#typing post

[notanotherinfjblog]

Texting habits per judging function

No one asked, but here are some observations I've made in my personal life.

*Note that this probably differs by age, gender, and culture (for instance, I have been told by several Americans that I use an insane amount of emojis, whereas it's not considered weird at all here in Germany).

FJ:

Generally very good at texting, will respond to absolutely every point you make. If you send them a long voice message, they can be found taking notes while listening so that they will not forget to answer any point you made.

Have a very hard time leaving someone on read and if they do, either something happened and they forgot, or they simply don't like you very much. If they open the message, they answer. If they don't have time to answer you right now, they simply will not open the message yet.

If the text conversation is done (i.e. you wrote something like "bye, see you tomorrow!" that does not require another response), they will still at the very least send you an emoji back for no reason other than letting you know that "Yes! I read your message! I'm not ignoring you! I love you!" (Literally every FJ I have ever known does this. Every single one, including myself.)

They will adapt to your style of texting. If you are the kind of person that likes to send a bunch of heart emojis to friends and the FJ friend is not, they will still pepper in a heart here and there. If you generally don't use emojis, they will use them only occasionally. If you reply in wallpaper long messages, so will they. If you break up your messages into several texts one after the other, so will they.

FPs:

Also generally quite good at texting and can actually appear a lot warmer in writing than in person (there have been several instances where I received really lovely messages from FPs who I used to think hated my guts whenever we met in person).

Prepare for emojis. Seriously.

You can have infinitely long text conversations with them. If you are willing to commit, the conversation between the two of you will never end. With NFPs, the conversations usually end up spiralling into nonsense scenarios, while SFPs keep telling you about their day and keep answering you about your day every day.

TPs:

(my texting experience with TPs is unfortunately very limited, so feel free to fill in my blanks)

Fe is very noticeable in the extroverts, i.e. they tend to go the FJ route described above, but in a more nonchalant and more relaxed way. Like with FJs, the focus of the conversation is on you and their dynamic with you.

The introverts (i.e. my dad, i.e. my only point of reference) are bad at texting and prefer to call, so almost all text conversations go something like this: TP: "Hi, I tried to call you, but you didn't pick up. I hope everything is alright with you?" You: "Yes, sorry. Everything's good here, how about you, everything okay?" --- end of conversation ---

TJs:

Generally bad at texting. Also don't really like it and see no point in it, so they usually prefer calling or talking in person.

Will appear colder in writing than in person, especially the STJs. Their answers will be straight to the point. No beating around the bush and no needless extension of a conversation in form of jokes/questions/anecdotes for a bonding experience. If they want to tell you something, they will tell you in person.

Have absolutely zero problem leaving people on read and usually don't mean anything by it.

STJs rarely use emojis, NTJs do but not excessively

If their answer requires them to type anything more than two sentences, they will send you a voice message instead. (Literally every single TJ I know does this, except my INTJ brother who is a complete maniac and calls instead.)

[notanotherinfjblog]

MBTI fiction writers

Unfortunately, though for obvious reasons, I’m constrained by my own reading habits, so if you have any suggestions for underrepresented types here, please let me know and thanks for the ones that I’ve already received!

INTJ

Margaret Atwood

Joyce Carol Oates

Tom Rachman

ENTJ

Markus Zusak

Hank Green

Gillian Flynn 

Bernardine Evaristo 

Lois Lowry

Ruth Ozeki

INTP

Kai Meyer (interview is in German)

Neil Gaiman

J. R. R. Tolkien

ENTP

David Mitchell

Philip Pullman

John Green

Terry Pratchett

Douglas Adams

Jonathan Safran Foer

Lauren Oliver

Brandon Sanderson

Patrick Rothfuss 

Michael Ende (interview is in German)

Mariana Leky (interview is in German)

Frank Herbert

Aldous Huxley

Matt Haig

Ta-Nehisi Coates

INFJ

Rohinton Mistry

Audrey Magee

Jenny Erpenbeck (interview is in German)

ENFJ

Eleanor Catton

Alissa York

INFP

Wolfgang Koeppen (interview is in German)

Helen Oyeyemi

ENFP

Gavriel Savit

Maggie Stiefvater

Jan Philipp Zymny (interview is in German)

Stephen Chbosky

Daniel Handler

Rick Riordan

Christopher Paolini

George R. R. Martin

V. E. Schwab

Jenny-Mai Nuyen (interview is in German)

ISTJ

Astrid Lindgren

Ken Follet

Elizabeth Nunez

ESTJ

Kerstin Gier (interview is in German)

Cornelia Funke 

John Boyne

Maja Lunde

Sebastian Fitzek (interview is in German)

