Absentmindedness

[SQ_Minion]

An apparently common eponym of the standard INTP is the "absent-minded professor". Since we are usually deep in thought about one thing or another (and often both), we tend to be unobservant and forgetful. For instance, Einstein, who has been labeled by some as an INTP, would often forget to wear socks (or so the urban legend claims). I myself am perpetually absentminded--for example, a minute ago I realized that I had a bowl of spaghetti sitting between myself and the keyboard, a bowl that has been there for probably twenty minutes now getting cold. I would presume that other INTPs are similarly absentminded, but I could be mistaken.

tl;dr: Are you absentminded?

 

[ApostateAbe]

Yes. What was the question?

 

[SQ_Minion]

Yes. What was the question?

I suppose I just wanted a general discussion of absentmindedness. I'm not sure where I'm going with the topic.

 

[preilemus]

I suppose such a thing would be quite common to the users here. Absentmindedness can occur regardless of whether or not you consider yourself an "intp" or not though.

And I do recall that Einstein wore mismatched/no socks because of his disdain for social norms, but I digress.

I'm not sure where I'm going with the topic.

Just make sure it doesn't go where the last one did...

 

[EyeSeeCold]

Einstein seems like an ENTP.

It mostly occurs while walking somewhere, I can be absorbed by my thoughts easily. And then of course things become invisible if I don't use them for awhile.

 

[The Gopher]

yeah I always though einstein was an ENTP or an INTP who realy loved his job. Also I don't think we are so absent minded just don't need to know in the moment and when we come out of the moment we take a while to find everything again. Yeah we always are "absent-minded professor" "slightly crazy wizard" That sort of thing.

 

[Cavallier]

I am very absentminded. I walk into rooms and forget why I walked in. I forget promises to people constantly. If I want to get something done and remember to do it I have to make a list or lay it all out on the kitchen table so I won't forget. Sometimes I even forget what I'm doing mid task. It's very frustrating.

However, I'm also able to concentrate on a single thing intently and without noticing the passage of time. If I find something interesting I'm able to focus on that without being easily distracted.

 

[Words]

As always, I'm trying to think of this trait in function terms. hmm....

To be frequently submerged within your own thoughts is to be introverted, yes?

....but it's suppose to be a 'P' thing since focus and introverted perception is all about goal-orientation.

..but that function is introverted.

...grr...so it's a Ji thing then.

Maybe. and maybe Ne over Se.

Why N over S? and how is ISxP absentminded relative to ENxP?

Maybe they're equally absentminded? I'm pretty sure---that is, from experience---that INxP are the absentminders.

but what about Ni-doms? what about their focus on reality?

their case is not really the 'absentminded' case.

 

[Melllvar]

Technically, he quit wearing socks because they would get holes in them:

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"When I was young, I found out that the big toe always ends up making a hole in a sock. So I stopped wearing socks." [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]-- (To Phillipe Halsman, quoted in French, Einstein: A Centenary Volume, p. 27; quoted in Calaprice, The Quotable Einstein.)[/FONT]

As for absentmindedness, I'm pretty sure I'm by far the most absentminded person I know. I frequently get weird looks because I have a habit of daydreaming about things, talking to myself, getting distracted and not noticing people/cars/where I am, etc. There are times I've been driving down the interstate and all of the sudden realized I'm at a complete stop in traffic, not having even remembered braking, because I was thinking about something. Needless to say I'm constantly misplacing things, and even locked myself out of my apartment twice this month.
​

 

[EyeSeeCold]

and even locked myself out of my apartment twice this month.
​

Exactly why I made it a habit to hook my keys onto my pants. Now I know if I don't hear the noise I don't have 'em.

 

[shoeless]

i almost forgot to get off the train at my stop yesterday. i kind of just sat there for a while, and then my boyfriend said "this is your stop" and i was like OH SHIT and bolted before it rolled away.

i'm not an INTP though. just an intuitive perceiver.

 

[The Gopher]

i almost forgot to get off the train at my stop yesterday. i kind of just sat there for a while, and then my boyfriend said "this is your stop" and i was like OH SHIT and bolted before it rolled away.

i'm not an INTP though. just an intuitive perceiver.

ha yeah I got on the wrong train and didn't realise until we had gone 8 or so stops.

