Deep down do you secretly think the world is awesome?

[HAL9000]

Typically we're known for our unnecessary cynicism and general detest at the wider functioning of the world around us. I know my friends think this of my character, and some find it quite tedious.

Yet deep down I honestly think the world is a fucking fantastic place, full of curiosities and new things to discover and understand. When I think about life, the universe, and everything else, I have an overwhelming sense of, 'awesome'. I just make the mistake of not properly voicing these opinions to other people. (On second thoughts, that's partially not true - I used to spend a lot of time telling my colleagues about the awesome and interesting things I'd learned about the world, yet it always seemed to bore them? . Maybe that's why INTPs can't share their true 'happy thoughts' - because they're too expansive and disconnected from everyday reality for most people to comprehend or care about?)

Anyway... What about you guys? How does your everyday personality reflect your true outlook on life? I for one am not really the pessimist I make myself out to be.

 

[Anktark]

I am rather jaded of the general worldview expressed by the general populace. However, I do think the world is amazing, weird and just great: our everyday life is a parade of beautiful occurrences and borderline miracles, since the most normal thing in the universe is intergalactic space (it seems to be relatively dull to me).
I don't think anyone can express these thoughts to people without similar experiences, because the mediums and protocols we currently possess are not capable of such information permeability. Sure, you could increase the time spent, but I just can't be arsed to do that.

 

[Jennywocky]

The world itself without people is pretty amazing.

My feelings towards people in general + all the social and economic games we needlessly construct for ourselves as a culture vary.

 

[Brontosaurie]

there's surely a deep spring of all-encompassing curiosity, inspiration and hope somewhere in me, usually mistaken for sarcasm when it surfaces. more often than not i find it an insurmountable task to try and materialize or express this unconditional nihilistic optimism but some day i have to muster up the courage to risk not doing it justice.

(i wasn't going to post this meandering poetic nonsense for example but whatever.)

pretty much everything amuses me, really.

 

[someoneshady]

The world itself without people is pretty amazing.

My feelings towards people in general + all the social and economic games we needlessly construct for ourselves as a culture vary.

This is really accurate for me aswell.

 

[Trebuchet]

I tend to believe that people are basically good, and I don't enjoy feeling cynical. Sure, there are those days of pessimism, but I do find the world to be awesome at least some of the time. I actively fight the cynicism and I frequently share my feelings about the awesomeness of it all with others. I think maybe the INTP reputation is deserved, but it isn't our destiny.

I have found that not reading or watching any news outlets is key to maintaining this. Those media people really sell the bad, depressing, and scary. They spin it to be as horrible as possible, and foster feelings of anger and fear and helplessness in the viewer/reader. I quit following news about 4 years ago and it resulted in a lot more happiness.

Surprisingly, I manage to keep up on important events and trends without traditional news outlets, so there hasn't even been any downside to avoiding them.

 

[Omnivorous Ocelot]

I don't think INTPs are cynics. They're realists, and conveyors of fact. But this is interpreted as cynicism by a lot of people who either don't understand or don't want to understand the true nature of things.

 

[RaBind]

INTPs aren't cynics. They usually just appreciate grand ideas, models, explanations and possibilities, more than the everyday menial rituals and tasks that they are faced with, which grind them down. Most intps probably enjoy learning the contents in their studies a lot more, than the tests, homework, revision... that they have to go through.

 

[HAL9000]

The world itself without people is pretty amazing.

Definitely agree. Thanks to books, the Internet, documentaries, etc, I often have moments where I quite starkly realise our planet is just as amazing as the one put forward in the film 'Avatar'. Really I think earth is just like that. We just don't realise it because we see it every day.

However I would partially counter your point by suggesting that even people are quite amazing too. Our own home societies are so boring that it almost hurts, but when observing, or even interacting among, people of totally different cultures, I realise that we humans are just as amazing and complex a curiosity as any other wonder of this planet.

If only I could be bothered to share these thoughts with other people. Come to think of it, I kind of do talk about this stuff with my friends, but sadly the vast majority of life consists of the daily routine things where I don't really have anything to comment on, so I'll just pick something out from my surroundings and say why it's shit...

 

[HAL9000]

Most intps probably enjoy learning the contents in their studies a lot more, than the tests, homework, revision... that they have to go through.

Very much agree.

I try so hard to not be a cynic towards my studies. I know most of it is purely for the sake of me passing tests to get the bit of paper to hopefully make me go further in life, but I really feel so annoyed that I'm 'wasting' time covering things I don't care as much about. I try to remind myself that the extra stuff I'm 'forced' to learn is actually useful purely because more knowledge is better than none at all.

So far the only thing I stubbornly won't allow myself to get cynical over is my degree. I can't deny though that I hate the 'exam culture' of the modern world.

 

[Vrecknidj]

Deep down do you secretly think the world is awesome?

Not just deep down, but, on the surface, in my everyday life, I think the world is awesome.

