# Ne and Se concrete examples?



## mell (Aug 9, 2012)

As far as I know, extroverted intuition is an explosion of possibilities while an Se user wants to go out and experience everything. There seems to be a distinct difference between these two functions that is very hard for me to understand. Can anybody provide some real life examples of Se and Ne use to illustrate the difference between these two?

Right now I am thinking that an Ne user sees a lot of possibilities from one idea. But what is an example of an actual “idea” and what are some of these possibilities an Ne user may see from this idea?

I am also thinking that an Se user wants to go out and experience things for themselves. Outdoor hands-on activities would probably spark a lot of interest in a n Se user and this person will go out and do it. What about an Ne user who likes outdoor activities? Would an Ne user just instead think about the possibilities these outdoor activities will have and ten not actually do them?

I apologize for my incredibly heavy misunderstanding of these functions. Intuition has always really confused me.


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## LiquidLight (Oct 14, 2011)

Extraverted Sensation just refers to taking in perceptions via your five senses and accepting them as they are. Not interjecting anything from within (not caring about how it comes across to you, or what it means to you, or how it feels to you). Just accepting it at face value. The sky is blue. Not the blue sky brings to bear memories of when I used to play under a similar blue sky or when the sky is blue it makes me feel sad or anything like that. Those would be more like Si because the focus in that case is back toward the self and not at the object. With Si, the object is merely a stimulus--a jumping off point from which the person mines his inner world for things to attach to that sense perception. With Se it is the strength of the stimulus itself that commands the person's attention, so the more stimulating something is, the more the Se type will be drawn toward it, whereas with Si, the object only matters in as much as it triggers something internal for the person.

Extraverted Intuition is basically having gut-feelings, notions, hunches about things in the outside world. People misunderstand the term possibilities. It's not that Ne is all possibilities but rather Ne provides Si the possibility that things aren't what they appear (because Ne types are also Si types, so if you are perceiving the world physically and only focusing on your own subjective experience, then you need a function that gives you hunch or notion of the possibility that things might not be as you see them). Ne really doesn't see possibilities in ideas specifically, though it can, but rather sees possibilities in those things that relate to the outer world. So the ability to look at the horns of a bull and make handle bars of a bike, is a classic example of Ne telling a person that something can be different than how it appears (it's also why intuitives have poor sensation functions, because if you are going to habitually downplay the physical world in favor of what it could be, you basically have to disregard any physical actual impressions about what the object actually is so you can focus more on what it could be). 

The reason people mix up Ne and Se is because of the tendency toward (what a judgment type might call) impulsivity. But understand Ne impulsivity revolves more about chasing after options, or ideas. New paradigms of thought or opportunities. The Ne type is the person who starts up one thing, never finishes it, because he is already off doing something else (this is more Intuition+Feeling but it is a general tendency of the type to constantly be chasing after the next interesting thing). The Se type's impulsivity revolves specifically around Sensation and seeking the next stimulating thing. So if something comes along that is more stimulating, or presents the opportunity for stimulation, like say thrill seeking, roller coaster riding, making out with different guys in a bar, or whatever, Extraverted Sensation (when its not well adapted) works on almost a primal level, simply seeking out the next stimulating experience, taste or aesthetic. The Se type is always interested in the next game, the next fight, the next at bat, the next big explosion, the next roller coaster ride (again these are stereotypical oversimplifications but I'm trying to draw a contrast). In contrast, the Ne-type is often not interested in those physical things at all, or if they are may have something of a love/hate with them, and maybe some phobia or hypochondria (because of their poorly adapted Sensation) but will chase after the next new approach to doing something, or the next latest and greatest new idea they have and so on. 

Outwardly some might mistake the two types for another (especially if they have eclectic tastes, many people might mistake an artsy ESFP for an ENFP) but once you dig a little further you realize the strength of one, is the weakness of the other.


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## mell (Aug 9, 2012)

Thank you for such a detailed post. This clears a lot of things up for me. 

I see a lot of the Fi-Ne resemblance in myself despite many people telling me I am an ISFP. This is probably because I really do resemble many of the stereotypes of a typical ISFP. I see a lot of the Ne resemblances in my bouncing from hobby to hobby. One month I may be totally into photography and showing my photos while talking passionately about photography to my friends. I plan out where I'm going to go to get some good shots and then all of a sudden I'll get this inspiration to start swimming. Then I go swim and tell all my friends about it while planning out to go swim somewhere else. The plans are left unfinished mainly because I find something else interesting that I want to do.

I see how important it is to really focus on the functions and what charges people rather than rely on descriptions and stereotypes.


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## Coldspot (Nov 7, 2011)

As an Ne user, I see many outcomes to many little daily things. I see a car going by, and I'll think about it crashing, pulling into a driveway, etc. More often though, I'll think about how relationships will turn out (Fi influence).