 

[echoplex]

I usually find that the things I don't pay attention to are the things I've deemed unimportant, but then I think I might be wrong to consider them such and that dilemma becomes important in that moment. I don't really consider it absentmindedness so much as 'picky-mindedness', in that I'll ignore certain things (even loud noises) and obsess over others, often without understanding how I've made the distinction. I assume, though, that relation to something 'important' is what decides where my attention goes.

cue but I'm probably not INTP anyway...

 

[walfin]

Yes. I put my handphone down and 5s later forget where I put it.

Strange, is it absentmindedness that makes us NP, or vice versa, or is it a cycle?

I tend to think that it is the first - we are unable to remember all these tiny things, that's why we concentrate on the "big" stuff, and the bad memory gives us a "live and let live" attitude since we know how imperfect we are and we want to treat people the way we want to be treated.

 

[Jesse]

I am extremely absentminded but I don't mind. My memory is weird. If I endeavor to put something in my head it will stay there for all time unfortunately I do that with random info and "important" stuff is forgotten willy-nilly. I posses this amazing ability to zone out but I mostly use it to procrastinate Shame I can't use it at social gatherings and the like.

 

[Anchorite]

I'm not unobservant by any means. But I do zone out and daydream all the time. I am absent minded to an extent though. Like when I put a cup on the table and 30 seconds later am searching up and down the counter for it ripping my hair out. Or when I accidentally Put the cereal in the fridge and the milk in the cabinet. There's also the occasional worry when I look all over for my glasses while they are sitting on my face.
If I'm just sitting around though, I am very observant of my surroundings and the people within them.

 

[Words]

Yes. I put my handphone down and 5s later forget where I put it.

Strange, is it absentmindedness that makes us NP, or vice versa, or is it a cycle?

I tend to think that it is the first - we are unable to remember all these tiny things, that's why we concentrate on the "big" stuff, and the bad memory gives us a "live and let live" attitude since we know how imperfect we are and we want to treat people the way we want to be treated.

It is probably a symptom of Ji and Ne. Functions are regarded as the result of deconstruction of personality. Our personality has many stuff but the basic root of these many traits comes from a few ways of cognition.

 

[warryer]

I am absent minded. One time I locked my keys in the car two times in the same week. The same tow truck driver came out and popped the door open. Good times. Now I have a magnetic key holder on the outside of the car so it can't happen again.

My favorite is when you try your damnedest to remember to bring/do something before you get to school, work, leave for vacation etc... Only to remember that you forgot to do it by the time you get there.

 

[SQ_Minion]

My favorite is when you try your damnedest to remember to bring/do something before you get to school, work, leave for vacation etc... Only to remember that you forgot to do it by the time you get there.

I hate doing that. I'll set out something on the kitchen table or in front of the door so it's impossible for me to forget it--and I perpetually forget it.

 

[Thoughtful]

Yes, This is usually the most obvious when I get a new device, I open it, pull the desirable parts out of the packaging, and forget to throw the package away. I think I still have the box that came with my nook, and I got that months ago.

However, much like Cav said, I'd argue that it's this very trait that makes us so great at concentrating.

 

[mayumi]

I usually bump on a glass wall/door.

 

[Anthile]

So, my new camera came today but I forgot what I bought it for. I think there was a specific reason for this but I just can't remember.

 

[loveofreason]

but what about Ni-doms? what about their focus on reality?

their case is not really the 'absentminded' case.

Au contraire.

It bemuses me that the habit of being predominantly in one's abstract mind and not attentive to the external world or keeping track of details, is refered to as being 'absent'-minded. It's more a case of Sensing-absence. Absent-sensing?

Though I can see the rationale behind the term if it's meant to indicate, not an absence from the mind, but a kind of mind that absents itself from external reality. Which indicates through language, that we readily accept the idea of more than one kind of mind - the default (unspokenly assumed) mind being concrete; one of the body. A sensing mind.

The minds furthest from the sensing norm are the Ni mind (at odds with Se) and the Ne-dom (at odds with Si).

INTPs are secondarily absent-minded (Ti deals with abstract data - Ne - but is not in itself an abstract process, and frequently works in tandem with Si to produce intense concentration on/analysis of accumulated concrete experience). Compare to Ni-doms. The Ni-dom relies on having an 'absent' (abstract rather than the concrete) mind just to feel normal. The Ni-dom has to absent themself from the sensory mind just to function optimally.

