Hi, I'm new here.

[Jesin]

Hello, I just joined this forum. You can call me Jesin.

I'm 14 years old, and I took the MBTI because every freshman at my school takes the MBTI. The test classified me as an INTP, and when I read the description, my reaction was along the lines of "Aagh! This fits me too well! Have they been watching me?"

Some people here have written about being teased in high school. I got that in elementary and middle school, but I do not get teased for being a nerd in high school. I go to the nerd high school, TJHSST.

TJ is awesome. We have a lab full of Linux computers, which is also full of smart people for most of the day. My precalculus teacher, who also teaches my computer science class, is also awesome, and acts more like a college professor than a high school teacher. I think about 15-20% of the people in my IBET (Integrated Biology, English, and Technology) also scored INTP, as did all 5 of my closest friends at that school.

TJ is less awesome during the 3rd quarter (always the worst, at least in this school district), and I have little time for anything but homework during that grading period. But 3rd quarter is over, I don't have a totally overwhelming workload anymore, and I'm generally in a pretty good mood. In fact I'm almost unusually cheery right now, and I don't really know why. There seem to be some people here who are in a less-than-good mood, to whom I say, I hope you find some way to cheer up, as well as some sadists, to whom I can't think of anything to say.

So anyway, hi, I hope this forum turns up some interesting things to think about. I will conclude my post with a link to a website that seems to have a lot of INTPs, and that I think many people here would probably be interested in:
http://news.ycombinator.com/

 

[loveofreason]

Hi Jesin. Enjoy your time here.

 

[Aphasia]

Hi... wait, hacker news? Interesting. Anyway, hope you have fun in the land of weirdos, losers and misfits. Word to the wise; bring pie. It helps. :P

 

[whojgalt]

But 3rd quarter is over, I don't have a totally overwhelming workload anymore, and I'm generally in a pretty good mood. In fact I'm almost unusually cheery right now, and I don't really know why.

I think that's called a sense of accomplishment. Enjoy it, it's one of the most valuable things you'll ever have. Did you get good grades, or, short of that, did you at least learn something?

 

[Jesin]

I think that's called a sense of accomplishment. Enjoy it, it's one of the most valuable things you'll ever have. Did you get good grades, or, short of that, did you at least learn something?

I doubt it's a sense of accomplishment. Yes, I've learned stuff, yes, I got pretty good grades, but that's normal. I don't really feel like I've accomplished anything more than usual.

I think it's a combination of things, including the fact that I actually have some free time now.

On a possibly related note, I recently figured out that whenever I find out something weird about myself (being INTP is a small weirdness that often leads to (or is correlated in some other way with) a bunch of other, stranger stuff), there are groups online for people who are weird in the same way.

(It seems that geeks (especially programmers (even more so with Lisp programmers)) are often more comfortable with nesting parentheses than other people.)

Oh, yes, and does anyone here recognize my avatar?

 

[whojgalt]

I don't really feel like I've accomplished anything more than usual.

Oh, yes, and does anyone here recognize my avatar?

I don't think feeling a sense of accomplishment is a relative thing.

It's a go board, or part of one? I think that is a named pattern, but I'm not familiar enough to be sure or to know which one.

 

[Jesin]

What I mean is, I don't usually get like this, even when I make better grades and/or learn more than I did last quarter.

No, it's not a Go board. The pattern is sometimes known as the small fish. If I gave its more commonly-used name, that would be a dead giveaway, because of Google.

 

[whojgalt]

Then I'm stumped. The pattern does look familiar, though.

 

[Jesin]

I'm going to still give other people a try. If nobody gets it, I'll just tell you, but not yet.

 

[Jesin]

OK, I'm getting impatient. This thing is an LWSS from Conway's Game of Life. I'm surprised that nobody got that.

 

[Wisp]

Holy sh*t. You live in my area. I actually applied to TJ, but didn't get in... My grades weren't high enough, and in retrospect I don't think I'd've enjoyed the workload... I go to Stonewall (*blech*) and am trying to learn things although I face extreme resistance... the sole saving grace. Also, I hate you. I'd love to go there, but GOD I've heard too many horror stories about elitist teachers and students and obssessive GPAs and crap but still, I'd love to get my grimy little hands on some of those resources... I'm taking (the only offered) programming class next year but it's *shudder* BASIC. Yep. Anyhow, I know what TJ is, I have friends (or had) who went to TJ, and on the whole it sounds like a great place to be until the time comes for me to face the workload. Then I go cry in a corner. But on the other hand, if I go there I might something I actually love doing and when I find those rare things I have a bad tendency to work continuously disregarding things like food and sleep... Happened the first time I got a computer... (Last summer)...

BUT ENOUGH!

