Do you grow less interested with time?

[Particle]

I thought I'd take this opportunity to post a question to you fine folks.

The Question:
As you have grown older, do you find yourself becoming less interested in everything?

Note: I'm trying to see how normal this. Also, this question can probably only be properly answered by those in their 20s or later. Younger people wouldn't really fit into the frame of time I'm inquiring about.

Elaboration:
To me, it appears as if things just aren't as appealing or interesting as I get older. Specifically, I remember having great attraction to various topics through the years when I was younger and still going to school. I'm not sure what changed exactly, but that interest seems to have started to fade about when I turned 19 and by my early 20s it was pretty much gone entirely.

The reason I ask here, however, is I'm not sure which of the various possible explanations is the real root.

1) This could be completely normal. If so, I'm curious about how people deal with life becoming bland and uninteresting compared to their youth.
2) I could be remembering the past incorrectly. I do have a tendency toward nostalgia, but I just don't think that's the case this time.
3) This could be abnormal and thus a personal problem. If so, has anyone else had this problem? If so, how did you fix it.

 

[Jelly Rev]

1) This could be completely normal. If so, I'm curious about how people deal with life becoming bland and uninteresting compared to their youth.

this.

As said from the INTP profile:

the INTP's mind is to fit each encountered idea or experience into a larger structure defined by logic. For here is the central goal of the INTP: to understand and seek truth. The experience of anything takes a back seat. The INTP is not interested in experiences themselves but is far more fascinated by concepts. The drive to understand things that are not yet understood is a very powerful force in the life of an INTP. Where the Ti preference is strong, this drive can override the experiential element so strongly that the INTP will become quickly bored with anything that he has successfully analysed to the point of understanding it. Once understood, it has nothing left to offer, once the satisfaction which comes with achieving the goal of understanding diminishes. Indeed, most primary interests of an INTP are things which he cannot fully understand, usually because they are highly complex or have some exotic, mystical element that does not yield to analysis. This is the real reason why INTPs are drawn to complexity: anything simple is too quickly understood and cannot hold the fascination for long. Similarly, proficiency in any area (which requires continual practice after understanding) is not such a driving force as it might be for NTJs, for example. While a judging NT will often seek to become master of his field, an INTP is satisfied by analysing it alone. The latter is often more of dabbler with ideas which leads me on to his second crucial aspect: detachment.

U must keep finding more an more abstract difficult concepts.
More experiences with difficult concepts make Ti happy

 

[Beholder]

I'm 21 and going through the same thing. I think it's because I've realised that it's impossible to really understand anything and have just despaired altogether. Or it could because I'm in the army and nothing here is interesting, I don't think so though, cause I've got my android phone - all the knowledge in the world, well internet, in my pocket at all times.

 

[ObliviousGenius]

Yes, and this is pretty much with anything. The only exception is when that object of interest has constantly changing elements, leaving me with a different experience each time. Even then I start to lose interest, for example I like to play Call of Duty. It's fun but I've played so long and began to master it to such an extent that there's no competition anymore.

I don't consider this a real issue. Changing interests mean changing mediums of attaining knowledge. Even though we INTPs will lose interest in anything we still have the knowledge from whatever it was we centered our focus on. That should last for the rest our lives.

 

[Particle]

The part that bothers me the most is that I don't believe I've always been this way. I really loved video games for instance between say 1996 and 2007ish. I used to really enjoy playing. Now it's kind of meh--I think I do it more out of habit than anything. I've just lost the fire I used to have (in general), and I've not found anything to regain it.

 

[billiancentsi9]

I have lost interest as I have grown older as well. I would attribute it to the media. I know that sounds stereotypical but why explore for fun when you can have entertainment shoved down your throat?

 

[Iamnotbutter]

same.
I'm 19 as we speak haha
I feel more blank than disinterested though.
...maybe if I was interested in things, I wouldn't feel so empty
le sighhh

sorry if this doesn't pertain to the question and is silly :/

 

[Particle]

That's not off-topic at all. I think you're expressing the same sort of general meh-ness that I feel.

 

[SpaceYeti]

I think I care about things just as much as I ever did, even though the list is fairly short.

 

[Affinity]

Either I grow less interested or more apathetic.

