But seriously

[Byrning down the house!]

In that other stupid topic I made, I asked semi-seriously for people to type me. I didn't really expect anything insightful, so here's some actual information about me. I'm uncertain about my type because I've undergone some changes in my life and I've read so much and taken so many damn tests I think any test I take now will be unconsciously skewed.

At any rate, I am a quiet person, usually reserved in my emotions. I do a lot of volunteer work in my off-time, but I dislike face-to-face communication with the people I'm helping. It makes me anxious. I feel like I'm always on the verge of saying something that'll completely cock things up. I have a small group of friends and often go out with them or alone (2 to 5 times a week), to music shows, concerts, museums, clubs, lectures, movie showings, or demonstrations. If I go alone, I enjoy the content of whatever I'm seeing or doing but feel almost crippling anxiety over talking to anyone there. One thing that calms me down is taking notes and sketching the other people there. At concerts and shows I'll dance, but not with anyone in particular.

I get bored very easily and frequently "multitask": listening to music, talking to someone, drawing and reading all at once. I often overschedule myself and feel very worn out for it. At the current moment I'm attending college, helping to run a student club, volunteering for a peace event, have 5 books out from the library with 1 completed and the others already started, am keeping two sketchbooks (one for artsy stuff, the other for recording lectures), and also keep a blog on occasion.

I don't consider myself an overachiever but I've always done well in school when I've put my mind to it. Sometimes I have so much on my mind I've had difficulties passing classes, though. I was in somewhat of a caregiver role for a while and I found it very stressful and it really interfered with my studies. Other students seem to give me too much credit and think I'm a lot smarter than I am, asking me for help when I can't really provide it for them. Even when I can, I have trouble articulating myself to them.

Even though I involve myself in social causes and often feel overwhelmed by anxiety, people regard me as cold and unfeeling. Even with my close relationships, I've been told that I'm very hard to get to know. I mostly communicate with people via jokes or sharing information. I'm very clumsy at comforting others, and that pains me. I've had two longish relationships in the past, and a few flings, so I'm not an unexperienced virgin, but my demeanor belies it. People are surprised that I drink and smoke weed. Of course, I only started when I was an adult and had read a lot about the effects of drugs...

I'm very interested in psychology, biology, art, and politics, and in the past I've gone off on a number of tangents involving other science or technology topics, or history, literature, music, philosophy, or religion. I like to know as much as I can about a subject. I'd really enjoy learning and while I might drop a subject for a while, competition will spur me to get as skillful in it as I can.

[Byrning down the house!]

Boyish girl

[Byrning down the house!]

I'm not sure why you edited your reply; I actually found it very helpful. I read the INFj description at several sites and a woman I know is almost beyond a doubt an INFj. Based on my relationship with her, I've decided I'm most likely an INTj.

[aestrivex]

hmm... interesting introduction.


some questions/prompts. feel free to answer any/all.

you mentioned some of your intellectual interests. why do you think these topics interest you? what do you get out of them? in particular, what do you get out of psychology and socionics?

you also mentioned social causes. what kinds of causes have you supported and why do you think you are drawn to such activities?

tell me about your work ethic. you mentioned that you're an overachiever. why do you think this is? describe to me the process by which you get your work done.

tell me about your philosophical/spiritual/religious beliefs. what do these beliefs mean to you? why do you think you are attracted by the areas of philosophy and religion?

(these next two questions will sound strange: bear with me).


i've been having trouble sleeping lately. it's actually been very strange; no matter what time i've gotten to bed, i've gotten up 5-6 hours later. this has varied from 3 AM-9 AM to 9 PM-2 AM. i suffer from insomnia some of the time otherwise, but i don't take anything for it and never really considered it a serious problem. however, for the last couple weeks of getting 5 hours of sleep every night i've become rather exhausted. do you have any suggestions on what i might be able to do to rectify this problem?


without googling, who is the current president of mexico?

[aestrivex]

And what continent are you from?

doesnt matter.

[aestrivex]

Who is the current prime minister of New Zealand?

don't know.

on the other hand:

a. i take the responses to these questions very much at face value
b. mexico is more important politically than new zealand.
c. these questions are very much specific to individuals based on my impression of who the individual is. even for a question like this that i don't know the answer doesn't mean anything about the validity of the question with respect to anyone else (although in this case the question is all but worthless, mostly asked as sheer folly.)

[Kristiina]

i've been having trouble sleeping lately. it's actually been very strange; no matter what time i've gotten to bed, i've gotten up 5-6 hours later. this has varied from 3 AM-9 AM to 9 PM-2 AM. i suffer from insomnia some of the time otherwise, but i don't take anything for it and never really considered it a serious problem. however, for the last couple weeks of getting 5 hours of sleep every night i've become rather exhausted. do you have any suggestions on what i might be able to do to rectify this problem?


without googling, who is the current president of mexico?

Very cool questions. Especially the first one. The second one is too much influenced by where he lives. I wouldn't even be 100% sure that Mexico has a president.

PS! I have an idea about type, but I'll tell it after she answers the questions, so my opinion doesn't affect anything.

[Mariano Rajoy]

Perhaps: IEI or LII or ILI.

Post more: such as a copy of your resume/CV, some pictures, anything else you have written, a video.

[Byrning down the house!]

Ok...

Vincente Fox, I think.

If you are suddenly experiencing fatigue, I'd suggest looking into your diet. You might be anemic or lacking in some other nutrient, or even sheer calories. It could also be emotional stress. Depression can change your sleep patterns drastically.

