Introverted Intuition (Ni) by JNDIII
“Everyone has their own ideas and speculations on how it “really works”. In another post, I related Nardi’s findings about introverted intuition.
I have my own personal opinion on how it “really works”. I believe that both Ni and Si govern how one “memorizes” things, i.e., create a subjective impression of their observations of the world around them. Si’s memorizations are very concrete. Si memorizes things, places, names, nouns, people, sights, sounds, smells, and so on.
Ni also memorizes, but it doesn’t latch on to the concrete. Instead, it memorizes patterns. These patterns, in turn, allow Ni to navigate an internal abstract space in a more or less effortless way. If you ask an Ni dom about it, some will say they have ah-ha realizations, etc., but others will just say that they’re thinking.
Here’s how I see the “ah-ha” realization happening underneath the hood. The Ni dom encounters a problem, and is puzzled by it, seeing no immediate answer. To solve the problem the Ni dom then digs for information, piece by piece. Kind of like wheel of fortune, where there is a phrase with missing letters. At some point, the phrase will become obvious, with enough letters. So the Ni dom eventually encounters that one key “letter” that makes the puzzle obvious, and that feels like an ah-ha. The Ni dom finally had enough concrete information to determine which internal abstract pattern matched the puzzle, an the pattern in turn tells the Ni dom all of the specifics of the solution of that puzzle based on the pattern and the limited data points provided.
I’m using “wheel of fortune” as an analogy. It would apply to any kind of problem, whether trying to do math or investigate a scientific topic or just trying to figure out what the next good business strategy might be, not just word games and such. As long as there is a decent library of patterns in Ni, the answers will seem to magically appear.
But also, there is one other aspect to how I see Ni working. MOST of the time, it’s just seeing things that are obvious to some people, especially other Ni doms, but not to everyone else. In other words, an Ni dom sees a pattern, immediately knows what is going on, and it doesn’t even feel “magical” or “ah-ha”. It’s just plain obvious - until they try to explain WHY it’s true to someone else. To the Ni dom, it’s true because the pattern is true, because the Ni dom has experience, and that experience is very reliable. So, no, the Ni dom isn’t trying to “prove” that something is true, any more than you would try to prove that broccoli is green, but because the Ni dom sees patterns (based on their memory of patterns) that are invisible to others who lack those patterns, it can seem to others like they have some sort of mystical insight into the nature of things.
No. In my opinion, it’s just memorized/internalized patterns based on life experiences and research. INTJs tend to have more logic-based patterns, while INFJ will have more social or people-based patterns.“
This is a great piece on Ni
