# Ni: Just what the hell is it? XD



## Angelic Gardevoir (Oct 7, 2010)

I've read conflicting descriptions. Some say that it involves multiple interpretations of an idea. Some say it involves interpretation of universal symbols. Others say that it forms patterns to predict the future. Still others say that Ni synthesizes conflicting information. So how does Ni really work? I have an idea, but I'm not sure it's right.

Basically, Ni interprets an idea and generates multiple interpretations of that idea. Then, the ideas are narrowed down to one. This is where Ni gets the ideas about the future. Either that, or it takes the interpretations and sees the similarities in them in order to combine them into one interpretation. Or both. This whole process is largely unconscious. ...Is this right or am I completely off?


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## Vaan (Dec 19, 2010)

Ni is a percieving function that basically gathers massive amounts of information and this is usually erratic so usually there is an organising function for it (for example INFJ's have dominant Ni and tertiary Ti that organises the information)


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## Angelic Gardevoir (Oct 7, 2010)

Vaan said:


> Ni is a percieving function that basically gathers massive amounts of information and this is usually erratic so usually there is an organising function for it (for example INFJ's have dominant Ni and tertiary Ti that organises the information)


Well, I was thinking that maybe the judging function was responsible for pruning Ni's possibilities, but I wasn't for sure if I should have put that or not. *waits for more responses*


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## devoid (Jan 3, 2011)

I love the title, since I'm sure we've all though those exact words at some point.

I've seen Ni described as the "ah ha!" moments, when you know something but have no idea why. As a strong Ne user I have a difficult time wrapping my head around the concept.


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## antiant (Jul 4, 2010)

If I were to draw Ni visually, this is what it would look like:

^ * @ ) %


$ @ + Ni = A....F...M...P...T...Z { \ ?



- -_ # 3 ! }


*versus​*

If I were to draw Ne visually, this is what it would look like:


0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 

Ne = A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H...

z y x w v u t s r q


You can see why Ni is hard to explain. Ni takes in information, bits and pieces based off patterns within the world and connects them in a way, where it makes sense, while still being able to see the bigger picture all around. In some ways, Ni is kind of like a tip of the iceberg thing, or better yet an electromagnetic field. Ni can see things, that most people are not privy to, just like humans cannot see certain things with the naked eye, while other species can. Same idea with sound, a dogs hearing for example, is much stronger than that of a human and they are able to pick-up on things because of it. Ever see an animal react before an earthquake hits? Ni is basically the same thing, it's being in tune with the world around you, in such a way, that you can pick-up these signals and use them to connect the dots in a more abstract and non-linear way. Since the information is not as consistent (linear speaking) as say Ne, Ni dom's have a strong idea of what is going to happen, but they cannot always determine if it's legit, therefore all they have is the "hunch" at best. In the case of an INTJ, the Te that follows helps back up the "hunch," with a more consistent and linear cognitive function, etc.

Hope that helps.


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## Hastings (Jan 8, 2011)

Ni is the force, man.


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## Monkey King (Nov 16, 2010)

I've always thought that I used it to find the root cause and effect of various non-related but sometimes related idea(s). 

It's like what antiant said-- Ni is bits and pieces of ideas that I've gathered along the way. Some ideas are stand alone ideas but the more I gather the more I see a tying feature to each one. The tying feature is usually what is common between the ideas and pretty soon I weave them all together to get one focused idea. That's usually where the "AHA!" comes in. Which then supports the plans I come up with Te. It allows me to have a plan 1a, 2a, 3a for Plan A and then a Plan B (just in case plan A might not work) by simply analyzing the the cause and effect of an idea. 

That's the simplest way I can describe it.


