Seymour
Vaguely Precise
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2009
- Messages
- 1,579
- MBTI Type
- INFP
- Enneagram
- 5w4
- Instinctual Variant
- sx/so
The difference between Fi and Ti is that Ti takes objective point of view and Fi takes subjective point of view. Meaning when you take objective point of view, you look it from outsiders point of view and disregard personal feelings to the matter. When you take subjective point of view you look at personal values, how you feel about the matter etc. Fi doesent take outsiders point of view(objective) like Ti does.
I agree with Poki. Even though it's true Fi doesn't tend towards taking an objective outsider's view, it isn't so bad at trying on a subjective outsider's view.
As I talk to someone, I'm very aware of the mental model I'm building up of their feelings, what's important to them and the meaning behind their words As long as there isn't a core value conflict, I'm pretty unthreatened by trying on perspectives different from my own. Face to face, in particular, I find it relatively easy to understand why someone might feel a certain way or believe a certain thing, even if it's not my personal belief.
I found this confusing as a child, when I was puzzled that I could take on my Dad's perspective (he's an exceptionally inflexible ESTJ), but he couldn't entertain other perspectives in the same way. Maybe part of that is the Ne tendency to explore possibility without necessarily committing to it.
I spend a fair amount of time translating between people at work, and the ability to listen at more than a surface level comes in handy for that. I also think the ability to understand the perspective of others contributes to the INFP's reputation for being flexible and easy-going until a hidden value mine is hit.
Imo with Te and Fi its kinda like, since your preferred judging function is introverted, from that introverted point of view the extraverted judging function seems to take an objective point of view since from that internal point of view external things seem objective. But since Te is not your preferred judging function, you dont use it the same way for making decisions as intj or entj would for example. Its more as an categorizing/organizing function for you and you use it with Fi to make the final decision.
I think Te tends to be used more of an implementation (and sometimes validation) tool for most INFPs. It is sometimes turned to as a last resort, such as when Fi is inapplicable to a situation, or as a means to power through a huge backlog of mundane-but-necessary tasks. I'm hardly the most Te-enabled INFP, though, so I'm sure someone else could answer better.