Examples of pattern finding in intuitives?

Hey Personality Cafe. I see the word "patterns" used to describe the intuitive functions. I was wondering if someone could come up with some real life examples of pattern noticing so that I can better understand these functions.

Alright, I can try with this. I know I do this all the time, but now that it's been asked, all my examples will vanish.

I have a very close friend who is an ESTJ. When we first met, I had a hard time getting her to talk to me about her feelings, which was kind of hard on me. So, I intentionally became hyper-alert to any changes in her disposition. Since we were writing partners at the time, I used her writing style more than anything else, because in-person interactions could easily be slightly different from one day to the next without carrying a significant meaning. I quickly realized that her characters' color sheens would take on different tones depending on her mood. Black indicated frustration or deep sadness; dark blue indicated a depressed feeling; white and pink indicated a purity/naivety, and usually were coupled with children. I think it was her way of expressing nostalgia or a wish for a different kind of childhood (not that her's was traumatizing, she just felt like she hadn't been given enough chance to be a child- that she had been made to grow up too fast); etc. I don't remember many of my other mood/thought markers, but I had a ton. At the time, I remember thinking that I had completely made up my scale. There wasn't much to support the idea that black meant frustration or sadness; her story-lines didn't change much and were usually fandom-based. Because of that, I was worried for a while to express to her that I thought I had cracked her code, so to speak, because I could be totally wrong and that would be embarrassing. One day it came up, though. It had been a long series of her sadder-themed colors, so I decided to be sneaky. I toyed with speech for a long time while I was talking to her, and finally figured out the problem: one of her relatives was in town and had been absolutely rude and demeaning to her and her sister. It had pissed her off. Over time, I got more and more validation for that way of doing things, and I finally came out and told her that was how I figured it out. She doesn't write as much anymore, but she's much more open about discussing her feelings with me now, and we bonded on a more iNtuitive level- which means there isn't much need for evidence. But if need be, I can always resort to a hunter-gatherer method of obtaining information on someone.

I had a friend I really had a crush on. We talked a lot and spend a lot of time together. Almost every conversation, she'd start complaining about her dad and grandmother because they wanted her to do her homework. I secretly understood their stance better; after she nearly failed the year before for not doing her homework, I would have been stricter with her, too. That aside, I remember one conversation we had over the phone that went like this:
She said- "I just feel like nobody supports me."
I made a snap recollection of information on this. I realized she was always talking about her menagerie of friends and how amazing they all were. There were so many people around to support her, so I knew the word 'nobody' wasn't literal. So, finally, I said; "No, you know people support you. It's not that nobody supports you, it's that you don't feel like the one person you desperately want to support you does."
"...you're good at that."
"Who is it?"
"You tell me."
"I have three guesses; your ex-boyfriend, the girl you have a crush on now, or your dad." {I put more stock into her dad, but I thought I should include the others- just in case}
"You're right- it's my dad. How do you do that?"
I was 15 at the time, never taken a psychology course. It wasn't until much later that I learned about how teenagers view the world based on their 'significant others' (people who are important to them in their lives). I already knew that sometimes when you say 'no one,' it doesn't mean no one- it means the one person who might as well be everyone.

I'm sure there are others, but my list is gone. Sorry >.>

Intuition regardless of the attitude-type is about the possibilities of an object beyond its immediate context (the context may or may not be sensory for example a concept or idea). I understand Ne as projecting ideas through or centered on the object until a larger context is visible. An example would be to look at a painting and then to tell a story about it. In terms of pattern matching with say one of those "what figure/number comes next puzzles", its about coming up with (perceiving) a lot of possible rule-sets and using some judging function (e.g. Ti) to test for validity.