 

[Particle]

Does anyone have any clue as to if this is specific to our type or if it's a universal part of getting older?

 

[CBadfeather]

Yeah from what I've read, it's a typical thing we do. I think JellyRev had it down pretty much. It's just that intp's care more about the theory behind things more than actually doing things. and the 'p' makes us jump from thing to thing.

I used to get criticized for quitting and starting new things all the time until I learned to explain that what interested me was the concept behind it and not the actual thing

 

[Cognisant]

I think losing an interest in the things you like or liked is still better than being the sort of person who doesn’t lose interest and so becomes trapped in a time & place that will never really exist again. Last night I was at a bar with all these forty-something people and the live band is playing the same music that these people have been listening to for the past 2 to 3 decades, nothing new, nothing even close to new, just the same old stuff again and again.

 

[Cavallier]

Alright, religious discussion aside, over the last three years I have thought about this problem. I think there is a combination of things going on that change how you interact with the world after your teen years.

1. The more you see of the world the more jaded you become. It is harder to find things really fascinating since you've seen it before or already imagined it possible.

2. If you have successfully made it through your teen years and into your 20s you are either in school or working or both. You are tired. It could be as simple as that. When I've gotten a handful of days off together in which I could sleep fully and eat fully and have enough time to actually think I feel some of my enthusiam for various hobbies come back.

3. It is normal for your interest in things to lessen as you study them more. You feel you are starting to get closer to and answer and thus lose interest. That is part of being INTP.


I have seem several of my old aquaintances become like the people at Cog's bar. I have to keep studying, reasearching, and getting excited about things. Turning into one of those people seems like a fate worse than death.

 

[BigApplePi]

As I read your post I thought, this has nothing to do with age and everything to do with motivation. If time is a factor, ... continued below

I thought I'd take this opportunity to post a question to you fine folks.

The Question:
As you have grown older, do you find yourself becoming less interested in everything?

Note: I'm trying to see how normal this. Also, this question can probably only be properly answered by those in their 20s or later. Younger people wouldn't really fit into the frame of time I'm inquiring about.

Elaboration:
To me, it appears as if things just aren't as appealing or interesting as I get older. Specifically, I remember having great attraction to various topics through the years when I was younger and still going to school. I'm not sure what changed exactly, but that interest seems to have started to fade about when I turned 19 and by my early 20s it was pretty much gone entirely.

The reason I ask here, however, is I'm not sure which of the various possible explanations is the real root.
1) This could be completely normal. If so, I'm curious about how people deal with life becoming bland and uninteresting compared to their youth.
2) I could be remembering the past incorrectly. I do have a tendency toward nostalgia, but I just don't think that's the case this time.
3) This could be abnormal and thus a personal problem. If so, has anyone else had this problem? If so, how did you fix it.

what happens can change or it can provide space for lots of new things. No change implies one's initial motivation has been satisfied. So it's normal not to continue interest. If motivation is really the issue, we'd have to bring out what the range of motivations could be.

Before I retired, my company gave us a class on what to do when retired. Being retired could be the worst if one's job once was all. So I made sure I had plenty to do.

 

[Otherside]

I find it interesting that I'm becoming less interested as time passes.

I've always been interested in the concept of time as it relates to space and dimension, especially since distance is defined by the speed of light in Si units.

 

[Otherside]

I find it interesting that I'm becoming less interested as time passes.

I've always been interested in the concept of time as it relates to space and dimension, especially since distance is defined by the speed of light in Si units.

More specifically:

The metre is the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of 1  ⁄   299,792,458 of a second.

 

[Jennywocky]

U must keep finding more an more abstract difficult concepts.
More experiences with difficult concepts make Ti happy

i think this is called letting one's assigned personality type control one's life. People are people, not types; types are descriptive, not prescriptive.

let's face it, in all people, needs change over time. It's not that our core proficiences disappear, but that they become tempered and balanced by other concerns that come from tying to maintain an adult life, including relationships, work, a sense of accomplishment, etc.

Does anyone have any clue as to if this is specific to our type or if it's a universal part of getting older?

I think personally it's part of getting older.