 

[ActiveMind]

If it weren't for so many people imposing their authority, yeah, I think it would be a much better place.

 

[Cognisant]

Deep down I think the world simply is the way it is.

 

[Koosy]

Some things are awesome. I do generally distrust people though, since I believe everyone just wants to get an advantage over others all the time. I might be a mess, but I'm not stupid.

 

[SilentStorm]

As far as the people go. I don't think the majority of them are anywhere near amazing. I think many aspects of society are completely illogical. I hate the fact that so many people sit around never questioning anything at all. They're completely involved in social activities and reality T.V shows. Like I'll never forget last year when a grown man thought I was lying when I told him the Earth was a sphere, that is beyond sad. You'd think at some point in his life he would have stopped and questioned something like that, and with smart phones and search engines there is no excuse for ignorance on that level.

In terms of technological and scientific progress I think the world is beyond amazing. Aside from the type of people I mentioned above, there are many greatly intelligent people out there that have done wonders for society. When you think about it from a large scale perspective, even the technology of a few hundred years ago is mind blowing.

As for the Earth and the Universe. The scenery of the Earth is completely awe inspiring. And the fact that we are even here given the extremely low chance is insane. Thinking of the Universe reminds me of a quote by J. B. S Haldane, "I have no doubt that in reality the future will be vastly more surprising than anything I can imagine. Now my own suspicion is that the Universe is not only queerer than we imagine, but queerer than we can imagine." What we've discovered of the Universe so far is amazing. But for all we know we've only discovered 1% of what's out there. Maybe even less than that. There's just so much that is yet to be discovered. And I think humanity will be amazed by our findings millions, if not trillions of more times.

 

[StevenM]

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awe

Awe is an emotion comparable to wonder[1] but less joyous. On Robert Plutchik's wheel of emotions[2] awe is modeled as a combination of surprise and fear. One dictionary definition is "an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc., produced by that which is grand, sublime, extremely powerful, or the like: in awe of God; in awe of great political figures."[3]

So, in the case of me finding the world 'earth' (and everything inhabiting it) to be 'awe-some'; yes, definitely.

 

[Pyropyro]

The world is awesome, I don't need to dig deep to know that.

I'm a worrier but I try to minimize that by acting on each of my worries one step at a time.

If you see me IRL you might mistake me for a very cheerful NF although I get all INTP once interfacing with a computer.

 

[grayskies]

My first initial answer: the world yes, people, no.
But, I suppose the answer could be yes if it were balanced with (more) good (selfless & humble) people.

 

[not_overjoyed]

Absolutely. I feel like everything and just about everything has the potential to be relly cool and awe inspiring under the right circumstances, and I try to remember that when it feels like everything in existence is conspiring to piss me off. In my better moods I can usually believe it too.

 

[kris]

If we're talking about the planet Earth itself, that place is way rad. If we're talking about humanity, I've long been ambivalent. When I look at our species as just another animal, we're pretty entertaining.

When I look at our species as a fellow member of homo sapiens, I feel there is a lot of potential which will rarely be exercised. It's not cute how we spin our wheels and thump our chests at the same time.

 

[DesEsseintes]

I go up and down between thinking "everything is amazing and I can do anything" and "everything is shit why do I bother"

I guess the feeling of something being awesome varies in function of what came right before it.
For example, if you've been holding up your pee for hours, finding a toilet and finally pissing feels like the best feeling you ever had. While normally pissing is, well, just pissing.
In parallel, if I'm locked up all winter without seeing a soul, and than in the summer I go hitchhike for a month meeting people everyday, it feels like all people I meet are amazing. And then after a month people are just the same old plain and boring and predictable human beings.

 

[J-man]

Deep down I think the world simply is the way it is.

I'm gonna play devil's advocate here and argue that the world is not as it is.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I wonder if perhaps more of us would think people were amazing if we had the social skills to get people to open up to us. People are the most complex, exquisitely designed things in the known universe. They must be pretty amazing.

I've found that when I can really detach from my ego, humans are the most beautiful things in the world.

 

[QuickTwist]

TBH, I never really thought about this. Do I think the earth is a great place to exist? IDK, relatively yes, I like existing. Empirically no.... J/K I don't know. I have nothing to compare it to. Relatively yes because compared to 400 years ago I have many comforts that did not exist then. Empirically I have a lot of mental issues so it is hard to tell. It would be worse living hungary for my whole life then starving to death, or dying from aids at age five.

 

[Analyzer]

If it weren't for so many people imposing their authority, yeah, I think it would be a much better place.

Pretty much it.

 

[OrLevitate]

Yes, in the literal sense of the word awesome. Existence is awe inspiring. Man made phenomena at odds with this truth suck big time, and such phenomena are prevalent.

Could be said that the more clarity a mind has in regards to the awesomeness of existence, the more cynical they will become
.

 

[QuickTwist]

Could be said that the more clarity a mind has in regards to the awesomeness of existence, the more cynical they will become
.

Or the more accepting.