# How to spot each function in real life



## lumostartarus (Apr 1, 2014)

_Taken from here. (Author is an INTP 5w4)_

*Extraverted Functions*
If you see these traits strongly displayed in someone’s behavior, it’s quite likely that it’s their dominant or auxiliary function. These are more easily observable and they’re what I’d notice first when interacting with someone.

*Ne: “The Mind Jumps” - NPs*

They seemingly jump from one topic to another without obvious connection, or interrupt you to say completely unrelated things because something you said reminds them of something else. (Note: this is easier for me to recognize because my Ne is quite strong and I can understand connections behind the ‘mind jump’ other Ne users do.)
Some NPs are aware of this and will start with “This is completely unrelated, but…”
They see multiple possibilities and tend to talk in terms of possibilities and use hedging even if they sound confident: “maybe…”, “it’s probably…”, “usually…”, “pretty much”
They act younger than their age and come off as playful, childlike, and silly.

*Te: “The Commands” - TJs*

They talk in direct, commanding statements.
They use very few hedging, and they won’t turn a sentence into a question unless they actually want to ask a question (i.e. they won’t add “,right?” at the end of a sentence or have an upward intonation, or say “don’t you think so?”, etc).
There’s an intensity about them. They easily come off as intimidating.
They are not afraid to stare people down when they talk.

*Fe: “The Warmth” - FJs*

Usually very smiley and pleasant throughout the conversation.
They feel ‘warm’ and accommodating when you interact with them.
They naturally show socially appropriate non-verbal behaviors, e.g. laughing at a joke because someone told a joke, even if it wasn’t that funny; saying “aww” or make sad faces when you share your disappointment at something, etc.
They tend to reciprocate actions, mood, and tone of the person they’re interacting with.
Likely to be uncomfortable with silence because they don’t know what to mirror.

*Se: “The Alertness” - SPs*

You can tell from their eyes. Se dom/aux have the most attentive look in their eyes. They’re so present and right there noticing everything in the environment. It’s more of a wild, open and alert look, as oppose to Te intense intimidating stare.
They’re quite easily distracted by things that are going on around them. They will look in the direction of a small noise mid-conversation, or to look at someone entering a room or a bird flying pass.
(INTP-specific) I tend to have a zoned out look when someone is talking, and it’d be Se dom that asked me the variety of “are you there?”, “are you still following me?”, and occasionally glance behind them to see what I’m looking at (when I’d actually be zoning out).

*Introverted Functions*
You can mostly see these through the content of what someone says. Again, these are clearer as someone’s dominant or auxiliary function.

*Ti: “The Analysis” - TPs*

Ti dom/aux analyze how everything works. NTPs are more theoretical and STPs are more factual, but there will be many analysis, calculations and speculations.
They tend to be impartial, preferring facts and logical explanations.
They like to ask for clarifications, to categorize and define things in more precise terms.
They may stop talking mid-conversation, look down to analyze something in their mind (possibly to find the most succinct vocab), then perk up to talk again.
They want to “know” and tend to like reading.

*Si: “The Extraordinary Memory” - SJs*

They tell stories based on events in the past in vivid details. These details tend to be descriptive observable facts (where they were, what the place looked like, how did they get there, who was there, what did they wear, what did each person did), as opposed to nuances/mood/atmosphere.
They are amazing at remembering people’s names and information.
They can tell the same stories and jokes over and over again for years.

*Fi: “The Feels” - FPs*

They are brimming with “feels”. You can see it. Stories they tell are usually personal and filled with personal opinions. You can see that those are real and meaningful to them, and they are personally attached to what they say.
They readily take a moral stance and can have a hard time understanding how someone could take a different stand point.
They tend to “show off” their values quite a bit, which can make someone with different values feel uncomfortable, e.g. a vegan Fi-user may advocate it so much and make others feel guilty about eating meat, a humanitarian Fi-user may talk highly of themselves for helping other people, or a libertarian Fi-user may tell various stories to show how uninhibited they are and how unthinkable it is to live conservatively.

*Ni: “The Future Predictions” - NJs*

Ni is extremely hard to observe externally. Ni users tend to mention “following their guts/instinct”, but they don’t readily share that fact unless you’re close to them.
They tend to have a 5 years or 10 years or 20 years plans and goals for the future. They like to know where they’re going in life.
They like to envision the most likely future path with people or situations.