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## OrangeAppled (Jun 26, 2009)

I'm a little tired & lazy right now, so this is the most concise answer I can come up with:

Ni is an irrational, perceiving thought process which focuses on one's own impression of a concept/idea as oppose to the concept itself (the impression becomes a concept of the concept so to speak), so as to see the most fundamental idea behind something, how it will almost inevitably or most likely develop into the future, & to conceive new concepts from these realizations. It is irrational, like all the P functions, because it does not reason, but rather "sees" or becomes aware mentally, and what it sees is rather arbitrary (it's a matter of what catches the individual's attention).

Unlike Ne, it is focused on getting to the core of an idea, not branching it out to see as many implications as possible. This is reflected in Ni-dom's demeanor, which often seems more composed than an NP's. On another forum, some poster compared Ni to stacking dolls, which sounded good to me...Ni thinking tends to pare ideas down to get to their essential meaning, whereas Ne gets to essential meaning by comparing concepts & seeing how they overlap, like a brainstorming venn diagram.

Oh here's another stab I took recently....some repetition, but it may help:

In order to grasp Ni, grasp this first: Si forms impressions of the tangible, literal world & focuses on those subjective impressions over the literal objects, whereas Se focuses on the literal objects themselves. With that in mind, *Ni forms subjective impressions of existing concepts and focuses on these impressions over the actual objective concepts*, which is what Ne focuses on, the concepts behind what is real & how these connect & what they could lead to. *So Ni perceptions are sort of the individual perception of the background of the background of the world, honing in on the core concept behind many concepts by focusing on the Ni-dom's impressions of these concepts (these impressions can amount to imagined connections which highlight the core concept)*. It's why partially why Ni seems more like a confluence & Ne like tree branches in their perception forming. It is also why it seems mystical, abstract and generally removed from reality (because it is removed from reality, discarding the literal view & honing in on its abstract concept). It often produces someone more focused, composed, zeroing in a goal or idea & using structure to accomplish it.


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## alionsroar (Jun 5, 2010)

How I see Ni: a tree fractal full of information.

The more developed Ni is, the more nodes in the tree. When Ni is fully developed, the person has a big bushy tree full of information. When Ni is not so developed, the tree has less branching.

An introverted judging function has been used to shape the tree, to organise the information into those branches.
An extraverted judging function is used to hack away at the branches so the user is left with a single pathway to one point. Since there is effectively only one branch (the rest has been hacked away and discarded) one does not need to look at all the information on the nodes in between the start and end point. Just look at the tip of the branch and there's your answer.









Start with the orange dot at the base of the trunk describing a cat. The green dots at the nodes are bits of Se information saying for example cat is black, miaowing, named Tom etc.
Extraverted judging function tells you which way to go along the branch until you reach the end dot which describes the cat completely, identifying it singularly as your cat. Now since there is only one path, you can just jump straight to the end and say 'aha! that is my cat' instead of focusing on all the detail about whether it is black or miaows a lot etc.

How it fits in with multiple interpretations is that at the node where it branches you have options: e.g cat meaning lion or cat meaning tiger. So when you say cat, it can mean multiple things.

How it differs from Si/Ne: Si refers to the red lines connecting the green Se dots. Instinctively the Ne/Si person goes along many red Si lines to reach a green dot where they call out the information they find there: cat! unicorn! mushroom! sometimes they are not so aware of the line they used to get to that green Se dot in particular.


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## CounterPoint (Oct 13, 2010)

Ni is about freeing up conceptual explanations of a thing, stripping a symbol down of all assumptions where possible. It's also about imagining the probability of an outcome without having to actually experience it by focusing in on patterns and trends. It compares current observations to past experiences, and then it extrapolates current patterns forward. Where Ne is connecting to ideas based on possibilities, Ni is stripping down ideas based on probability.


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## babblingbrook (Aug 10, 2009)




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## Angelic Gardevoir (Oct 7, 2010)

hziegel said:


> As a strong Ne user I have a difficult time wrapping my head around the concept.


I think that's why I ended up making this thread in the first place.

Thanks everyone. I think I understand it a bit better now (@OrangeAppled's helped especially), but keep the posts coming!


