Quote Originally Posted by MensSuperMateriam View Post
I concur about Te creative.

I'm not sure how much reliable VI is. Certainly there are broad patterns which could be identified, but the margin or error is big. My father and me, when we were respectively teenagers, are almost clones. But we're at the antipodes of each other mentally-wise. At least he's also dynamic; most likely alpha SF.

Looking inside of myself I cannot tell for sure. For eliminating the "Te specialization" bias I could take a look to my adolescence, as leading function is apparent sooner than creative. Still the result is non-conclusive. My childhood idol was MacGyver, which is a clear SLI character. But do we exclusively take identicals as references? I don't think so. Similarly, before my atheism became dominant, I have believed all kind of bullshit in a very Ni fashion, quite beyond a "tangible" abrahamic god. I was (and somehow still am) fascinated by hypnosis. Maybe if I talk with some clear-cut ILIs and a some clear cut SLIs, we could compare our lives and minds in those times, and I could see which one is closer to me.

Coming back to the present, I recognize that I'm not the best guy optimizing time; my texts do not sound über-Ni, and are usually very long, which is more typical in sensors. But my goals and behavior are a bit alien for an Si dom, even if logical. I have always been quite a theorizer, here in the forum and also outside here. Evidently SLIs could be theorizers, good theorizers in fact, but will they focus so much in abstractions? How many SLIs are active here? Only a few. How many of them do consistently theorize?

I'm talking only about what SLIs usually do, I'm not comparing intelligences or similar, just so nobody misunderstands me.

If you take a look to my threads, you will see I tend to theorize a lot. Even if I do it in a Te fashion. Would E5 suffice for explaining such behavior? It could work, I guess, SLI+E5 would be something like an SLI with ILI goals, a sort of pseudointuitive, seen from the outside.

Despite of this, there are some aspects that I can't reconciliate with SLI regardless how hard I could try. Leading function, even if "hidden", underdeveloped or whatever, constitutes the cornerstone, the fundamental core of the psyche. There has to be certain observable manifestations which are specific of it. I see in myself at least two of them that I haven't seen in any SLI (in a clear way) or I cannot explain by an alternative interpretation; Ni is required.

The first one, psychological sensitivity towards symbols. It's not just liking abstract representations because they could be aesthetically pleasant, or because they condensate an idea I could agree or like. It's... something more. Sensitivity to certain kind of powerful symbols which produce a particular effect, like if something agitates inside myself. A sort of resonance in my subconscious. I try to avoid this concept as much as I can because it's prone to being overused, but now I cannot find a proper substitute. These symbols I'm talking about, are easily associated to Ni. Those symbols that contains a sort of wholeness that expands from the deepest part of the self, and cannot be explained without losing part of its essence. Best example, what I have already commented about hypnosis.

The second one is certain obsession with my mental states. Si doms usually manifest desire for maintaining body homeostasis, in my particular case, it's about psychological homeostasis. When leading function is extensively attacked, the user lost its natural balance. Technically it's PoLR which could cause the worst damage to the psyche, but most often it's consciously ignored by the user. Only in extreme cases when there's no alternative, the vulnerability comes as it is. By the other hand, Role function is not so frequently ignored; it's disliked but it's more or less faced when required. It could be used during long time before mental exhaustion becomes manifest. Then, the user needs to retreat to leading function for recovering balance.

So what do I do, when I feel unbalanced, when I need to recover my true self? Si-like things, or Ni-like things? Most usually, the second option. It's not excercise, or physical relax, or enjoying external beauty. It's an attempt for retreat to my own mind, trying to recover its stillness, its lost wholeness. A mental state in which everything makes sense, and all thoughts are connected. When I achieve such state... Unfortunately, this task is very difficult, and most ofter I do not success.

Anyway, I cannot make a strong, final argument for Ni, or against it. Being Te creative seems more clear, so I will not argue if someone wants to see me as SLI or ILI (unless used argument is nonsensical, of course).
As an Ni dominant, myself, I would say that retreating into the mind to restore calm is very much indicative of Ni. I would venture that an Si dom would prefer to retreat to a positive sensory experience.

I'm not the best at optimising time. I have to put a lot of thought and effort into doing this. The nature of Ni is more to do with the flow of time rather than hour-to-hour, minute-to-minute, time efficiency.