My best friend is an ENTP and he can run circles around me in argumentation. He can keep all the points of the debate in his head and refer to them at will. I lose track of everything because I'm so easily distracted and to me all that shit is intangible. He would tend to think I was trying to distract from the subject when really I just couldn't keep my mind on it for the life of me when there's food to eat or some video to look at.
I have a different sense of humor, it's more senseless and retarded (though he loves some of that kinda stuff, too - we both love Flight of the Conchords, for instance). He says he hates how dumbed down humor has become today. He has more principles than I do. He's into quirky things and wants to live in the wilderness for a year for the accomplishment. I told him I would get too bored because there wouldn't be enough people there, although I love nature and would probably do that for a couple weeks at a time or so.
He hates how dumbed down language has become and has a personal vendetta against ebonics. I was the devil's advocate and just told him that language evolves and thought that slang was just a different way of talking. He had me admit, though, that language was richer as a whole in the 19th century. He's way more serious than I am, although he loves to find reasons to laugh. But we laugh at different things. His attitude is more like the Idealist's enthusiasm whereas mine is excitement.
He only loves music that's done well or requires alot of talent or skill. I just like music that has aesthetic appeal to me, skill or no.
When we went running I just kept going and going and could've kept going forever pretty much, when he ran out of breath and wanted to turn around and go back home. I was kinda amazed because he used to run constantly and had a great deal of perseverance, whereas I thought I was out of shape. For him that kind of thing has always been highly intentional; for me it's thoughtless and easy.
He would always lose things, constantly, and I would find them for him, even if I had absolutely no idea where they were to begin with. Sometimes they were in plain sight, too.
Once when my family had left while I was gone for awhile I came home and asked him when they left, and he said, "Between 1 and 5." I had a weird look on my face and asked him if he had any better idea than that. He told me no, he hadn't been keeping track of it. I asked a couple more times before he got a little annoyed and told me he didn't notice exactly when because he was so wrapped up in whatever he was doing.
That's impossible for me. My whole life, no matter what I've been wrapped up in, I automatically know where everybody is in the house or whether they've left and about what time, even if I'm not keeping track of time, because of the difference in sunlight.
His conversations revolved more around quirky things, my conversations revolved more around hilarious events at work. Most everything he said went right over my head.
When we would play WoW he was all about achievements and progress I was all about targeting the next mob or player and downing them as fast as possible. He always had the best ideas about how to do it, I would just click the first button that made sense to me. I just loved the thrill of the fight. For him it was a matter of doing the best he could in order to be able to respect himself.
He was way more awkward in public. I was very natural. If I didn't know what to do or say I'd just go with the flow or make something up. Sometimes he'd pause when meeting someone new and just kinda say, "Hey," while sizing them up a bit. I couldn't stand to do that. For me, conversation and talking to people is an art. His self-image is wrapped up in his personal sense of competence and mine is in making a great impression.
We did a benefit fashion show and he didn't really want to walk but with persuasion kept debating it and eventually did. I was chomping at the bit to get up there. haha, my ESFP brother even did something like a handspring when he got up. I lived it up, using every bodily move in an attempt to work the crowd. He was kinda awkward but at the end did a very nice sunglass pull that I enjoyed immensely and complimented him on.
He would research things and was way more patient with topics than I would be. I'd just want the basic application right off the bat while he'd still be discussing the theory of it, completely frustrating my mind trying to even remotely grasp it. He'd sometimes get frustrated at me for not understanding what he said the first time, I think because he considered me intelligent and thought I just wasn't listening (although I did often had a hard time with that, and now I know why - because I'm an Initiator
). I let him know after he took the quiz, though, that I finally understood why most of what he said was too much for me to comprehend.
Actually, he was the one who would get more stuck on his conclusions, but they were always
his conclusions. I was more able to see all kinds of differing points of view. I totally agree with a description I read of myself in a bookstore that said that we're able to talk ourselves in and out of anything. When I read that I had to try to control my laughter just a bit because I started cracking up into pieces over how true that is. He thought my ability to do that was a sign of insincerity; oftentimes I'd try to explain why I did something by guessing because I really didn't know, and when I contradicted myself or came up with too many reasons he'd call me on it.
Well, I knew why I did things in a very external sense, to get some kind of tangible result, but he would try to pull out some kind of relationship-related motivation, while I would be saying, "It's just because I was tired!" or "I had something else to do!" He was always worried I was secretly trying to shun him while I always shrugged and said that was just the way events worked out.
One more thing: when we were being interviewed for a documentary about a message board that we both go to, he couldn't remember an old username of his because it had been so many years since he'd used it and it had too many numbers. I immediately rattled it off like it was nothing - "person#610094563!" hahaha. One of my friends said, "Oh, Justin," as if that was typical of me.
:yim_rolling_on_the_
Oh, and more: I tend to adventure off into the wild blue yonder for no reason at all. He loves adventure too, but he seems to really take in the novelty of his experiences to a great degree. I'm happy as long as I'm sensually pleased (I would be gawking at a beautiful day while he would be completely unimpressed, to my shock and disappointment).
I have a huge abandonment problem, as in I'm the one always abandoning people. This is a problem for him as people dropping contact with him seems to be a huge theme in his life. My problem is people being too attached to me.
He seems to do much much better at learning the principles behind things and thus does better at jobs because of it. I have to be trained for awhile until I get it, and taught just what to do and where, and I still have problems because I'm highly inconsistent by nature. But when I was a manager and he was one of my employees I would be amazed by the fact that he didn't notice all the clothes laying everywhere like a tornado had just whipped through. He'd say, "It looks fine to me," and I'd just be standing there totally aghast, scratching my head thinking, "Uh, really? Does he really see that as fine? He must not be
near as observant as I thought."
He'd also consult me when it came to trying to give the right answers on online applications. "What do they
want me to answer?" and I'd immediately give him the answer. He also seemed to hate starting all over again with a passion. I convinced him to try logging into his account again, only for him to find that once again his application had been reset. I didn't totally understand the reason why he was that completely frustrated - I told him he could just enter all the info again and it'd be quicker this time, only for him to say that he couldn't remember most of it.
I easily exceeded him in wpm, as fast as he is. He said that he only types fast when he's totally involved in what he's discussing.
Just a few of the differences between us. We both have a huge thirst for adventure and love new experiences. We both love to debate, but I do so in a friendly way (can't ever lose that charm with people!
) but he did so on principle. If anybody said anything wrong, he'd have to correct them, whereas I could just let even big things slide. In fact, I'd usually let the bigger issues slide because I didn't want to create a whole lot of havoc - I'm a smooth operator, dammit!
I was kinda amazed that he didn't seem to be quite as interested in visual pleasure as I was. It came to be somewhat of a shock when he would look at pictures of naked girls, while I had extensive selections of them saved to my hard drive (I'm a connoisseur, though, I don't settle for the cheap, sleazy stuff...
)
His sense of taste was way different than mine. He'd make the strangest combinations of foods while though I'm in love with variety and make various combinations, it's all within a certain conventional range. I turned up my nose at some things he made, only for him to get extremely upset by that and me, completely puzzled. I would've thought,
"More for me!" He seemed to either endure his food (sometimes the faces he made while eating almost made it seem like he was struggling) or had no expression. I was completely involved in the entire sensuality of it. I eat food for its tastiness, he for the interestingness of it.