I can always tell exactly what people are feeling/thinking, I just don't particularly care or act on it. People often assume that I don't understand how they feel when I actually I know exactly what is going on in their head, I just don't react to it in the way they expect.
For example, if someone is sad I will know, they won't know that I know though because I don't try and comfort them or anything that people are meant to do when others are sad? I don't know about INTP but I always get the feeling they're not always aware of what others are feeling?
Coming at things from Ti instinctively means I spent a lot of young life expecting emotions to follow logical patterns, and also making assumptions that people could just ignore/suppress emotions that "didn't rationally follow." It was how I worked; I was annoyed and frustrated that others didn't do that as well.
As I got older, I realized that didn't really work out very well in real life. And after I had spent more time around people, I got a better sense of realistic patterns and emotional responses. There were also some bumps in emotional understanding once I got some personal experiences that allowed me to feel things that weren't necessarily "understandable" -- the emotions just existed. (like falling in love with someone, or having children. Children were a big deal in terms of suddenly having inexplicable feelings for someone else that I couldn't and didn't have to rationalize somehow.)
So I have a pretty good sense now of what people might be feeling, by the obvious current clues + situational awareness of what someone is likely to feel. Plus, just empathy in general.
I guess i'll just harken back to the "map" -- when another process dominates how your process your perceptions, you need time to realize things are happening outside your understanding, you need experience to understand those things, and you need to care enough to invest the time and energy. If someone doesn't have those things, then they just won't get better at it.
I've actually gone full circle now, where I perceive what people are feeling in given circumstances, but my response isn't necessarily based on accommodating it, depending on what it is. It's just one factor among many. I'm more sensitive, but I've moved away from coddling/avoiding conflict in situations where I think people just need to deal or where I think other things need more priority.
(I don't really have that gift that I've seen where someone can be emotionally affirming in every situation somehow, even the ones they don't agree with. I don't know how to do that. I just tend to pull back and focus on something else rather than fight with someone, if there's no need to deal with it.)
I buy it. ENTPs probably enjoy playing the game. INTPs only will do so to survive, I think.
Yeah, I can't say it's been "fun." It was more of a survival / self-improvement strategy.
INTP - Dominant Ti says societal norms may be irrelevant if it conflicts with their logical understanding of the environment.
ENTP- Dominant Ne says the societal norms may be relevant if they can enhance their logical understanding of the environment.
That's an interesting definition because I feel like (from an observational POV) my behavior has gotten closer to ENTP over time. I tend to focus on Ne concerns more than I used to and place less emphasis on Ti concerns, I'm more open and exploratory.
And the shift you describe here also is essentially what happened with me -- I went from dismissing norms I considered irrelevant to exploring how they could be relevant if I could place them in the proper context.
