# Experimental as kids?



## Enfpleasantly (Mar 5, 2012)

When you were a kid, did you like doing things other kids didn't particularly appreciate? Like science experiments, tinkering, testing things, etc? Just curious because of all the INTJ's I personally know, this seems to be a trend, I wondered if there was a similar trend in NT's in general


----------



## this is my username (Apr 15, 2011)

I was always mixing shit together and seeing what would happen. Pretty good thing the important chemicals were up high.


----------



## Tyrant (Mar 8, 2012)

- I was always mixing things together. Liquids, solids; didn't matter. I mixed everything. My goals were either 1) to create something new, or 2) to see the effects/consequences.

- I was always taking things apart and putting them back together, and was fascinated with airplane models.

- I loved inventing things out of junk and garbage, and liked to figure out how things work, then apply those techniques to the crap I made.

- I wanted to be a scientist.

- My friend and I tried to start a fire without matches or lighters on the school playground when we were 6. We eventually got a spark after some weeks and freaked out the teachers, then got punished for literally playing with fire.

- When I was 9, I cut myself because I wanted to see what my blood looked like under a microscope. I was freakishly obsessed with it, and would put anything that I found interesting onto a slide to take a closer look at them, namely, cross sections of fish brains, fish hearts, my own skin, water from ponds or swamps (they had protists in them), etc.


There's more, but I can't think of them right now.

Edit:
The fish brains and hearts came from the supermarket. I didn't run around killing fish. I don't kill animals. Might as well mention that.


----------



## LimeDegree (Mar 6, 2012)

This might not met your criteria...but when I was growing up, one of my greatest joys was experimenting with other people, seeing how they reacted to unfamiliar or unlikely situations.

If you accept human responses as samples for the purposes of scientific experiments, then yes, I was severely into that.


----------



## misstheground (Mar 11, 2012)

LimeDegree said:


> This might not met your criteria...but when I was growing up, one of my greatest joys was experimenting with other people, seeing how they reacted to unfamiliar or unlikely situations.
> 
> If you accept human responses as samples for the purposes of scientific experiments, then yes, I was severely into that.


 That sounds quite hazardous. . .


----------



## Enfpleasantly (Mar 5, 2012)

^^ I agree, lol!


----------



## TheBoss (Oct 27, 2011)

First wall plugs, then electronics (of which I destroyed my fair share as any normal preschooler). 
If it moved (walking doll, electrical train) or made sounds (phones, stereos, etc) for no good reason, it was to be interrogated and dissected.

Plugs are an interesting case, they don't move, don't make sounds and yet make things happen and so, are many a baby's obsession. I wasn't an exception; mom claims I stopped after the final straw of me sneaking yet again to put something in, when she decided to open a plug, show me how it is assembled and explain why it works and why it was dangerous (plain concepts were used ofc: "you won't see mommy and daddy ever again if you put pointy objects in the plug" rather than "high voltage will cause a chain reaction through your body molecules collapsing your nervous system causing you to suffocate and die").
Nevertheless, with my curiosity satisfied, I left the plugs alone ever since.

But all kids did testings and experiments, wasn't something unique. Tinkering especially, must have had a 100% chance where I grew up.


----------



## Finagle (Jun 4, 2011)

I read "Empire of the Ants" and "Day of the Ants" by Bernard Werber when I was a kid. Naturally, I had to test everything they said about ants in those books. May their poor souls rest in peace.
Thinking about it, I tested way to much things with bugs/insects/etc...
Like cutting earthworm in half thinking they would aerate the soil twice as fast...

Other than date, I remember reading kid sciences magazines and biology books, but I don't remember experimenting with them too much.
Had lot of fun borrowing my father's tools and playing with firecrackers though.

I think I was more into building/creating stuffs than experimenting, really.


