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[SP] SP's how aware of your surroundings are you?

Jeffster

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When I'm on, I'm on. When I'm off, I'm off.

Exactly. Normally while driving, I am "The Scanner", always catching everything. But if I am really getting into a song on the radio or talking to somebody in the passenger seat or something, I can completely forget where i'm going, much less catch a lot of other stuff.
 

poppy

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Yea they do see a lot of what's going on physically and at the present moment. Very useful in certain situations, they might help you avoid crashing your car and shit, it's a good idea to carpool with one.

Perhaps I should reevaluate my ISFP friend's type, as I am the one who keeps him from crashing into cars on the highway :laugh:

EDIT: ^^Aha, Jeffster knows what I'm talking 'bout.
 

wolfy

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Exactly. Normally while driving, I am "The Scanner", always catching everything. But if I am really getting into a song on the radio or talking to somebody in the passenger seat or something, I can completely forget where i'm going, much less catch a lot of other stuff.

I think we are scanning even then but not consciously. Just don't test it people, don't say things like "What did I just say?" to me. I've noticed even when I seem at rest I'll notice things if they are really going to have an impact. Things like a ninja sneaking up behind me for example.
 

stellar renegade

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I have an ISFP roommate, and I find myself wondering if it's even remotely possible to be in the same room as him and do something without him noticing, even if his back's turned.

Yeah, that's been a problem before. My ENTP roommate will be talking to his gf over MSN and I have a really hard time tuning it out sometimes. I'll try not to listen but I hear every word because my mind just zones in on it and he tells me he feels like I'm listening to him. I just say, "I'm trying not to..." It makes it hard to focus on what I'm doing on the computer, but once I get in the zone, I'm good. I don't hear a word. Alot of times I have to wear headphones, though.

There have been many times where he's said something about me for one reason or another and I woke up to the sound of my name (I'm a day-sleeper and night-worker).

Or how my whole entire life, even when I was typed as an INFP, I was always aware of my surroundings and where everybody was at any given moment in time. People usually ask me where people have gone and I always have an answer even if I haven't been paying conscious attention. I know if somebody's left the house or gone into their room or the kitchen automatically even if I've been concentrating on something behind a closed door.

I've been shocked when my roommate hasn't noticed that I'm awake. He'll start talking on the phone and he enjoys his privacy so a few times he'll say, "I didn't know you were awake!" and I'm like, "You walked right past me..." and he'll say that he just didn't notice. :huh: That's really strange to me.

He always loses things and I can generally help him find them. I usually remember wherever I've put anything.

I usually know what's going on behind my back, and when I don't it shocks me. It's very very hard to sneak up on me. The only time you can really do it is if I'm concentrating on zoning (organizing) the merchandise at work inside the freezer doors, and even then only a couple of really skilled people have been able to do it. They've given up now, though, because I keep catching them.

There was this kid that used to always try to trip me as I walked by (usually when we were sitting in rows of chairs) and I'd always run up against his leg. After a few times of that, though, I learned to notice when he was about to do it and walk right over it. No one has been able to trip me ever since then. hah.

Do you catch people looking at you out of the corner of your eye?
Of course! Do other people not? My mind automatically zones in on it and I have trouble thinking about something else alot of the time. Sometimes I ignore it, other times I look back at them like a challenge.

In fact, I even notice when people are looking at me from behind. I don't know if that's sensation or intuition or what, but I'm hyper-aware.
 

wolfy

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Perhaps I should reevaluate my ISFP friend's type, as I am the one who keeps him from crashing into cars on the highway :laugh:

EDIT: ^^Aha, Jeffster knows what I'm talking 'bout.

people are always whining about how I break machines. That's because I use them to their limits. I don't pansy around like some others.
 

stellar renegade

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I had a friend who I think was another ESTP and he got into wrecks every couple weeks. He said they were never his fault, though, but his car was totaled each time and he had to get a new one with insurance.

haha. He took me home from school once. That dude was a speed demon for sure. I loved it.
 

wolfy

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For the record. I only wrapped one car around a power line post. The rest I was really good with but drove into the ground. The same with any other machinery.
 

INTJ123

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Perhaps I should reevaluate my ISFP friend's type, as I am the one who keeps him from crashing into cars on the highway :laugh:

EDIT: ^^Aha, Jeffster knows what I'm talking 'bout.

Maybe it's an extrovert thing. I don't have any close isfp friends.
 

Poki

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My niece spent an entire weekend trying to scare me. She finally suceeded and the wierd thing is that I knew she was behind me. I dont know why it made me jump. I tend to sneak up on my wife alot and scare the crap out of her without meaning to. I notice sounds, shadows, etc. 99% of the time I dont respond, its just more like taking in info and not doing anything with it.

I have got into 2 accidents. The first I was lost at night when a Dallas cowboys game got out and I slammed into the back of a car pushing him into the median. I was trying to fiigure out what highway I was on and how to get to the highway I needed to be at in an area I didnt know in football traffic. The other one the person didnt yield on a right turn and jumped out in front of me. I pulled to the left immediatley or I would have hit the passenger side doors at 35MPH with a little girl on the passenger side in the back seat. I clipped the rearend almost ripping my fender off. I didnt see the little girl until after, I just responded to avoid slamming into the side of the other car.

