Category: not a typing post

I can’t read or write if someone is talking, do you think this could be attributed to having high Se?

Oddly enough, the only people I know who this happens to are INFPs – it came up as part of Dario Nardi’s experiments.  I’m not sure if it applies to other types or not..?  Maybe?  Why do you think it’s an Se thing?

One of the most active parts of the INFP brain is over the… right ear I think, which makes us exceptionally good listeners (we focus completely on the speaker and our brains go into a state of flow – like, listening is literally meditative for us), unless the speaker makes us angry or otherwise upsets us and then we can break our focus and argue with them in our heads.

In my case, I can only read or write the words that the person is speaking while they are speaking.  This is handy for note taking (unless the speaker is too fast), but annoying if I want to work on something unrelated.  I have also learned after many years that I can somewhat tune people out if I am reading on the internet – (maybe because the computer’s backlit?) but that my focus on what I’m reading is significantly decreased as well. 

The other thing I find difficult is understanding what people are saying in crowded public spaces, like a restaurant or a bar, where everyone’s talking over each other and there’s a bunch of white noise in the background – either music or fans, for example.  Too many things to listen to means I have a hard time paying attention to any of them.

One of the INFPs in the Nardi study was interesting in that he only paid attention to female speakers and could tune out men.  Don’t know what that was about!

I’m pretty sure Donald Trump (*shivers*) is an ESTP like you have him typed, however, all the ENTJs I know love him. Any idea why?

Ended up switching him to ESTJ… I think I was watching the wrong interview – there’s an earlyish one of him talking to Letterman and they’re on a very even level of conversation.  David Letterman seemed to like him okay, which I suppose backs up your claim.

If you remember the success as money and power post from a while back, Donald is a guy who has both, and however ENTJs feel about him personally, I’d imagine they respect that he’s winning within the system in a manner of speaking.

Sort of related, there’s kind of a well-meaning thing I’ve had a bunch of ENTJs do where they want to know how much money you’re making so that they know logistically that you’re doing alright.  They also want to know you’re making good grades – if you watch any actors in their teens and twenties who’ve dropped out of high school vs. the ones who are getting degrees, Dave’s super nervous about the former and extremely proud of the latter.  I think, while it can be easily interpreted as intrusive and overbearing, this is kind of how ENTJs worry about the well-being of people they care about.

Are you sure you’re definitely not a sensor? Because you type primary grouch the use of physical/”obvious” clues that can be seen with the naked eye, whereas intuitives come to conclusions through reading between the lines, through what can’t be seen. It’s the main difference between Ns and Ss, when you’re not thinking of functions.

Well, thank you for demonstrating so beautifully why I chose against typing people by their words.  You can write about any experience, whether it belongs under the purview of your first and second functions or not.  I’m not sure if my posts would bear this out, but I remember writing about my Ni and Fe (5th and 6th) experiences long before writing about my Fi, which is my first.  Fi is a constant hum to me… I notice the Ni and Fe things more clearly for being unusual (and therefore things I would find more interesting to share).

As far as Si being my first/second function (and trust me, I’m not a Se, I have exceptionally pathetic spatial awareness – listening to people talk about what their Se actually does blows my mind), I’m going to choose to take that to mean that I sound like I have decently developed inferior functions.  I have much the same position on this as I do when I was receiving objections over my typing of Sam Smith as an INTP, which is that people like using their 3rd/4th functions!  Shocking, I know.  It is fun and challenging (and often frustrating, which means you spend a lot of time working on them once you start) and results in you becoming a well-rounded person who can relate better to more people.

I would contest your definition of intuitives, though – my understanding is that while Ni might draw conclusions, Ne doesn’t – it’s expansive; it’s about creating possibilities.  And while typing in part by physical comparison was only one possibility I considered, it is the one that seemed to give me the most promisingly consistent results.