----------



## asewland (Mar 5, 2012)

When I was young, I would mess around with every single thing possible. I'd fuck around with fire, mix all kinds of things together, and try new experiments all the time. It's a miracle that I didn't accidentally kill myself


----------



## A_D_Cloudsurfer (Aug 30, 2011)

I would dissect fruits and vegetables.
Also, I would gather one type of ant and dump them on a different
type's hill or mix them in a bucket.
I loved dissecting electronics and music and much more.


----------



## kingdavidANC (Aug 2, 2011)

TheBoss said:


> Nevertheless, with my curiosity satisfied, I left the plugs alone ever since.


It's good that you're still practicing electrical safety.


----------



## TheBoss (Oct 27, 2011)

kingdavidANC said:


> It's good that you're still practicing electrical safety.


It is even better I learnt to re-assembly everything electronic I dissect.
Oh the joy of never having extra screws unaccounted for. ^^


----------



## nevermore (Oct 1, 2010)

In Grade One I convinced the kids in my class to "build a time machine" by ripping apart an old computer, VCR, and other electronic devices and having a parent volunteer superglue the different parts together on a board. Needless to say I had no idea what I was doing (I treated it more like an arts and crafts exercise), but I convinced this girl (I think she had Asperger's though) it actually worked when we used it at the end of the year. She said she "took a trip to a cave at the North Pole" when she went on it because when she closed her eyes everything went dark...the class also didn't seem to grasp what a time machine was, but what the hey!

I always dreamed of being a "genius inventor" when I was a kid. My real triumph came when I was in Grade 3 or so. I also built a lightbulb from scratch when I was in the third grade. I found an old jar, hammered two nails into the top, ripped apart picture-hanging wire to the tiniest threads, strung it between the nails, and attached two ordinary copper wires to the nails. I held the other end of the wires up to a long string of batteries and it actually glowed! It became one of my show and tell subjects. The problem was it only lasted about thirty seconds max before the wire burned.

That was during my electronics phase, probably the year or so of my childhood when I was the most stereotypically INTP. I had a little electronic circuitry board that was one of my favourite toys and I loved fooling around with it.


----------



## kinetickyle (Feb 27, 2011)

I was always taking things apart to see how they worked. Sometimes I'd be able to put them back together, but often not. I would also try to build things from the parts of the toys/appliances/etc. that I had destroyed.


----------



## Polo (Oct 2, 2011)

Yes. I love building things, and in childhood that's not a very girly thing. I found an OLD erector set once; I wish I still had it. There were no instructions, no wires, few pieces were left and those were all on the verge of rusting. But let me tell you, I had one heck of time using my dad's screwdriver to screw pieces of metal together over and over ><

I also liked creating/building things in the way of art; I got into fantasy fiction stuff when I was about 12, and I would go outside in the summer and build mud-huts for fairies, combining water, dirt, and twigs to create tiny houses 

Times like these, I ask myself - why am I not studying architecture?


----------



## aef8234 (Feb 18, 2012)

I was playing around with locks when I was little, and also doing some phone tapping.
Sad that not many people use phones nowadays.


----------



## bubbamamma (Feb 21, 2012)

Truthfully, I don't think I've outgrown the experimenting. My science teachers can attest to that. Oh, the joys of lab...


----------



## Citizen of the World (Aug 6, 2010)

I wrote my own episodes of my own cartoon show in notebooks as early as age 5. I also played out episodes using toys. Now I excel in creative writing. 

I come from a musical family and am now composing, but I never actually wrote music before I was 17.

As for science, I mixed random things like paints, tea, things no one would miss in water.


----------



## HippoHunter94 (Jan 19, 2012)

I loved legos. Hours upon hours were spent making everything I could. I also would freeze every liquid I could think to mix. When I was nine, I was also very keen on researching dead presidents and learning about the Cold War. I was also a burgeoning movie buff. Unfortunately, I was the only eleven year old that understood the optimism and triumph of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and why Are We Thee Yet? was a shitty shitty film.


----------



## MyName (Oct 23, 2009)

I was daydreaming and in my head all the time. I was probably alot more idea focused than other kids. I also liked to wander around, causing my parents a huge amount of panic when they wouldn't be able to find me.


----------

