Does Your Mind Wander?

[Midus]

I often describe my thought process as something similar to browsing wikipedia. Starts with one page, find an interesting term and go to another page. This then leads to more and more pages until I forget what I was looking up in the first place. Browsers have back buttons. My mind doesn't work that well. I often go off on weird tangents and then spend an hour trying to remember what I meant to think about initially.

 

[Words]

If your looking for people with similar behavior, then yes I also have this type of "wikipedia jumping routines". Then you try to think about what was it that started all of this? The problem with this method is that I can never fully finish one "page" because often I'm attracted to another subject. I also do it with the actual wikipedia.

Isn't everyone like this? I don't think its that exclusive.

If your looking for a solution, try always bringing a your "handy dandy" notebook. Name it and treasure it.

 

[Irishpenguin]

I'm pretty sure that this is an extremely common (if not a fundamental) part of being an INTP. The entire getting lost in your thoughts, going through multiple tangents, and then not being able to figure out your way back. Oh yea, that's something that I can instantly relate to. (It might not be exclusive to INTPs, but I don't think it's very common thing amongst most people)

I would give an example of when this has happened to me, but then it would be forced. The ones that are actually done are more funny anyway, so next time it happens (probably soon), I'll come back here and post it


Oh wait, I do remember one of the funniest arguments I've ever had having to to with going off on tangets. I really wish I could remember it in more detail but it's been a couple years since it happend. What I do remember is that it started with something about Harry Potter being able to beat some other character. Fifteen minutes later we were talking about how a Farmer would escape an alien invasion or something, all while still being able to retain the initial argument.

 

[Fool]

That sounds strangely familiar. I've never compared my thought process to browsing wikipedia but I guess that does sound pretty damn accurate. I tend to forget my original ideas/concepts too, which is extremely irritating. This somehow reminds me of my dear friend Mary. Every time we meet my thought process is extremely sped up. I go off on the weirdest tangents every few seconds and eventually I am confused to where as all of it started.

 

[ashitaria]

Oh yeah, I can definitely relate to that.

Imagine a sunny day...
and you are watching some butterflies while your teacher is talking. You wonder how those wings work, figure it out, than wonder if the butterflies have any thing in common to birds, then you wonder about the bird's respiratory system, then relate that to human's respiratory system, then find the interconnection between the respiratory system to the circulatory system, and then wondering why the hell you were thinking about that, then try to retrace back to find out what you are thinking about, forget about the last thing you were thinking about, and then realize that your propaganda paper is due in five minutes.

Sigh....

 

[Alice?]

I often describe my thought process as something similar to browsing wikipedia. Starts with one page, find an interesting term and go to another page. This then leads to more and more pages until I forget what I was looking up in the first place. Browsers have back buttons. My mind doesn't work that well. I often go off on weird tangents and then spend an hour trying to remember what I meant to think about initially.

Yep, that's pretty much exactly how my mind goes.

 

[Crazythinker1]

Yeah I do that. Drives my family nuts.

 

[EditorOne]

Yup. I could write this book a lot faster if I didn't get sidetracked six times when just using the Web to check one little thing I'd like to nail down....

 

[Jesin]

Yes, quite a lot.

...I lost the game.

 

[Branden]

Oh yeah, I can definitely relate to that.

Imagine a sunny day...
and you are watching some butterflies while your teacher is talking. You wonder how those wings work, figure it out, than wonder if the butterflies have any thing in common to birds, then you wonder about the bird's respiratory system, then relate that to human's respiratory system, then find the interconnection between the respiratory system to the circulatory system, and then wondering why the hell you were thinking about that, then try to retrace back to find out what you are thinking about, forget about the last thing you were thinking about, and then realize that your propaganda paper is due in five minutes.

Sigh....

YES

and YES to wikipedia jumping reference, that is exactly how i think. I love it.

 

[ifelloverboard]

Hmm, yes I suppose it does.

It doesn't take much for one thought to lead to another, and another, and another, and another, and another, and another, and another, and another.

I rather enjoy it.

 

[Da Blob]

Reminds me of this link the subject of much discussion on a few threads in the Archives..

http://community.livejournal.com/intj/102341.html


Personally, i could never limit my thoughts to a linear "train of thought" It always seems that every time I launch a probe to investigate the deep reaches of outer space, it always returns to orbit around the planet, ME...

 

[Lithorn]

Try fixing a hole where the rain gets in. It might stop your mind from wandering.
No...wait...that's a song.

 

[RubberDucky451]

Ctrl + Click (tabs)

It has ruled my world.

 

[warryer]

Ctrl + Click (tabs)

It has ruled my world.

yea i usually have 6 or 7 tabs up at a time. Just when I close one 2 more appear in their place.

not to mention alt + tab

 

[Wish]

^If you have a mouse with a scroll wheel you can simply click the scroll wheel over a link and it will act just like ctrl-click

 

[Ezro]

All the time. Sometimes it's pretty fun to just wander away, but when I'm thinking about somethmg important or someone is talking to me

 

[uth]

Oh, sorry! Could you repeat the question?

 

[Geminii]

yea i usually have 6 or 7 tabs up at a time

I have a bookmark sublist I open once a week which generates 111 simultaneous tabs. It doesn't crash. But did you know it's possible to have so many tabs open at once that a browser will crash on a machine with multiple gigs of memory which is running no other applications?

Guess how I found that out...

 

[Jah]

It's funny how things remind me of other things that somehow lead to elaborate tangents that somehow seem to have no real connection to whatever the issue may have been.

 

[onthewindowstand]

This is almost the definition of how I think. I am pretty sure though that this is extremely common if not fundamental to being considered INTP

 

[unhinged]

Happens with me very often...

Its really weird when it happens when you're talking to someone though ... Like something that frequently happens to me is that I ask someone a question and then at the next instant I'm thinking about something else, so I don't even register their answer. Then a minute later I'm asking the question again...

Yesterday I asked a friend the same question thrice in the span of a minute... Must be irritating...