ISFJ

Anna Burns 

Lucinda Riley 

Jack Livings

ESFJ

Tomi Adeyemi

Victoria Aveyard

Suzanne Collins 

Raquel J. Palacio

Jojo Moyes 

Ursula K. Le Guin

Rosamunde Pilcher 

Rebecca Gablé (interview is in German)

Kirsten Boie (interview is in German)

ISTP

Jhumpa Lahiri

John Irving

Erich Kästner (interview is in German)

James Dashner 

Fredrik Backman 

ESTP

Leigh Bardugo

Sabaa Tahir

Paulo Coelho

Stephen King

Jonas Jonasson

Jussi Adler-Olsen

Erich Maria Remarque (interview is in German)

ISFP

Fatima Farheen Mirza 

Tash Aw

Andreas Izquierdo (interview is in German)

Antoine Laurain 

ESFP

Adam Silvera

Nicholas Sparks 

Cecelia Ahern

[notanotherinfjblog]

what type would you say Aubrey Plaza is?

ISTP. Moves like an SP, but certainly an introvert. Ti-dom eye movements. Not particularly emotive, but still visible Fe. Tertiary Ni detachment (which is different from the Ni detachment of NJs, especially Ni-doms, but it's still tangible somehow in ISTPs and ISFPs). So yeah, ISTP, pretty sure.

[notanotherinfjblog]

How to spot an ISFP

A few years ago, I made a post about how the cognitive functions manifest in our behaviour and now I’m going to expand on that and give a more detailed, visually accompanied overview for each type, now for the ISFP.

For the purpose of this guide, I took a look at this interview with the Canadian figure skaters Tessa Virtue (an ISFP) and Scott Moir (an ESFJ). You can find the links to other type spotting guides below which I will update over time when new guides are being added.

The dominant and the auxiliary cognitive functions that people use are those that are the ones that are the most noticeable in the quality of their gaze, in their speech style, in their facial expressions, and their whole general demeanour, and so these are the ones that I will be focussing on here. In case of an ISFP, these are Fi and Se. Due to this combination, ISFPs tend to be very grounded in their physical reality and focused on how everything relates to them personally. I always say that there are two base types of ISFPs: the quirky mad-people and the ice queens/kings. Fundamentally, they are not that different from each other, they just radiate a different kind of energy as the former are more upbeat and outgoing (see for example Scottish actress Karen Gillan) than those like Tessa Virtue who belong to the latter, more reserved category.

When I say “ice queen”, I don’t mean that ISFPs are cold-hearted, not at all. It’s just they are the least emotive of all the types. Their strongest function is Fi and so their emotional focus is directed inwards. They are constantly listening to themselves about how this makes them feel and how they relate to that, so there is no need to actively express their feelings outwardly. Interestingly, they are still completely unable to hide their true emotions. It’s like they are oozing out of them unintentionally. The gif above actually shows the difference between an Fi-dom and an Fe-dom very nicely: Scott Moir, as an ESFJ, is staring at her talking with a neutral face, but as soon as she makes eye contact, a reassuring smile appears on his face that immediately fades as soon as she looks away, while her expression does not change at all. That’s the key difference between the two feeling functions: his smile is meant for her and is not a true representation of his feelings, while her smile is genuinely felt. She does constantly look for other people’s reactions, but she does not adapt her behaviour to other people like Scott Moir does. 

What the second gif also shows very nicely is her auxiliary Se. She takes everything in that is happening around her, but she has a singular focus. This is what sets ISFPs apart from INFPs who share the ISFP’s dominant Fi. Due to high Se, the ISFP’s gaze is intense and has a clear direction. In a similar gist, ISFPs are often very well-composed and are a steady presence in the room that don’t get lost inside their own heads as much as INFPs. When they gesticulate, the movement of their hands is precise and has a concrete direction just like their gaze, while high Ne of an INFP would lead to gestures that are all over the place. Not all, but quite a number of ISFPs (along with the other SP types) also develop a taste for clothes that are a bit out of the ordinary. 

When it comes to speech patterns, ISFPs are typically very straightforward in their communication. No infinitely long sentences, no sudden conceptual leaps or aborted sentences, no stutter-like word repetitions, no blatant grammatical errors (intuitive types, by contrast, are typically guilty of at least one or two of these), but ISFPs do often choose their words very carefully and make relatively long and frequent pauses in their speech, that they usually don’t fill with “uhm”, which is rather typical for the types on the Se/Ni axis. To illustrate that, here a little excerpt from the interview regarding the (then) upcoming Olympics:

It’s hard to imagine ... failure at this point because if if we’re able to take the ice in Pyeongchang and feel like ... we did everything we possibly could ... to set ourselves up for that moment ... that has ... that has to be enough. [...] What was most disheartening about that was ... we love skating and ... we want ... other people ... to feel the same way ... and when any kind of ... controversy comes into it ... which is natural in a subjective sport ... uhm ... you know, it it does sort of tarnish it. 

