Another note on Ne vs. Ni and uncertainty:

Actually, the more I think about it, the more I think that you could hypothetically put any kind of uncertainty on a sliding scale from Ni to Ne, and while things at the extremes would be pretty clearly something for Ne to deal with or something for Ni to deal with, things in the middle can be seen from either viewpoint, and engaged productively from either viewpoint. A good example of something in the middle comes from the music thread. To me, "use of eclectic, "random" melodic structures, styles, and concepts within the same composition" produces uncertainty. You can come at it from an Ne point of view, which is more like "oooh, what's going to happen next, surprise me, how's it going to unfold, etc." or you can come at it from an Ni point of view, which is more like, "how does this come together; what's the unified whole under all this chaos; what's the general impression I get from all these swooshes and changes and differences." Both types are likely to think that the other missed the point: the Ne person is likely to chide the Ni person for focusing too heavily on the meaning (in the sense of the unified impression given by all this chaos) and ignoring the variety, and Ni person is likely to chide the Ne person for focusing too heavily on the variety and ignoring the meaning. The reason I provide this example is because it shows a type of uncertainty that both Ne and Ni types can enjoy, but that they would be likely to come at (even if subconsciously) from different perspectives. Poetry is another example. Actually, most art can probably be interpreted either from a perspective that focuses on signfiers and signifieds or from a perspective that focuses on how things will unfold/resolve/end.

Also, I don't know that Ne really tries to overcome situational uncertainty (which is just another way of saying external uncertainty), but Ni definitely tries to overcome conceptual uncertainty, only by a slow and careful method. I guess the best way to say it is just to focus on the fact that Ni-valuers want situational uncertainty (which is just another way of saying internal uncertainty) resolved ASAP (and are thus willing to take the possibly less nuanced route to fixing it), but are willing to linger a little longer in conceptual uncertainty, while Ne-valuers are the opposite.

Also also, this has lead to some interesting reflections on the difference between Ne/Si types and Ni/Se types. One interpretation of Ne/Si is to say that they want their uncertainty external to themselves and their sensations internal. That is, they want all the mysteries to be in the outside world: what would Paris be like? How does DNA work? What reasons could she have for behaving that way towards me? They want as few mysteries as possible on the inside; they want clear relationships between signifiers and what they signify. Although wanting clear signified-signifier relationships also seems to relate to Ti somewhat, so I need to find the difference between the Ti version of signifier-signifieds and Ni signifier-signifieds.

Ni/Se types, on the other hand, want no uncertainty in the outside world: "this is how we deal with things, these are the rules, I know what course of action to take, and if I don't, I can figure it out ASAP." They like their uncertainty to be of a more internal character: "what is the meaning of life? What does it mean for me to take this action or that action? What does Wallace Stevens mean by the phrase, 'the hum of thoughts evaded in the mind'?" They want clear, immediate information about how things will turn out, but are willing to think a little longer about what certain things "mean".

Ne ennui is external: it occurs when the outside world seems like it holds no surprises. An example would be "I hate this town; I've already seen everything and everyone in it, and now there's nothing new to experience." Ni ennui is internal: it occurs when it seems like the patterns (which, as mental conceptions, are "internal") will never change. An example would be "I'm sick of life; everyone will always behave the same and no one will surprise me. It's not that I want people to surprise me just because I want someone to do something random; I want people to surprise me so that I have to shift my inner conception of how people work, 'cause once I understand something perfectly, it becomes sort of boring." Ne ennui occurs when there's a lack of external uncertainty. Ni ennui occurs when there's a lack of internal uncertainty. Also, this relates to what Wallace Stevens (ILI) means when he talks about ennui of the first idea: the "first idea" is the Theory, Form, or Idea of Everything (and therefore is Everything), and if one understands the the Theory of Everything, then one becomes hideously bored. Also, I'm beginning to see the shades of a perspective wherein a gamma Ni type might see Gamma Ni as more abstract than Beta Ni, in a way, precisely because of its objectivity.

Also, this implies that Freud was an Ni-ego, because he was all about the relationship between the signifiers in our lives and what they signify about our consciousness.

Language metaphor: when I talk about signifiers and signifieds, I don't actually mean that Ni really works in that way, focusing on what is signified by a given sign. What I mean is that the relationship between signifiers and signifieds is a great analogy for how Ni works. Also note that Ni does not seek a static relationship between signifiers and signifieds; it assumes that the signifier, the signified, and the relationship between the two, is all in constant flux, and that rather than trying to pin them down and make them unchanging, we should instead track the flux, guess where they're going next, figure out how the relationship changes and is changing. It's more of a second-order theory: rather than "this is how x works" it's "this is how x changes".

Math metaphor: Ni is concerned with the graph of the derivative rather than the graph of the function (because Ni sees the function as inherently too erratic to be graphed productively).

Also, this is curiously similar to Lenore Thompson.

I need some Ti to come in and clean this up, because it's just a series of random, unfocused observations/thinking out loudness.