Ni is strange as it varies with the system (MBTI/jung) that you're using. Jung's version has archetypes from the collective unconscious take the form of symbols or images that somehow reflect upon the object. I relax this definition (taking it closer to reality/application) by referring to it as the perception of encoded patterns (in symbol form) that are transmutable (can be placed in a similar context) with the object. An example would have a problem be the object and Ni presenting the possible solution(s) themselves. The more defined or context the problem has, the more success Ni perceptions are triggered (some INTJ/INFJ verify this)? Its then up to some judging function (e.g. Te) to test/prove validity. I'm reminded of Indian mathematician Srinivasa_Ramanujan who came up with correct results but couldn't prove a large portion of his works. Pattern recognition in this case would follow an art of posing a question such that a desired pattern or outcome could feasibly be recognized.

One of my habits is using examples and analogies, a LOT. The connections between things just come effortlessly to me, and it's a nice pet to have because if you're trying to explain something that is rather complicated, sometimes using an example from a movie or something just makes it simple to comprehend. Sometimes, though, it achieves nothing, depending on the subject I am communicating with.

The other thing is, you cannot say that only strong Intuitives can find patterns. Some patterns are obvious. Some patterns are deduced by logic or thinking. So its somewhat of a misnomer out there that pattern-finding is the sole realm of intuitives. Of course one can use intuition to deduce a pattern as well, but it is just one mere method of this.

For example 2,4,6,8,10,12...we all know the next number will be 14. But that's because Thinking tells us that. Now perhaps the person who initially figured out that all these numbers were divisible by two used an intuitive leap to get there, for most of us this pattern is a logical one not an intuitive one.

I was bored one day at work and figured out that if you want to quickly calculate the sum of consecutive integers starting with 1, you multiply the total figures (1-10 would be 10) by one-half of the last integer + .5, for example, 1-6 would be 6 * 3.5 = 21. It didn't take very long to see the pattern in that, and it is what I would consider to be the intuitive form of pattern discernment.

Thanks for the replies. I still find Ni to be a mysterious function based on the examples provided by ToiletWater13 and benr3600 and also nonnaci's explanation. Ne seems to be more familiar though. What I'd like to hear is an example that seemingly comes straight from the thought process, or at least the thoughts describing it.

Originally Posted by benr3600

I was bored one day at work and figured out that if you want to quickly calculate the sum of consecutive integers starting with 1, you multiply the total figures (1-10 would be 10) by one-half of the last integer + .5, for example, 1-6 would be 6 * 3.5 = 21. It didn't take very long to see the pattern in that, and it is what I would consider to be the intuitive form of pattern discernment.

I find that impressive that you figured that out on your own. I remember learning something similar. You can also change the minimum integer by using the equation (f + l)(n/2) where f is the first number in the sequence and l is the last. n is the number of digits. So numbers 2-10 would insert as 12*4.5 = 54.

l'm always finding myself connecting things.

l prefer to see the connections between ideas and things that seem completely remote and and factor those down to the LCD.

A lot of people have just called this over-simplifying and even being narrow-minded which l think is true in some ways, even if it's meant to be an insult.

For me there are not many things that exist completely on their own, everything is a product of everything else and when l find those few things that are solid and haven't been divided into a thousand other pieces yet l become really interested.

Also with people's behavior, sometimes l'm too critical with that. Looking for patterns right from the beginning, l get them sorted out pretty quickly too but l don't ignore the good in people. l especially notice when people have a pattern of behavior that is positive and consistent.

I'm not sure if this is Ne or Ni, (guessing Ne) but...

the other day while I was in the woods I noticed something quite fundamental about the development of trees that I guess I never really thought about. There are big trees, that take up most of the sun, smaller trees, about 4-5ft tall, and then that's pretty much where my understanding of the cycle of trees ended. I never noticed that majority of what I used to think of underbrush is actually little saplings trying to claim their space; basically only 1% of these saplings grow to a reasonable height that allows them to survive beyond their current height.

For some reason I felt this was quite profound since right at the moment of discovery I had a flash of insight that entailed these trees starting as saplings, 90% of them dying off, 10% actually growing, and some unknown percentage that grows to claim a larger amount of sun for themselves. I could see the process as a whole and imagined how it cycles overtime.

@CaptainWayward

Same process for how most reproductive organisms are either extremely prolific or extremely conservative. I think Jung used this analogy with extroversion and introversion.