Other How to spot type XY guides so far: INFJ, ENFJ, INTP, ESFJ

[notanotherinfjblog]

What do you mean by spotting ni in someones eyes like in how they watch and stare?

Hi anon!

It's funny, I was wondering when this question would pop into my inbox.

Basically, the key point about spotting Ni in someone is detachment. NJs typically don't move much. They just sit still and watch you, usually with a completely blank face, which especially applies to the NFJs, but NTJs do that too. With Ni, it's like NJs are constantly sitting under a cheese dome: present and attentive, but there's always an invisible boundary between them and everyone else.

Concerning the particular eye movements: this is something we as humans have very little, if any, conscious control over. Our eyes move in accordance to not just to what we want to see, but also depending on our thought processes. Eye movements are very strange to explain and I'm probably not going to do a very good job at it, but there are specific patterns depending on the cognitive functions that I've noticed where my mind just shouts "MATCH!" at me when I see it in someone new. TPs, for instance, particularly the Ti-doms, have what I like to call shifty eyes, where they completely retreat into their mind and then talk while their unfocused eyes shift from left to right to left with no end. Or when Si-doms are talking, they look down a lot and then look a bit around, but never with a clear direction of gaze. Their eyes just move as they retrieve their thoughts, but they don't spend a lot of time looking at their conversation partner while they are talking. NJs, on the other hand, are typically very good at holding eye contact. They stare at you incessantly when you are the one talking, and when it's their turn to speak, they can still maintain good eye contact, but every few seconds their eyes briefly shift to the right, completely lose focus and then very quickly shift back to their conversation partner. I remember watching a movie with Nicholas Hoult (an ENTJ) a few years ago and it took me 0.5 seconds to be 100% sure of his auxiliary Ni because of this. Further, NJs always stare at one particular thing and don't notice anything else that's going on around them as it's completely blocked out. They could stare at the person sitting opposite them and not notice the car crash happening right behind that person. They have a singular focus to the extreme. SPs, in contrast, don't do this at all. They may stare into space when listening sometimes, but when they're talking, they are extremely attentive to everything that's happening around them. They don't lose focus for even a split second and are always aware of every hand movement, every raised eyebrow etc. in all of their conversation partners.

But speaking more generally, our cognitive functions affect our mannerisms and the way we move due to certain muscle tensions. To put some examples very broadly, NJs, for instance, carry basically no tension in their limbs, while SPs carry a lot, or SPs and NPs are generally more flowing in their movements, while SJs and NJs are more tense and stiff. But these muscle tensions apply to our facial muscles as well and that affects our eyes, too. For illustration of Ni eyes, I collected some pictures of INFJs and ESTPs and of ENTJs and ISFPs for a direct comparison. Same functions, opposite order in the stack. Do you see the resemblance within and differences between the two groups?

[notanotherinfjblog]

Why are you so invested in mbti? I'd enjoy seeing your reasons. Do you honestly think theres any realistic ground to it? I think its on to something, i see it as a blueprint for something that is going on the human brain that creates similar processes of thought in humans, like its onto to something bigger.

Hello anon! :)

I do think there are realistic grounds to it and I do agree with you here. You know, it always bugs me when people refer to MBTI as 16 personality types. People with the same MBTI type are not the same people. Instead, they simply process the world in a similar way. They may share some aspects of their personality because of that, but they are not the same people. Our cognitive functions are nothing but specific activation patterns in our brains, as Dr. Dario Nardi found out in his neuroscientific research, and those activation patterns manifest in our way of thinking, our way of speaking, our way of moving. We cannot separate our bodies from our cognition and those are the patterns that I see daily in other people's faces. Once you see the patterns, you can't stop seeing them. I guess, that's why I'm so invested. Because I'm obsessed with humanity.

But what I find fascinating is that we all instinctively know about MBTI, even when we don't know it. I work in academia and I run experiments that test how people can figure out specific patterns without being aware that they're doing it. They think they're just guessing, but they're not. Their subconscious is running complex computations all day every day and they don't even know. The same is true for MBTI types. For instance, I think it's fascinating how 80% of couples in movies are played by an ESFJ actress and an ESFP actor. When it's an ESFJ actor, it's most likely an ISFP actress. Even in same-sex relationships on screen, it's also typically an FJ and an FP. I highly doubt that casting directors (or whoever is in charge) consciously choose to cast actors by their MBTI types and yet they know.