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## pandamiga (Aug 11, 2012)

LiquidLight said:


> Extraverted Sensation just refers to taking in perceptions via your five senses and accepting them as they are. Not interjecting anything from within (not caring about how it comes across to you, or what it means to you, or how it feels to you). Just accepting it at face value. The sky is blue. Not the blue sky brings to bear memories of when I used to play under a similar blue sky or when the sky is blue it makes me feel sad or anything like that. Those would be more like Si because the focus in that case is back toward the self and not at the object. With Si, the object is merely a stimulus--a jumping off point from which the person mines his inner world for things to attach to that sense perception. With Se it is the strength of the stimulus itself that commands the person's attention, so the more stimulating something is, the more the Se type will be drawn toward it, whereas with Si, the object only matters in as much as it triggers something internal for the person.
> 
> Extraverted Intuition is basically having gut-feelings, notions, hunches about things in the outside world. People misunderstand the term possibilities. It's not that Ne is all possibilities but rather Ne provides Si the possibility that things aren't what they appear (because Ne types are also Si types, so if you are perceiving the world physically and only focusing on your own subjective experience, then you need a function that gives you hunch or notion of the possibility that things might not be as you see them). Ne really doesn't see possibilities in ideas specifically, though it can, but rather sees possibilities in those things that relate to the outer world. So the ability to look at the horns of a bull and make handle bars of a bike, is a classic example of Ne telling a person that something can be different than how it appears (it's also why intuitives have poor sensation functions, because if you are going to habitually downplay the physical world in favor of what it could be, you basically have to disregard any physical actual impressions about what the object actually is so you can focus more on what it could be).
> 
> ...


Ah, this is very insightful. I've always had a problem differentiating the two (especially for inferior Se and Ne). I am not really impulsive, but can have outbursts where I just want to experience something. Like one day, I was taking a walk in a new part of my campus and really wanted to take in all of my surroundings. It didn't feel totally natural for me to do this because naturally it's hard for me to pay complete attention to my surroundings ...it felt kind of forced. It doesn't always feel forced. A lot of the times it is relaxing to just be in the moment. And other times I get urges to do something... like crawl through a whole in the door or dance. Is this the result of inferior Se?


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## nujabes (May 18, 2012)

This thread is a perfect example of what Ne is: http://personalitycafe.com/intp-forum-thinkers/106709-intp-system.html

Also, it's hard to give concrete examples of an abstract function...


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## electricky (Feb 18, 2011)

Concrete examples? You may need to ask someone with more preferred Se about those....


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## saffron (Jan 30, 2011)

I'll take a stab at coming up with some concrete examples of Ne. 

If I'm going on a trip, I'll research for months in advance looking for exceptional and novel places to eat, visit, tour... It's almost obsessive because I'm so exited by all of the possibilities in a new environment and I don't want to miss the quintessential experiences of the culture and geography etc... I'll lose lots of "in the moment" time doing all of this planning and researching for variations of things to do depending on the weather or our moods or how busy it would be on the day/s we have available or travel distances and will ultimately just put it all in my back pocket to act spontaneously going to some of these places and just following a hunch to do some others as they pop up. 

Another example is that I really enjoy those films/books/songs that leave most people wondering "What the hell was that about?" I like to find my own meaning or meanings (because there can be more than one), and get bored with the obvious. I think real life people and situations are complex and I like to see that represented in art. 

Now these examples likely involve more functions than Ne, but Ne is the driving force.


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## LiquidLight (Oct 14, 2011)

pandamiga said:


> Ah, this is very insightful. I've always had a problem differentiating the two (especially for inferior Se and Ne). I am not really impulsive, but can have outbursts where I just want to experience something. Like one day, I was taking a walk in a new part of my campus and really wanted to take in all of my surroundings. It didn't feel totally natural for me to do this because naturally it's hard for me to pay complete attention to my surroundings ...it felt kind of forced. It doesn't always feel forced. A lot of the times it is relaxing to just be in the moment. And other times I get urges to do something... like crawl through a whole in the door or dance. Is this the result of inferior Se?


Could be. It's sort of hard to tell though because one would have to distinguish what was motivating this. Is it imagination, curiosity or some other thing. Usually an inferior function feels 'not you' especially when you are just getting acquainted with it. It seems foreign like you are out of your skin and might even lead people to become a little neurotic or scared. It's one of those things where you often either feel you have to work very hard at it, can't stand criticism of it, or conversely can make you feel like a hero or a fool.


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## pandamiga (Aug 11, 2012)

LiquidLight said:


> Could be. It's sort of hard to tell though because one would have to distinguish what was motivating this. Is it imagination, curiosity or some other thing. Usually an inferior function feels 'not you' especially when you are just getting acquainted with it. It seems foreign like you are out of your skin and might even lead people to become a little neurotic or scared. It's one of those things where you often either feel you have to work very hard at it, can't stand criticism of it, or conversely can make you feel like a hero or a fool.


