Here's another portrait of Person #3 (i.e., self portrait). But this time, the purpose is no longer to be strictly objective. Instead, the purpose is to enable a differential analysis. In this portrait, I'm going to describe those aspects of myself that seem possibly Ne. The idea is that if it still comes out sounding Ni, then I must be Ni, whereas if I describe only those things that are more Ni and it comes off as Ni, then I'll always wonder if I was really Ne.

Person #3, second portrait:
When he decides to do something, he can get so fixated on the idea that "it must be possible" that he'll do things that other people consider totally unrealistic and absurd; but these may lead to workable and convenient solutions.

Here are a few simplistic examples..nothing special, but perhaps symbols of this way of thinking. Years ago, when he didn't want to be perceived once more as doing less than his share of practical tasks, he showed up early before he was supposed to help move a heavy object. He found a way of using objects as ramps and moved the thing where it needed to go before everybody else came to to move it. Another time, he insisted on purchasing a heavy cabinet that was on sale, and though at the time he didn't have the means to pay for moving it around, he imagined that there must be some way with a helium balloon. (Eventually, he convinced other people to help move it.)

He has sometimes put his view that "there must be a way to do it" to good use in computer programming jobs. If a client wants a certain bit of functionality, and everyone says that it would be too difficult, he enjoys coming up with a way that it wouldn't be too hard after all. He's bored by run-of-the-mill problems, to the point that he becomes inefficient. But he perks up when a problem calls for more creativity or a more unusual solution.

He comes up with many story ideas and ideas for artistic projects, though he brings only very few to fruition. He enjoys keeping a file of names to use for characters of stories that he might someday write, and of inventions that he hopes someday to do something with. Many of the ideas he comes up with are of the "there ought to be a such-and-such" variety.

Somehow, he entertains the notion that he will accomplish certain things in the future, even though it doesn't look likely in the present. One person once said that the difference between them was that he considered what might happen, whereas she considered what was likely to happen.

When working on a problem, he prefers to have the flexibility to reconsider the problem's definition. He's good at asking questions that challenge whether a project has been framed correctly to begin with.

When working on an artistic project, he often thinks in terms of problem solving. Maneuvering into a situation where there is a "problem" and finding just the right solution creates the illusion of inevitablity in a work of art. He likes it when some unusual technique becomes the inevitable, perfect solution.

In order to find that perfect solution, he often considers many alternatives. Once, he was working out the ending to something, and considered so many ways of how the ending could go that he had to write out all the combination and found that there were 360 combinations of ways things could go. He then empirically tested them and felt much better that the ending had something "right" about it.

Sometimes, he finds it easier to go back and forth between assignments than to try to finish one up to its completion. He likes to scan for different avenues, different approaches. While work assignments may cause him to need to converge, sometimes getting in an "expansive" mode where he considers lots of possibilities helps him get things going.

He gets some of his best ideas by getting away from it all and taking a walk, and then sometimes he gets this idea that overwhelms him and seems to solve what he was trying to solve.

At times, he seems to have an answer without a solution. Sometimes the problem is to find the problem that the answer is an answer to.

He spends a lot of time thinking about things like Socionics and making posts like this one, rather than thinking about what he *should* be doing, or where he should be going, or completing his posts and doing something useful like...