I'm passing through middle age on to infinity and beyond, and I'm finding that things I used to be so intense about are far less important to me than they were. I enjoy now just experiencing new things, developing relationships with others, etc. My intensity over hardcore INTP things has lessened, even they are still operating within me. There's more to life than one set of things, and I realize I'm just one small person in the world, and it's okay just to be "normal" and sniff the flowers and enjoy myself and indulge at times. I'm much more able to "go with the flow."

I think losing an interest in the things you like or liked is still better than being the sort of person who doesn’t lose interest and so becomes trapped in a time & place that will never really exist again. Last night I was at a bar with all these forty-something people and the live band is playing the same music that these people have been listening to for the past 2 to 3 decades, nothing new, nothing even close to new, just the same old stuff again and again.

That's another lesson I've been learning -- to let go. There are things that served me well in the past, and I loved them, and they were enjoyable. I will alway treasure those things and experiences as part of who I am.

But they're gone now. To borrow a few quotes from Inception:

Cobb: I wish. I wish more than anything. But I can't imagine you with all your complexity, all you perfection, all your imperfection. Look at you. You are just a shade of my real wife. You're the best I can do; but I'm sorry, you are just not good enough.

Cobb: I miss you more than I can bear, but we had our time together. I have to let you go.

That's a huge lesson -- that just because I loved something in the past, or I did something and it defined me at the time, that doesn't necessarily mean it will define me forever or that I can't go beyond it. Some things outlive their usefulness.

What is the best day in my life? Today. It's the only day anything can actually happen, since the past is over and the future isn't here yet.

It's okay to recall such things with fondness, and to indulge from time to time, but I keep reminding myself to engage the present so as to discover my future.

 

[Philovitist]

this.

As said from the INTP profile:



U must keep finding more an more abstract difficult concepts.
More experiences with difficult concepts make Ti happy

Omg. Story of my life. Or at least the part I have analyzed. I can't find anything to really care about anymore.

 

[ObliviousGenius]

Wow such thievery going on here. Anyway back to the original thread. I realize I need something new and entirely different. Not just different pursuits in similar interests, but something that I would have never considered before to get my motivation back up. Maybe I'll take up photography or something idk. I need something to boost my morale at least, so that maybe I can get back to the important things in life which bore me.

 

[Spirit]

Does that mean INTPs are the "Jack of all trades, master of none"?

People have made reference to my abilities/skillset with this phrase.

 

[Cavallier]

Thread Split.


If you are in search of the philosphical discussion that cropped up in this thread unbidden go here.

 

[snafupants]

Whenever I feel myself being lulled into a rut I make some change in my life to jumpstart things.

I seriously enjoy schedule and routine in my outward personal life, and almost total chaos on my creative, intellectual plane.

With each passing year I become a little more wise and precious and outgoing and less prone to needless worry and more in tune with my body-mind interaction. This is completely average for someone who is sort of shunted correctly. Time and experience and conditioning seem to do these things.

I find the world almost too interesting. When I was nineteen to around twenty two I had this deluded view that I had figured most things out. Exposing myself to libraries of unknown information and modalities of perceiving the world sort of shattered that.

We probably feel bored when we're not being challenged or stimulated or nurtured or when we're bogged down by depression and anxiety and fear existential malaise and generally not feeling in control of our lives.

 

[Crazythinker1]

Personally, I think people with active minds need almost constant stimulation, and when that is unavailable, depression and boredom set in. I mean, most of the people I know litterly do the same thing every day. They tend to eat the same thing, hang out with the same people, listen to the same music, etc, etc. To an INTP, this is death.

 

[Minuend]

Really? I thought INTPs sat on their PCs gaming every day. A lot of people in here constantly say they are to lazy to do stuff, anyway.

Also, why are you gone so often, crazy? We don't get enough crazy here these days

 

[RaBind]

Really? I thought INTPs sat on their PCs gaming every day. A lot of people in here constantly say they are to lazy to do stuff, anyway.

INTPs probably always think about stuff that interests them. Always thinking about new theories and ideas, one of the reason they can be seen as experts in the field they are interested in. The problem is that they don't DO stuff, they may just be happy with their thoughts, theories and hypothesis so they can't go through the full process or even be bothered to start.

 

[Crazythinker1]

"Also, why are you gone so often, crazy? We don't get enough crazy here these days"

Sadly, the demands of work and family have kept me away, Minuend.