[NT] Adapting to Situations

[ThinkingAboutIt]

Needs parameters as there are too many potential areas to apply this. In most things I am flexible/adaptable, and far more so than those I know or work with. If a situation arises in work (i.e. deadline gets changed/moved up, etc), no problem, will just shift gear. If I chose to move, it would be seen as an opportunity to learn and explore but I'll be moving light and donating a lot to charity. Supposed to meet someone at 6 and they they switch it to 7 or the next day/whatever, no problem. I could become inflexible if someone were taking away something I love or enjoy. Really just depends on what it is, who's asking/telling, and whether I see benefit in it, etc.

 

[pippi]

I'm not sure how this applies to adaptability but Ni doesn't need an anchor, it is the most fluid of all the functions, there is nothing solid or tangible about it. So I would expect Ni users to naturally adapt or shift their perspective. Obviously others can be flexible to change as well, but they use different functions and their approach is different. Keeping all your possibilities open (something P's do) and instantly accepting change aren't exactly the same thing.

 

[Verfremdungseffekt]

I noticed something recently about myself, I'm incredibly adaptable. For example, I moved recently and didn't miss a beat.

You think that's something; yesterday I got up and took a walk.

Yeah, I know!

 

[VinceBaker]

Keeping all your possibilities open (something P's do) and instantly accepting change aren't exactly the same thing.

Hmm... Never thought of it that way. I need to update my vocabulary.

Anyway, the move is over now, I'm stuck home with the family for the summer. Not too fun. I love them and all, but they irritate me all the same.

I guess it'll all be over soon, next summer I get to go to Ireland, then work my way to Italy. After that I guess it's college, then its just downhill from there.

 

[juggernaut]

I don't mind change, but as I get older it gets trickier to figure out how to fit certain routines into new situations. I know myself extremely well by now so adapting generally means finding what I need to be comfortable in a new environment. Once I do that, I'm golden.

 

[BlahBlahNounBlah]

I love change.

 

[Verfremdungseffekt]

It's useful when I don't want to draw any more out of the bank.

I can't very well take a walk every day, can I?

 

[Wolf]

I never knew other INTJs were like this. I find that I only stay somewhere for practicality, efficiency, and economic reasons (ex: I don't want to change jobs during a downturn), but I could adapt to very nearly any environment effortlessly. My coworkers were really bothered for their entire 17 days in a very foreign country, but I was fine. I am like liquid water - very adaptable and accepting.

My uncle, a prime example of an INTP, cannot let go of his childhood home that he moved back into after his parents died...well over 5 years ago. This is probably related to book and game collecting, which he also does. I've noticed that they seem to handle change in their physical environment very poorly based on the ones I know and have known...

For contrast, I'm an INTJ, and while I'm somewhat picky (in a gut reaction way) about my environment, I have almost no connection to it. I derive enjoyment from it, adapt to it, and discard it effortlessly. If I move very far, I just sell the stuff I have and buy new stuff, since the physical items themselves have little-to-no personal significance to me...

I talked with my uncle last weekend about international travel and realized that he had incredible trouble with it in comparison. He was envious of my adaptability. Maybe we're the ultimate chameleons; they are good chameleons in their home environment, while we're chameleons in different environments. I'm regularly mistaken for a local in other states and even in different countries...

My guess is that it's an Se/Si thing.

 

[Verfremdungseffekt]

The following is also the case for other INTPs I have known well.

Everything in my environment is sort of an extension of my neural net. It's like I can't contain all my thoughts within my head, and so I use the world around me as an enormous sub-verbal notepad or buffer. If I put down a can on a desk, it's in some weird and undefinable way a metaphor for some thought -- a sort of physical node. And although it quickly will become invisible to me, absorbed into the forest of my thought -- which through the aforementioned process encompasses all my surroundings -- if that can is moved, some part of me will flip out and short circuit, as if a thought had been erased. Even if I don't specifically know what's changed. I will be rattled until I figure out what's wrong, and why.

It's very very difficult to up and transport this mass of tentacles, once they've grown out. Inevitably many will get torn loose, leaving scars. Once I land somewhere, it then takes a long time for a new set to grow and anchor me and settle me and allow me to think properly again.

 

[Blank]

I would say that if I find something to be really important to me, I'll want to hang onto it for as long as possible...or at least until Ti beats my sentimentality into a bloody pulp and forces me to discard stuff for economical purposes.

 

[sunset5678]

Lol...not me. There are lots of things I can adapt to, but if my instincts tell
me a situation isn't working, it nags and nags at my gut until i take matters
into my own hands and do something to change it. Sometimes when I get an
idea that I think will work I actually catch myself doing things without realizing
it like having a few light snacks but only actually eating one full meal in twenty four hours or a little more or I catch myself thinking of what a fictional
character from a book would have done that was good at thinking and followi-
ng things through for some inspiration while I go on realism in the 'outer world'
and I think about challenging things I have been doing for something else to
put that mental energy into then i talk to a friend about something unrelated
or go on a walk and when my head's had a chance to clear, something clicks,
I figure out how to go about doing it.

 

[yenom]

I noticed something recently about myself, I'm incredibly adaptable. For example, I moved recently and didn't miss a beat. I packed up, moved, and unpacked in one day, hardly changed anything, beside a dramatic change in scenery and set-up.

It happens on a day-to-day basis too. If a friend goes through a dramatic change of any sort (hair cut, change in attitude, plastic surgery) I accept it and move on in minutes.

Is this normal among NTs? I did test INTP once or twice a few months ago, so it might have to do with the P over J. It's just from what I've read, NTs tend to be less adept at this than the other types, but I could be wrong.

Try switching jobs 100 times a year. And then do this for 5 years. A friend of mine did this to understand the world economy. (I will follow his example very soon)

Try to go to a new foreign country with no money and you know nothing about the language and survive there for 2-3 years.
Try to hitchike your way across a contient on a backpack with no money.
These are all good adaptation challenges.