*An example:* My INTJ best friend told me about an older single mom who flirted with him. He said that he didn’t like her personality and wasn’t attracted to her physically. Then, he also mentioned that he’d like to focus on his career for the next 10 years and taking care of her kids would distract him from his goal, which prompted me to ask why he would think about a future with her if he didn’t like her to begin with, and he said he does this naturally with everything.
*Another example:* The same INTJ changed jobs twice, and both times he left his old work place even before he got a confirmation that he was hired at the new job. He said he just knew instinctively that he was going to get accepted at this company (he went to about 10 interviews during the same time period).


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## tanstaafl28 (Sep 10, 2012)

@lumostartarus

I find that my Ne often makes "leaping connections" that other function doms find difficult to follow. I don't seem to need the complex "web" many others require to make such connections (or I make them subconsciously, without feeling the need to explain them in minute detail). Additionally, I sometimes will try to tie in something that was brought up several topics prior to the one currently in play. This can be highly confusing to someone whose primary function is more "logical-sequential" than mine is.


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## ruskiix (Sep 28, 2013)

My ENFJ mom and I do the mind jumps you describe as Ne more than the actual Ne users I know. I see it in INFPs and ENTPs but not INTPs or ENFPs. Maybe for us it's Fe + intuition?


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## ruskiix (Sep 28, 2013)

I do think the NFJ intuitive jumps are things we want to explain more than ENTPs. I can also follow my ENFJ moms jumps better than any other type. We pause to try and explain the jumps to other people and apologize more for how unrelated they seem.


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## Catallena (Oct 19, 2014)

basically what a Se-dom looks like


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## oddiscrey (Oct 24, 2014)

Yep, seems pretty accurate roud:


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## Du Toit (Mar 2, 2014)

Se-dom have the most attentive eyes ? I watched a video not so long ago stating that it's Si-dom that look very focused. Se-dom can't because they want to absorb sensory information in its whole, making their eyes dart around a lot. I have Se somewhere in my function stack and I relate more to this description of Se. I can be focused (an in, pay attention to the teacher) but it's hard for me not to space-out even while I'm keeping direct eye contact with someone.


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## will-o'-wisp (Feb 11, 2013)

Aha! Now _this_ is helpful!


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## Hespera (Jun 3, 2011)

O my goodness, so helpful! Fi is particularly spot on ...I can be an insufferable evangelist if I'm not careful.


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## FancyKitten (Nov 18, 2014)

ruskiix said:


> My ENFJ mom and I do the mind jumps you describe as Ne more than the actual Ne users I know. I see it in INFPs and ENTPs but not INTPs or ENFPs. Maybe for us it's Fe + intuition?


I'm the same way. That's why I got a little confused when I read that. My ENFP brother gets pretty confused in conversation because he can't really keep up with what I'm saying at all. I've always said "well I must have ADD or something" to kinda cover it up. Honestly, I don't know about you, but I drink a lot of caffeine. That could also be it.


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## Raawx (Oct 9, 2013)

This is actually a pretty good starting list. Nicely done, @lumostartarus




ruskiix said:


> My ENFJ mom and I do the mind jumps you describe as Ne more than the actual Ne users I know. I see it in INFPs and ENTPs but not INTPs or ENFPs. Maybe for us it's Fe + intuition?


Or maybe you're not xNFJ's. 

Actually, the fact that you suggested an alternative with an open-ended question certainly suggests otherwise.


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## electricky (Feb 18, 2011)

Flutter said:


> I'm the same way. That's why I got a little confused when I read that. My ENFP brother gets pretty confused in conversation because he can't really keep up with what I'm saying at all. I've always said "well I must have ADD or something" to kinda cover it up. Honestly, I don't know about you, but I drink a lot of caffeine. That could also be it.


Good point. These descriptions always tend to imply that Ne is always mentally quick, but this isn't true. Also, simply jumping to semi-related topics is something that most people tend to do. This is more of a function of memory than of any specific function-attitude. The jumpiness of Ne is more.... insight driven? It's really immistakeable once you know what to look for. I'm afraid until then people are going to be mistaking whole groups of people who happen to cycle through random topics very quickly as leagues of NPs.


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## birdsintrees (Aug 20, 2012)

To distinguish between Si and Ni I find it useful to ask someone to explain a concept or a process to me. I find that Si dom/aux will feel most comfortable when you allow them to take you from step one through to step ten, where Ni dom/aux might draw a circle around the boundaries of the concept or process and then start colouring inwards until you grasp what they're trying to say.