My wife(EJ) can get so tunnel vision that I can walk back and forth in front of her watching TV that when she finally comes to I am standing next to her and she is stumped how I got there because she didnt see me walk in front of the TV.
 

stellar renegade

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My niece spent an entire weekend trying to scare me. She finally suceeded and the wierd thing is that I knew she was behind me. I dont know why it made me jump. I tend to sneak up on my wife alot and scare the crap out of her without meaning to. I notice sounds, shadows, etc. 99% of the time I dont respond, its just more like taking in info and not doing anything with it.
Yep, exactly. Those things stand out to me like an alarm. It's always strange to me when I scare someone by coming up right behind them because they didn't notice. I'm like, "I was sure they noticed but just didn't react..."

My wife(EJ) can get so tunnel vision that I can walk back and forth in front of her watching TV that when she finally comes to I am standing next to her and she is stumped how I got there because she didnt see me walk in front of the TV.
:doh: wowwww.

How does that even happen? I can't imagine ever being like that, in any world. My mind registers all movements if only in the background. Everything is recorded. I didn't realize there was any other way to live.
 

Halla74

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:doh: wowwww.

How does that even happen? I can't imagine ever being like that, in any world. My mind registers all movements if only in the background. Everything is recorded. I didn't realize there was any other way to live.

+1!!!

I scare the hell out of mpeople all the time by accident, just by walking up behind them and saying "Hi!" :D
 

stellar renegade

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Yeah, Halla, exactly what I was saying in the first part of that post! hahaha I can't believe how easy that is!
 

6sticks

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Yep, exactly. Those things stand out to me like an alarm. It's always strange to me when I scare someone by coming up right behind them because they didn't notice. I'm like, "I was sure they noticed but just didn't react..."
Yeah, I do that all the time. I wouldn't say I'm very aware of things, just that no one else seems to pay attention.
 

sade

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I'm not an SP nor did I read the thread before hand, but my ESTP brother freaks me out with how perceptive he is.
He can sit in his room concentrated to a tv show and all of a sudden comment on a conversation I'm quietly having several metres away from him in the livingroom. The same thing happens if I'm trying to munch the last cookies without him noticing "Don't eat it.". :shock:
 

stellar renegade

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Yeah, I do that all the time. I wouldn't say I'm very aware of things, just that no one else seems to pay attention.
Yeah, for sure. That's the way it seems to me, at least. I only noticed recently how imperceptive others are.

I'm not an SP nor did I read the thread before hand, but my ESTP brother freaks me out with how perceptive he is.
He can sit in his room concentrated to a tv show and all of a sudden comment on a conversation I'm quietly having several metres away from him in the livingroom. The same thing happens if I'm trying to munch the last cookies without him noticing "Don't eat it.". :shock:
For real? That's nothing, haha. Our minds tend to zone in on conversations. We can't seem to help it. As for the cookies, if I've been wanting to eat more of something I'll generally be on the lookout for anyone eating them, so even out of the corner of my eye I'd see it.
 

Lightyear

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Wow you SPs with your special ninja powers, this thread has been revelatory to me since I am so NOT like you! I will do something while being lost in thought and then try to remember if I actually did it ("Did I really put the dishes into the cupboard?" "Did I actually check the mailbox?"). I am also so not aware of my surroundings unless they are in some way unusual or interesting food for thought. For example in my last flat there was a "No Smoking" sign hanging directly above my letterbox and it took me six months to realise it's there!
 

StephMC

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I have no idea if this is weird for an SP or not, but I'm only intensely aware of my environment when I sit still. When that happens, I notice EVERYTHING. If I'm walking down a street, or wherever, it's the complete opposite... I disappear into my own little world. People have claimed walking by me and waving and get frustrated that I don't notice them. My own personal theory (no idea if it's right or wrong :p) is that my environment is moving too fast that I'm just kinda taking it all in instead of paying attention to detail
 

stellar renegade

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Wow you SPs with your special ninja powers, this thread has been revelatory to me since I am so NOT like you! I will do something while being lost in thought and then try to remember if I actually did it ("Did I really put the dishes into the cupboard?" "Did I actually check the mailbox?"). I am also so not aware of my surroundings unless they are in some way unusual or interesting food for thought. For example in my last flat there was a "No Smoking" sign hanging directly above my letterbox and it took me six months to realise it's there!

Actually, I have to admit I can associate with that a little bit, but for different reasons. Sometimes I zone out if I'm bored and just do things automatically. Every once in awhile I won't be sure that I did something though that's the oddity. But when I zone out like that I'm usually not thinking of anything in particular, my mind's just blank. I have a friend who I think is possibly SP who is the same way. He blanked out a whole day of work like that but it ended up being his best day of work ever, and everyone was amazed by the job he did. Sometimes I'm thinking of other things, but my thoughts of other situations and times and places are usually very weak.

Also, I don't notice some things in my surroundings if they're not directly applicable to me, but I usually don't care, either. I don't think that sign could've possibly gone unnoticed by me, though. It's more or less things that are less obvious, and usually they're recorded in the background anyway. My mind automatically picks out the relevant things and alerts me of them. Everything else is recorded but kept more or less subconscious.
 

stellar renegade

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I have no idea if this is weird for an SP or not, but I'm only intensely aware of my environment when I sit still. When that happens, I notice EVERYTHING. If I'm walking down a street, or wherever, it's the complete opposite... I disappear into my own little world. People have claimed walking by me and waving and get frustrated that I don't notice them. My own personal theory (no idea if it's right or wrong :p) is that my environment is moving too fast that I'm just kinda taking it all in instead of paying attention to detail

Definitely makes sense. I think some ISTPs (don't know how widespread it is) can tend to seem autistic at times. I used to be like a little ISTP when I was a kid because I didn't have much interaction with others. But I think I was more aware then, too. Hm, I dunno. Maybe it's just a matter of being way more focused than other types.
 
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