right now. But does that also mean you take for granted that what you were isn't what you are now? Or do you think that you've always pretty much been the same person you are right now?
I generally am who I am now. It feels perfectly natural to me but probably looks confusing to others. My experiences change who I am at the core, they change how I react to and judge situations (Fi); and what I find is of value from situation to situation. My experiences mold how I am empathetic and how well I can read people, I almost feel psychic sometimes because I am quite capable of putting myself in another's shoes and seeing how they are in the present; almost becoming that person in my mind when I reference them.
Fi and Se are really, really confusing to have together. Se being the most objective of all functions and Fi being the most subjective of all of the functions. I absolutely do not take for granted who I was, I try to learn and define what I really want and what really matters.
Apart of me wants to say I've always been the same person, but if I think about it at all I've changed a lot based on my experiences.
That isn't really possible because it seems unavoidable that you'd have new experiences which change your understanding of yourself and life which changes your perspective. Or is it that you are this certain identity or way of thinking and that is your perspective which forms your reality so that one is like a ball fit into a groove always on this same track regardless of the twists or turns?
Bolded seems more related to ESPs, and non bolded seems to be more ISP. ISPs primarily live their life shaping their perspectives through their experiences which feed either Ti or Fi. ESPs do it a bit of the opposite, their experiences are shaped by their perspectives. They tend to attach to a Ti or Fi principal and just go for it, their best way of feeding Ji is to make it happen rather than with ISPs to let it happen on it's own. Remember that the auxillary's information feeds the primary, yet the primary function causes auxillary kinds of information to be taken in in the first place. Oftentimes it's rough keeping a level or even logical mindset as a young SP because Se is so raring for experiences and knowledge in some way. For example (trying to do jungian types rather than socionics, bear with me here if something seems off) I'd say an ESFP just does whatever seems relevant at the time, whatever would feel good and just naturally follow their impulses. Then after that experience it would feed Fi, and they would have some identity and some idea of what they want for their identity/what they think that they are and go for things that seem really relevant in that way. I personally, as an ISFP, ask myself "would doing this maintain my identity and coincide with my values?" and then go for things. It would be really weird if my identity and values happened as a result of shit happening to me without a filter first, which seems to be how it happens with ESFPs. I always filter things first, and then try to expand upon that idea of the value or of my identity by experiencing new things.
All I'm trying to say here is that all, ALL SPs are hugely impacted by their experiences, just how they deal with them and such information is different.
I try to understand as many perspectives as possible and gain new information/insights to help me expand my understanding (and help me better empathize with others) so I'm not who I was yesterday.
I try to do this, I try to think about stuff, but it never works and honestly scatters who I am. I can't define who I am based on ideas. If I thought of some alternate perspective or how it could help me gain information, then I'd try to associate with people like that or put myself in an environment like that to really integrate it. I think that empathizing with others based purely on ideas is a bit strange, and when I try to do this I feel even more isolated from others than I feel generally because I just will not understand unless I have experienced similarly. And similar in these contexts shouldn't be taken literally... experiences can seem similar and not in a literal way, especially for ISPs. Remember that a key part of our thinking is tertiary Ni; it may seem pretty hidden but most ISPs have very strong use of Ni, they just apply it to their own personal lives or they just use it and don't even know or understand how they come to conclusions that they do. That's how we filter out new experiences in a way, Ni sees an alternate perspective (instinctive understanding of different situations based on somewhat similar ones we've been through) that could add to our understanding.
I'm definitely not the person I was a year ago.
How do you respond when you felt certain you understood a situation only to find out later that you didn't? Has this never happened to you? Do you tend to put a lot of trust in what your gut tells you about situations? Do you think how you responded as an eight year old is more or less how you respond now?
Mind gets blown. Ni connects the dots about why I misunderstood and I integrate that into my thinking. I put more trust in my gut than in anything else; except maybe a few certain people, and even then I have to see for myself. I knew less than I do now as an 8 year old, so for sure no to that question.
Do you tend to think that people don't change? Is someone who is convicted of a violent crime always someone capable of committing the same ruthless act of violence and the purpose of prison is to create a punishment that forces them to control their violent tendencies? Or can a person's perspective and how they relate to life on a deeper level be changed to where they no longer have a gut response of violence to the same situation they may have before?
I tend to think that people won't change unless I see a reason to think that they will or have.
I think that if someone is capable of doing something once, they are capable of doing it twice. This has proven true with violence, cheating in relationships, pretty much everything. People aren't self aware enough and rationalize constantly to try to think that people can change, but they seem to really just stay the same in a lot of base ways. I have been with two people who have cheated in relationships, and they both essentially cheated on me. People who I've given chances to to possibly change NEVER do. It's just the realistic thing to do. Unless they genuinely have changed and prove it to me time and time again, I don't think that they will and I think that it's a bit strange to assume that they will based off of... well... nothing it would seem.
It's called a gut response for a reason. And for me personally, the more experiences I get, the more gut responses I get
so that adds an interesting layer to my life. People's behaviors may manifest in different ways, but the base thought will still be there.
I guess these are a lot of questions to answer.
I'm just very curious as an NF how SPs perceive life.
Ask away, I will definitely answer anything you have to ask. I find NFs just as strange, and I live with an ENFJ!