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## Bash (Nov 19, 2014)

Zoof said:


> To distinguish between Si and Ni I find it useful to ask someone to explain a concept or a process to me. I find that Si dom/aux will feel most comfortable when you allow them to take you from step one through to step ten, where Ni dom/aux might draw a circle around the boundaries of the concept or process and then start colouring inwards until you grasp what they're trying to say.


Thank you for this clarification. Would you mind giving us an example of such a concept or process?


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## Serpent (Aug 6, 2015)

Zoof said:


> To distinguish between Si and Ni I find it useful to ask someone to explain a concept or a process to me. I find that Si dom/aux will feel most comfortable when you allow them to take you from step one through to step ten, where Ni dom/aux might draw a circle around the boundaries of the concept or process and then start colouring inwards until you grasp what they're trying to say.


I rely on examples. I would prefer that the mentor literally does what he's explaining.


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## ruskiix (Sep 28, 2013)

I would say an easier distinction between Ne and Ni is how long they want to examine one topic. Ni will have tangents pop up but when they realize they're off track they'll want to go back to the original issue to finish exploring every nook and cranny of it. And in a focused discussion, Ni pops around trying to grab random things, trying to find rhythms and patterns that help develop whatever they were originally focused on. It's the same idea generation as Ne, but with an attempt to restrain it and with a very different goal. Ni tries to think of every possibility to explore one specific thing fully. Ne does it to explore all the possibilities themselves.

And I know everyone has "this is random but" moments, but seriously, my ENFJ mom and I are extremely unusual with it. ENTPs do the same thing, but ENFPs seem to keep more of that to themselves. I actually have an easy time following ENTPs when they're like that, but they hate when I latch onto one of their topics and want to actually focus on it. ENFPs are more willing to actually tailor their intuition to the topic I want to focus on, still hopping all over the place but staying around my topic of interest so it just feeds my super focused analysis.


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## mikan (May 25, 2014)

I'm Se aux and my eyes don't look attentive, there's no need to have an alert look on my face because I already know whats happening around me without keeping my eyes alert all the time, if you know what I mean. I know an ISTP who's the same as well.
I sense the little of things around me, but I still have a sleepy face.


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## ruskiix (Sep 28, 2013)

Raawx said:


> This is actually a pretty good starting list. Nicely done, @_lumostartarus_
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Obviously it's possible but I fit every stereotype and definitely fit the functions. Tests show maybe INTJ but Ti is definitely something I have to make an effort for. My mom definitely isn't an ENFP or ENTP. Or a sensing type. Or an introverted type.

Ne and Ni aren't so distinct that I see Ne-ish behaviors as ruling out NFJ. Does anyone actually know ENFPs who do that kind of random association like ENTPs?


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## ruskiix (Sep 28, 2013)

mikan said:


> I'm Se aux and my eyes don't look attentive, there's no need to have an alert look on my face because I already know whats happening around me without keeping my eyes alert all the time, if you know what I mean. I know an ISTP who's the same as well.
> I sense the little of things around me, but I still have a sleepy face.


The description actually reminded me of the intense stares INFJs are known for. So maybe weak Se is known for it?


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## ruskiix (Sep 28, 2013)

ElectricSparkle said:


> Good point. These descriptions always tend to imply that Ne is always mentally quick, but this isn't true. Also, simply jumping to semi-related topics is something that most people tend to do. This is more of a function of memory than of any specific function-attitude. The jumpiness of Ne is more.... insight driven? It's really immistakeable once you know what to look for. I'm afraid until then people are going to be mistaking whole groups of people who happen to cycle through random topics very quickly as leagues of NPs.


I feel like ENTPs really have the most visible Ne in the stereotypical sense.


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## Lunaena (Nov 16, 2013)

I feel like I am an introvert, but Ne-dom at the same time.


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## TheEpicPolymath (Dec 5, 2014)

I guess I'm Ni dom then.


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## Ixim (Jun 19, 2013)

lumostartarus said:


> _Taken from here. (Author is an INTP 5w4)_
> 
> *Extraverted Functions*
> If you see these traits strongly displayed in someone’s behavior, it’s quite likely that it’s their dominant or auxiliary function. These are more easily observable and they’re what I’d notice first when interacting with someone.
> ...


I added my comments to both how I feel/relate to specific functions and some little points. All of my points are marked by * .

Nice list yo!


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