If this is not the case I contest that culture applies the term 'absent-minded' incorrectly and such abuse of words should be rectified immediately.

Lazy culture. Fancy letting words be subverted from their original meanings, even sometimes coming to signify the polar opposite of their original definition! It's evolution, I tell you - and we'll have none of that going on in god's world! This corrupt system of man shall surely burn. ​

Unless anyone wants to argue the default mind implied by labelling an absence of mind is, in fact, a feeling mind. Then you can have your Ti <-> Fe antagonism and wear your happy crowns as Kings of Absent.

 

[The Gopher]

absent-mindedness strikes again like LOR pointed out I did post in the why did you pick your name thread and then posted again about a week or so later saying I never did.

 

[snafupants]

Sometimes I confidently walk into the women's washroom, look around, spot no urinals, and high tail it out of there. Other times I jam my house key into the car key slot in the mornings, before blood circulates to my brain. Stupid or absentminded? Dunno.

 

[Audentia]

I am very absentminded. I walk into rooms and forget why I walked in. I forget promises to people constantly. If I want to get something done and remember to do it I have to make a list or lay it all out on the kitchen table so I won't forget. Sometimes I even forget what I'm doing mid task. It's very frustrating.

However, I'm also able to concentrate on a single thing intently and without noticing the passage of time. If I find something interesting I'm able to focus on that without being easily distracted.

I'm like this exactly as well. Also very frustrating sometimes.

 

[Eclipse]

I vary between two extremes. At times, I'm aware of everything. I know and understand all of the conversations people are having around me, what my enviroment is, changes that are occuring...everything. I could be writing an essay for school and suddenly find myself unable to form a coherent sentence because the dishwasher is running two rooms away, or the clock is ticking too loudly, or the planets aren't alligned. And I can't shut anything out.

Other times...I'm completely oblivious. The house could burn down around me and I wouldn't notice a thing. I could possibly burn down with it and still not notice a thing (you think I'm exxagerating...though I must say my experience in that subject is rather limited). I could be watching random videos on youtube, then close all of the windows and knock out twenty pages of writing in my (dare I call it a novel?).

When I get a burst of intuition, inspiration or motivation, I tend to shift into my absent/ concentration mode. Besides that, they kind of flip-flop whenever the urge strikes them. It sucks.

 

[EvilScientist Trainee]

Does anyone else gets their vision blurred because you're so deep in thought you can't actually care about what's around you?

It has been months since i had focused someone/something without making myself do it. It's almost like the world is on mute mode. Sometimes i caught myself staring at others because of that. It has happened once that i was looking at nowhere, then a girl sat in the direction i was looking. When i returned to answer to a classmate question, i noticed she was kind of upset i was looking at her boobs, but i wasn't actually.

I already entered an elevator and asked for the person to make it go to the 1st floor. The operator just gave me a "WTF are you talking" look. Only when the elevator doors closed i noticed that the elevator was stopped at the first floor.

So, yeah, i'm absentminded

 

[Wraith]

I forget I have food or drinks by my side all the time. Also, I often go downstairs and instantly forget what I came down for.

"Does anyone else gets their vision blurred because you're so deep in thought you can't actually care about what's around you?"

Yep. I often end up staring at people by accident only to realize it minutes later.

INTPs are creepy.

 

[Paradox42]

Does anyone else get their vision blurred because you're so deep in thought you can't actually care about what's around you?

Definitely. I've become quite good at being able to do it at will now.

Sometimes I caught myself staring at others because of that. It has happened once that I was looking at nowhere, then a girl sat in the direction I was looking. When I returned to answer to a classmate question, I noticed she was kind of upset I was looking at her boobs, but I wasn't actually.

I don’t know how but my autopilot that takes over when I’m deep in thought has learned to move my eye to a nearby blank area (ground, walls, distant buildings, ceiling, etc). So if someone walk into view (staying or just passing through) my vision shift around a bit and settles on something else.

Because of my absentmindedness I have had to develop a process I go though before I leave home. I have certain items I must take with me (keys, wallet, phone, etc), so I count them all off. If the number is not the same as last time I find the missing items.

Aaaaahhh habits, the life savers of absentminded people.

 

[JarNew]

Yes. I usually forget to text people back, so I don't use my cellphone anymore.
I don't comment people back on facebook, so I've made it so I appear crazy on there.

Only examples I can think of right now.