Hmm, yeah "flighty." I've experienced that. However, do you think it's because they have the capacity (for depth) and are simply not exercising it? I know this sounds biased (and maybe I am), but sometimes I meet Ss that I do not think are even capable of it, whereas the "flighty" Ns I know are able but choose not to go there (all the time).
Meh, I'd be careful of that.
S people are more concrete than abstract by definition.
It doesn't mean they can't have deep thoughts, or that they're shallow.
I think too as people become older, they become more nuanced, and S's look deeper than the surface, just as N's get more grounded and stop being so flighty. The best S's I know can go very deep; they also just usually retain a strong sense of practicality and paying attention to what's around them, they're very realistic and don't like "deep abstractions" as an end in themselves, they want it to be useful to accomplish some end or make their lives richer and/or more successful.
I think N's that get flighty also become sort of worthless; haven't you ever met someone who thinks they're profound but is totally useless in daily life? They're so profound that they're completely ignorant of the realities of life, which ruins any depth they think they've found.
Yeah, Internally NT's I would assume always have a deep and complex life, but the thing is sometimes when your in a negative loop like that you only focus on certain things externally that are very close to your beliefs and opinions. I think that scenario would still classify under shallowness.
I understand what you are getting at, and it sort of fits at my last paragraph above. Some people might have great insight but everyone around them just sees them as someone with their heads up their posteriors, in terms of usefulness and REALLY understanding how the abstractions connect to the real world. We all have met NT types who are very smart but utterly useless in life as well as incompetent in their relationships.
I think you are sort of merging intelligence, introspection, complexity, and depth together when you talk of being shallow when in essence just focusing on a narrow set of interest and only willing to engage and expound upon those interests to me is the definition of shallow.
Yes, sort of, that's it. Getting caught up in just one facet of reality rather than seeing it all connect together and integrating it. S's come at it from one side; N's come at it from another.