Intuitives are rather rare in the movie industry, though some types are harder to find than others. It's not uncommon for one intuitive to find their way onto a cast full of sensors. They often get cast for characters that are supposed to be weird in a certain way that does not fit in with the vast majority of people. An example that comes to mind here is the movie "The space between us" where they needed the main actor to portray a character that lacks social skills and moves very strangely due to his deformed bone structure because he was born on Mars that has a different gravity than Earth does. So what did they do? Cast an INFP. But when there are more than two intuitives on set, something's up. On that same movie, for instance, there is also an ENTP actor and the director himself is an ENTP as well. Because when there is more than two intuitives somewhere, it's usually because the person in charge of the project is an intuitive themselves and then the intuitives come in packs. The most insane example for that are the Harry Potter movies. Seriously, about 80% of the actors on set, both child and adult actors, are intuitives. The likelihood of that happening is close to zero, it's completely insane. I haven't looked into any of the directors of the later movies, but the first two were directed by an ENFP. These are most likely not conscious decisions by anyone involved. We just gravitate towards specific people we want to work with, and we gravitate towards specific people we think would work well with each other, and that's often very specific combinations of MBTI types.

And we have biases. Not everyone of the same type has the exact same bias, I think that's also related to how and with whom we grew up, but there are trends. For instance, my ESFJ mother has married two Ti-doms. My INTJ brother keeps dating FPs. My ESFP friend keeps dating ISTPs. My ESTJ friend keeps adding intuitive friends to her collection left and right, no idea how she finds them all. None of them go specifically looking for those other types. They just naturally gravitate towards each other and it's a reoccurring pattern.

And there are subtypes within the same MBTI types as well. I know many many ESFJs, so let's take them as an example. Among ESFJs, you find the sweet lovable himbos, the overprotective mother hens, the jesters who can't stop teasing everyone, the lionesses who would start wars, etc. That's all different manifestations of what dominant Fe can look like. Not every ESFJ will remind you of another ESFJ, but sometimes you find clones within the same subtypes, which I always find extremely exciting: two people of the same type that move and act and talk, sometimes even look so much like each other that they could basically be clones. For instance, I think it's very funny that Daniel Radcliffe and Elijah Wood keep getting mistaken for each other wherever they go as they are both ENTJs. Or whenever Doctor Who needs to cast a new actor to play the Doctor (who has been played by several NTPs and two of the three showrunners have been ENTPs as well), multiple people keep crying out for them to cast people like Richard Ayoade, Rahul Kohli etc., who are also ENTPs.

We all know about MBTI, even when we don't, and I think that's fascinating.

(Sorry, I know I'm always derailing these ask posts a bit. I hope it still makes sense.)

[notanotherinfjblog]

Hi, thanks for your answer regarding writing process! It's cool to hear how different people think about stuff like that. If you study literature in college or look at reading lists for newly published literary works, sometimes you come across authors who look nfj-ish. When you listen to their book talks they sometimes have similarities in their approaches. Audrey Magee is one example (infj?) Eleanor Catton from a few years back (enfj?) Agreed that the authors are less known in pop-culture, more in academics.

You're very welcome! And thank you for another two people to add to my list! I agree, Eleanor Catton strikes me as an ENFJ as well, but I'm getting no Fe whatsoever from Audrey Magee. I think she might be an INTJ instead. INFJs are much more awkward in the sense that a lot of them like to use their very expressive faces instead of speaking, always catering to the other person to appear as likeable as possible while fading into the background, and that's not what she's doing. I'm pretty sure that the interviewer in one of the videos I watched was an ESFJ who kept giving emotional responses to the things she said, but she didn't respond to that at all and kept walking down the path of her own thoughts without giving any emotional response back, which is a dynamic I'm very familiar with in my own life. Eleanor Catton, on the other hand, does respond to any reaction she's given. She's got that typical NFJ stare where she's watching her conversation partner incessantly and adapts accordingly, gives quick little chuckles to any tiny remotely funny joke, always gives feedback of nodding along or always throwing in a "yeah" when the other person is talking to reassure them. Those gestures are not an expression of the self, but a very typical NFJ way of hiding the own self behind a smile to make the other person feel liked so that they like the NFJ back. At the same time, I have to say that I find it very interesting that you'd naturally expect ENFJs to be more emotive than INFJs, just like ESFJs are more emotive than the ISFJs (though ESFJs typically are the most emotive of all types) due to their dominant Fe, but I find that that's not the case. While the INFJs are much more subdued than the ENFJs, they still kind of give you more without giving you anything, really, the ENFJs tend to be more blank in the face, but still only appear like a peninsula, and not like an island like the INFJs, if that analogy makes any sense.

Anyway, thank you very much for these recommendations!!