Yeah, the motivation... I am not sure if there was any... but I guess I just did it because that was another and cooler way of entering the laundry room. Yeah, I don't like to judged by my impulsive dancing in malls... I simply just have to do it to help me be in the moment. But if you think I use Ne as inferior instead, then I'll believe you.

Edit:: I tried to see if there was curiosity behind my action, but I couldn't think of it. I mean, why else would I crawl through a hole in a door? I simply wanted to get to the other side and enjoy the experience of it. And why else would I dance awkwardly in public even though I try to resist? There is no reason... I just like to feel my body move to good music.


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## LiquidLight (Oct 14, 2011)

Well Inferior Ne looks very different. Inferior Ne is like the person who always has a million reasons as to why something might turn out bad. What if the plane crashes? What if the pilot gets sick? What if the flight attendant trips on someone's foot and the beverage cart pins the captain against the wall? What if someone is going through the airport and security gets nervous and shuts down the terminal and I miss my flight? And so on. In the inferior Ne still throws out possibilities but they generally take on a negative character. Hyperbolic outcomes and seeing devils around every corner. Inferior Ne can manifest in someone who is something of a worrier because their gut-feelings are always telling them that something negative (to them) might happen. 

Inferior Sensation deals more with not being connected to the physical world. Inferior Sensation can lead to a person to have physical addiction problems (not always but definitely can contribute), hypochondria, fear of things happening to them. A person with Inferior Si might become a vegetarian, for instance, because of the notion that some food borne illness found in meat might infect them and eat them up from the inside (typically extraverts fear things happening from within and introverts fear things happening from outside of them). Intuitives have a tendency to be physically awkward at times, sometimes goofy in the way they present themselves, or comically stiff. They can be uneasy and unnatural, or on the flipside overly sensual (think of the crazy ENFP girl doing some crazy dance gyrations in the middle of the room to the music in a trendy bar). Inferior functions tend to be all or nothing. The biggest giveaway of inferior sensation though is the lack of concrete evidence for a person's notions. Because intuition tends to operate without having physical evidence to back things up (that's what sensation is for) intuitives have a tendency to just fly off the rails with all kinds of speculations, or may think they know more about something than they really do (guilt here), or could pick up a task quickly (intuitively) without needing to go through proper education ("I'll just figure it out..." they might say). They have a tendency to speak more symbolically than practically, which confounds dominant Sensation types who think they are just making stuff up or are BS artists. The Intuitive might say "so and so will become the next president," just on a hunch, but the Sensation type, never trusting hunches (or perhaps trusting the wrong ones from time to time) will often throw out a bunch of data. Statistics, polling data, historical precedents and so forth, they are very quick to be dismissive of people who just fly off their own instincts. I think every intuitive has probably experienced such a situation where they made a claim, either in school or to a person, where the evidence for their assertion was questioned and the intuitive couldn't back it up. "I just know..." they might say, but of course on an essay or newspaper column in our S dominated world, that doesn't fly. Ours is a sensation oriented world obsessed with facts. Whereas the intuitive lives more in the world of notions and symbols.


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## pandamiga (Aug 11, 2012)

...Ok. Yeah, well as I mentioned before, I don't have that Ne fear. Sure, if my sister is driving six hours I always know (just like everyone else) that there is the possibility of getting into an accident. But usually, I'll kinda try to ignore it and say that "when she arrives, then I know she is safe. What makes me feel uncomfortable is gripping the wheel. I mean, even if I am just opening a back of cereal my hands start to feel weird and I can't open it on occasion. Also, another way my Ne/Se inferior manifests is when I got my acceptance letter to college during the summer. I don't want to believe that I am going to college until I am on campus and started my classes. It felt strange that I should believe that I was go to school when my body isn't in the school ...those kinds of things also make me uncomfortable; I want to make sure I had sensory data so I don't feel duped. Is that Se to you?

Edit:: a better example of what how I think inferior Ne plays in me is when I worry that my little brother will lock himself out of the house if I don't come home on time. He's usually forgetful so I become hysterical about the idea. It wasn't many things that could go wrong (so I doubt Ne), but that single conclusion it was based on something that was fact.


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## saffron (Jan 30, 2011)

Just wanted to point out that Ne is way more than just that tired example of "that __ looks like it could be a ___." It's a bit irritating to have it diminished to a true, but minor aspect to it's essence. It's a lot more useful than that. I wish everyone would refrain from using that as a primary concrete example of Ne. It's more exploring the potential or potential meanings of a situation/person/opportunity etc... It's actually very useful, it's just that the draw towards the new and novel often doesn't result in the well deserved pay-off. I've been offered several promotions that I didn't take. I didn't take them because I was bored with the job, but I deserved them or they wouldn't have been offered. I finish what I start in terms of a project or general commitment, I just don't see it through for the ultimate financial pay-off (personally), because it doesn't drive me.


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