It's 4 am, I need to go to bed, I suck at giving advice, but I feel bad that this has no responses so I'm trying it anyway.
Si is often associated with being rigid, routine-obsessed, and conservative. As with most stereotypes, these are exaggerated a bit. The way I understand Si, it isn't so much about obsessively trying to preserve the past exactly as it is and being completely shut off to new ideas, but rather, Si is about having a
natural preference for the familiar. So, an Si dom may order the exact same thing at a restaurant every time and be okay with that because they know how it tastes and they like it. They might resent being pushed by others to try something new if they're not in the mood for it. But that doesn't mean that the Si dom will always be completely unwilling to do anything new ever. It just means that they
need to be given time to think about and consider it, and they
need to know
all of the details first so they can compare it with similar things that they already know. It's a little similar to Ni, except Si uses past experience to predict results (ex. Si and Ne work together to recognize patterns that they have experienced before and use that knowledge to predict a similar outcome to a situation).
Because Si users
prefer the familiar, that's where the whole "stick up the ass" stereotypes come from. Si is okay with trying new things
on their own time and
in their own way, but only when they feel up to it. So sometimes, other people who don't have that strong Si pull will interpret this as just being a party pooper who's no fun and is boring. Unless the SJ's Ne is well developed, Ne can be really scary. A lot of SJs will be accused of being close-minded. The SJ may have the tendency to shut down ideas that are too unfamiliar when they first come up, but upon more reflection and thought, and as they gather more information to build up their storehouse of experience, the SJ will begin to branch out. It's not that SJs are close-minded, it's just that they
need more information to add to that "storehouse" before they're willing to consider a change of opinion.
As for how I use Si--it is unconscious. As my dominant function, I never think about using it--I just use it. I walk down a hallway and notice the classroom I spent a semester in and I remember the class and the teacher and some of the day-to-day shenanigans, and if I peek inside the classroom I'll notice what's changed about it since I last saw it, and I might get kind of nostalgic. If I start debating politics with someone, I'll bring out all the information I learned in my sociology class a year ago to inform you about how "1/3 of all homeless people are employed full time so that 'all homeless people are jobless lazy fucks thing you think is true was pulled out of your ass and has no truth to it'" sort of thing. Si is usually associated with having a good memory, but not always in the way you'd think; for example, I'm good at remembering facts and details that are important to me. What color shirt were you wearing yesterday? I don't fucking know, I wasn't paying attention to that. But I vividly remember the time in 9th grade when a girl stepped on my heels and tried to invoke a reaction out of me by bullying me because it left an impact on me. Shirt color does not, so that doesn't get stored. What
does get stored is usually very well remembered.
It is hard to give advice on how you can develop inferior Si more consciously simply because of how unconscious it is to me. Perhaps a bit of advice I could give you is practicing to become more aware of it as it happens--when something you think worthwhile of important happens, try writing it down with as many details as you remember. When you go to a place you've been before, look around and try to notice what'd changed.
Si also gets associated with tradition--not necessarily social tradition, though. Si is very traditional--when it comes to the traditions that it cares about.I don't give a shit about Valentine's Day, but I really like Halloween, and I want to decorate and celebrate Halloween the way I always celebrate it and that's important to me so damn right I'm going to cry and be upset if there's some detail that I care about that's going to be different this year for whatever reason because I want my favorite holiday that I care about to be just like it is every other year because those details are why I like it so much! That sort of thing. A good way to tickle your Si might be to consider those traditions that are important to
you and reflect what about it gives it that importance in your eyes.
Most of this is probably useless, but I gave it a shot.