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## phantom_cat (Jan 1, 2011)

as I've read before, Ni is like a Magic 8 ball. ask it a question and it provides you with an answer. Ne is different. it's much more step by step. it's easier to follow. Ni likes to combine information to give a single answer, while Ne gives many possibilities. If one possibility isn't correct, then it uses what it now knows to create a new one.


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## sea cucumber (Oct 14, 2010)

Ni is a massive head ache that compels you to work stuff out and then goes POP and there's the answer. It where the nursery rhyme pop goes the weasel comes from. popping big weasels causes it to calm down. I need to pop some weasels now. I have a massive bush


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## phantom_cat (Jan 1, 2011)

it's like trying to figure something out. trying different things out, nothing working. then asking yourself "what's happening here?", then all of a sudden you smile a bit, because you figured it out, yet you didn't consciously figure it out. you know it's right, but if you had to put it into words, you can't. so you try it and it works, it was something completely different from "different". it's like: option A, option B, or option C, and it's picking option D, which wasn't there before. it's hidden in plain sight. ok, I just thought (like moments ago) of this analogy: it's like every bit of data has tiny mirrors on it, and a light is being shined through them all. this is kinda like our vision or backwards vision, and each time the mirror moves, the light (vision) that bounces off of it changes what we see, and everything that this light is reflected off of it. the "ah ha" moment is when the vision/light connects all data/mirrors. as individuals mirrors there's no answer, but only when all mirrors are connected, the answer is then reflected off them all. so imagine every piece of data as a circle/dot/whatever, now imagine a 3D picture of that with rows/columns of it. now each point has a mirror which can be turned in any direction. now shine a light through every one. that's why sometimes an idea pops up, but you could lose that idea very quickly, because it's not really something static, but dynamic, constantly changing. kinda like flipping through tv channels, but instead flipping the tiny mirrors. "hey, what was that? go back to that thought quick!" and it feels like you have to freeze it, otherwise that idea is lost. the difference between Ni and Ne... Ni is inverted, so it looks inward, Ne is extroverted, so it looks outward. In Ni the world is inside based on how it understands it. In Ne the world is outside, but it sees the different possibilities inside. In Ni the vision would be the light, where with Ne these mirrors don't exist inside in the same way, but on the outside in physical objects/ideas (acting as virtual mirrors creating possibilities), so it looks more step by step. So Ne is the direct bouncing of light in one direction, while Ni is the indirect bouncing of light in the other direction, hence introverted (inward), and extroverted (outward).


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## Corporal Atlas (Feb 12, 2011)

I can see why Jung called this the most irrational of the functions. Intuition already works off of abstract concepts, but at least Ne comes from more external sources to form universal connections and whatnot. Ni is a more of a subjective interpretation of what's already surreal - or what would already be subjective. 

It's probably just an extremely rapid form of gathering of data and conclusions that works off of reflexes, since Ni recognizes patterns and whatnot. That would also explain why it actually manages to work, and why a Ni user can be really stubborn when it doesn't work. One of the more interesting functions, IMO.


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## IonOfAeons (Dec 2, 2010)

Ni is confusing...
It's really hard to know where you're looking when you come up with an answer using it. 'Multiple interpretations' is a good description because unlike Ne, it doesn't really seem to generate anything, it's just a master synthesizer.

Comparing Ne and Ni, think of having a destination you have to get to. Ne will see the distant spark of it and build looking at the obstacles all around it. You'll take that object to block this hazard, then look for the next thing to help you get over that wall, etc.
With Ni you would look at the destination and feel sure that there was some predetermined path that you were looking for. This relates to looking inwards and then having 'ah-ha!' moments because suddenly the timings and patterns make sense and you're not looking for ways to _overcome_ your obstacles, you're merging with the obstacles so they actually turn out to have the answer for getting you to your destination. You didn't have to change them, you simply had to find a way of integrating yourself with them.


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