I'd describe my spiritual beliefs as broadly, humanist, with a lot of antipathy to organized religion. I attended Catholic schools most of my childhood, and while I liked that we talked about moral issues in class, as I got older I felt more and more like an outsider to my own religion. I felt alienated because I had my own beliefs already and felt like I had been signed up for something before I knew what it was really was. Since I was little, I've always wanted to know what life was all about, and what made humans human and whether we had any reason for being here or not. Catholic schooling gave me answers up until the point I realized my own ideas were at odds with the Church. The books I read on my own time instilled in me a great deal of respect for reason, science, and the power of individual humans. I wavered between atheism and agnosticism for a long time. I was also very interested in Buddhism as a teenager, but ultimately that led me out of organized religion again into pantheism. Nowadays I don't believe in any particular God or religion, but I wouldn't exactly call myself an atheist because I have transferred my religious feeling over to nature and art.

I don't really think I'm an overachiever; if anything, I slack off too much. I just follow where my curiosity takes me, and I guess to outsiders sometimes I must seem obsessive. I can be really willful and I've gone days without sleep and walked miles enough to wear out my shoes to help my friends on projects or for my own ends. As a child, I'd frequently get headaches from reading too much. Of course, afterwards I pay for it and I experience a lot of writer's block and fear of incompetence. I work at full bore or nothing at all.

I've mostly been involved in pacifism and queer rights. I despise violence and the damage it causes to people psychologically, emotionally, and as communities. In regard to queer rights, I think people should be left alone to love how they want, as long as they're not forcing it on anyone and are being true to themselves.

My intellectual interests mostly stem from a desire to know as much as possible about the reasons why things are the way they are, and why people act as they do, and secondarily to be armed with whatever knowledge I need for any problem I come across or question those around me have. Obviously this is a tremendous project and I often feel small and ignorant. I suppose I sell myself short in a lot of cases, giving other people credit to equal or greater knowledge when actually they could have used my input. And then again, I can be very competitive and arrogant...

[Mariano Rajoy]

Have you typed yourself?

[Byrning down the house!]

I originally thought (months ago) I might be ENTp, but it seemed at odds with how shy and socially anxious I am.

[Mariano Rajoy]

I originally thought (months ago) I might be ENTp, but it seemed at odds with how shy and socially anxious I am.

Agreeable conclusion.

From your post, it seems you are confused between LII and ILE. Don't let the terms extroversion or introversion distract you; ignore them for just a bit.

When evaluating, try and think of what you most value or get the most satisfaction from. Ti, or Ne. As you gain a better understanding of each funciton, it will become apparent which you prefer.

For myself, I know a job well done when everything is in order, from the structure of an essay that I wrote, to the tidyness of my home. And I don't like for that order to be disturbed with clutter. It becomes clear which function you prefer if you tally what you consider "good".

To use my examples for Ne, a job to be considered well done would have an innovative solution, the essay would bring a new way of looking at things and the tidyness of home would fall in importance to projects, (i.e. taking apart a cassette player and making a tattoo gun with it, etc.), and exploring new ideas.

[Byrning down the house!]

I feel satisfied with a job well done when I've run the problem down as far as I can go at that point, and come to some new conclusion or raised my proficiency in that particular skill via a new way of thinking/going about it.

[Mariano Rajoy]

I feel satisfied with a job well done when I've run the problem down as far as I can go at that point, and come to some new conclusion or raised my proficiency in that particular skill via a new way of thinking/going about it.

Sounds Ne to me.

Proficiency comes about through new ways of thinking and new conclusions.

What do you think?

[Byrning down the house!]

That sounds about right.

[aestrivex]

hmm.


tell me some about your circle of friends. what kinds of things do you do and how do you or do you not get along? why do you think you associate with them?

what are the most interesting things that you do with the people that you hang out with? what activities with them stimulate you the most?

what aspects about them frustrate you to no end?

[Byrning down the house!]

My friends tend to be more political than I am. We work on projects together, play board games, go to events, and drink. I'm the youngest member of the group and sometimes I'll get into arguments over how to do things, poor planning, or wasted time. They think I'm rather weird and impatient, but also very intelligent and idealistic. They know a lot about music and mechanical skills so I like talking to them about those things, but when they get to gossiping about others it bores me and I go off reading or drawing. I've helped them fix cars, computers, make banners, gone fishing with them, etc. I tend to think of them as father/older brother figures. Sometimes I drag them to museums. They don't really like it. This one guy goes art opening hopping for the free alcohol. I went to an opening with him once, got profoundly drunk, and urinated in the beer cups behind a giant abstract painting. The art didn't interest me at all and we wound up leaving early because he was trying to pick fights. They can really get on my nerves when they start fights with other people (I feel obligated to mediate) or spend hours upon hours talking about some petty gossip and smoking weed when we could be doing something interesting. Then there's that woman I mentioned...she's an artist and I'll talk to her about current events or abstract issues. She's a rather aloof person, but very sensible and warm once you get to know her. She's also incredibly intelligent and she's the first person I've spoken to face to face whom I can say I truly admire and also consider a friend.

I also have a wide circle of acquaintances who I'm afraid to talk to and think they secretly hate me.

[aestrivex]

bumped because this thread was lost in a sea of phaedrus

[Kristiina]

at first I thought IEE, but now INFj/INTj might sound more correct. Not sure.

[Byrning down the house!]

See? I'm a confusing person. And also a deadly bore. I should pepper my descriptions with more drunken escapades. Or maybe mention that Phaedus creature that is so popular here...