Alright, let's have a go. I can't explain any of this without tying in perceiving. Don't worry; it's equal-opportunity Se and Ne.
Ti kicks in as follows: You have a collection of mental models of objects, things, ideas, and phenomena all around you. Those models could be very fuzzy or very rigid. You could could be of a mechanical pencil, the 'rules' behind some ideology, the
stock market, the process of decision making, and so on. You could have an overarching model that covers a bunch of things, such as the physiological process of using that mechanical pencil to jot down ideas. (And, if depending on how far you want to take the whole thing, you have a particular understanding of how one's ideas in their head can be transformed into something that can be written or drawn on a two-dimensional plane.) Even a few layers above that, you might have one that represents your understanding of the impact of literacy itself on societal interaction. Or something.
Say, then, you also see, hear, intuit, or otherwise perceive
something. Anything. Some piece of information. You might see a black swan for the very first time. You could get pulled over and given a speeding ticket, observing the process of pullover-to-ticket as you go through it.* You might intuit parallels between some of your mental models: a stereotypical kangaroo, a spring-loaded BB gun, and a very general depiction sinusoidal-esque wave generated by anything.
* About a year ago, I'd gotten my first speeding ticket, ever. It didn't teach me much about the dangers of speeding and potentially getting into trouble as it'd likely do for many people. No, it told me what my odds are of getting pulled over given my current driving habits. Getting one ticket in a decade and a half of speeding is pretty low odds. Accordingly, I didn't change my driving behavior at all. I'm still waiting on a second ticket. Maybe I'll have to wait another 15 years.. ?
With Ti in the aux position, you might hold that information aside for a little bit. You might think about how to incorporate this new information -- whether in building up your understanding of a chapter in a book, reading a person, or even in experiencing complete cognitive dissonance when running headfirst into a wealth of information that's diametrically opposed to something that you know. That last one requires a bit of reconciliation. Lots of thought. Jamming your perspective and that outside perspective into some 'third alternative' that incorporates both.
Then you jam it all into your mental models, and the process of doing so changes them up so that your understanding is more in line with what you observe. Parts of your models get chopped off, some new parts might get tacked on, some fuzziness can become more rigid or vice versa. You take a slab of marble and carve into it and chip away at it rigorously over time. As you refine your understanding, your slab begins to look more and more like a realistic naked guy. You can then hand your
David off to a Florence museum or something.
In the dom position.. seems like it'd be very similar, but you'd absorb information
using your models as a lens, at least in part, rather than soaking it all in more directly. You're more discerning.
Of course, everyone does both of these, etc. etc., and Ti in either one of those positions needs balance from the other, etc. etc. Right. Got it. People-watching without even bothering to grab chisel does you no good at all; nor does shutting yourself in your basement with a crude piece of slab that does a piss-poor job of representing an actual naked guy.
And that, my friends, is my current understanding of Ti. I'll be taking in new information via this thread, and then I'll refine it accordingly.