This topic is about you, not me. Welcome to the INTP forum. I hope you enjoy your stay.

 

[Jesin]

O.o
That was unexpected. Sorry you didn't get in; you sound like the sort of person who would love that place. The workload is bad during 2nd quarter and horrible during 3rd quarter, but it's OK during 1st quarter, and now during 4th quarter it's actually surprisingly light. Some people are obsessive about their GPAs, but many aren't. As long as you can keep it above 3.0 you're fine. I don't know WTF you mean about "elitist teachers and students".

Anyway, some of the awesomeness about TJ: the syslab, 8th period, 1 lunch period that you can spend just about anywhere in and around the building.

Once, the people doing the morning announcements played the first part of this infamous video to the entire school.

And now for something completely different. You have mentioned the mirror effect (or chameleon effect or whatever you called it) several times. I think I may have experienced that, but I'm not sure. Could you explain more about it?

 

[Wisp]

Know of 8th block and the lunches already...

The chameleon effect (n.) -- It's when you exhibit different (possibly fabricated) parts of yourself depending on who you're with at the time. Ex. If you're with musical-type people you wind up talking like you're a full-blown musician, if you're with you're computer geeks, you engage in an involved debate on programming.

But it goes deeper than that. With specific people you not only drift the conversations to their fields of interest (instead of always flowing towards yours), but you can start to adopt (unconsciously, especially if you know them well) their mannerisms... Which leads to everyone thinking that you're so much like them, to the point that when they vocalize this, your first reaction is startled, but as you look back, you see where it's coming from...

 

[Jesin]

Ah HA! So that IS what happened. I have noticed that I often pick up my friends' quirks.

Here's one of the most pronounced instances: before 3rd grade, I used to speak pretty easily and fluently (when I did speak, that is). One of my best friends from around 3rd grade up through 5th or 6th grade stuttered, and said "um" a lot. I gradually started to pick that up, and I only managed to recover about halfway through this school year (9th grade). I still haven't fully recovered, just mostly.

This year, I picked up from a friend a habit of saying "Aah!" in response to anything that is clever or ironic in a specific way that I can't really describe. To a lesser extent, I have gained a tendency to make obscure references to stuff from another guy in the same circle of friends.

 

[Wisp]

I've picked picked up the tendency to say "No. FAIL!" from one of my friends...

 

[Jesin]

Hmm. Same here, but slightly differently: "No! You fail."

 

[Wisp]

Actually, he'll say those exact words too sometimes... A guy named Ian.

 

[Olba]

Once, the people doing the morning announcements played the first part of this infamous video to the entire school.

Whatever, that guy still has a good voice. That's a fact you cannot disagree about.

Well, as long as we're on the topic of men with a good voice, here're a few of my favorites:

Okawa Toru, a Japanese voice actor
Hiroki Takahashi, a Japanese voice actor
Hiroki Takahashi, the same guy doing a different song
Sugita Tomokazu, another Japanese VA
Miyano Mamoru, yet again a Japanese VA

And now for something completely different. You have mentioned the mirror effect (or chameleon effect or whatever you called it) several times. I think I may have experienced that, but I'm not sure. Could you explain more about it?

Myself, I've experienced it constantly and I do experience it whenever I talk to anyone. In my case, the most obvious hint to it is the fact that I can be very different when talking to two different people. When talking with one, I can be an intelligent debator discussing teleportation in physics, with another I can be a less-intelligent guy mocking the fact that the other party of the discussion actually likes alcohol.

Well, it's not that bad, just that it leads into a sort of an identity crisis where I'm not even sure who is the real me. Well, after some thinking, I came up with two possible places for the real me: 1. Whenever I'm alone 2. Whenever I'm with an actual friend. Well, the problems about the first option are obvious and as for the second one, there's the issue of me not thinking of most people as nothing more than temporary and compulsory connections to the social world forced upon me by the crappy education system.

Oh, and remember to have a nice day. After all, there's the nice, blue sky and stuff. Cool.

 

[Jesin]

I've stopped thinking of those sorts of things as "crises". They're just another interesting question to ponder.

 

[Linsejko]

That's a nice approach, actually.

I for a second glanced at your avatar thinking it was a Go board first time I saw it, but quickly saw that it could not be.

Do you play go?

[strike]I didn't know whatever it was you referenced.[/strike] I had never heard of Conway's Game of Life, but I just downloaded Xlife (after reading the entire wiki entry). Thanks for introducing me. Very fascinating. xD


Welcome, Jesin. Glad to have you.

.L

 

[Jesin]

For the Game of Life, I recommend LucidLife or GtkLife. If you just want to try it out, go here:
http://www.ibiblio.org/lifepatterns/
That page has a very nice Java applet that uses a very fast algorithm. In fact, GtkLife and its derivative LucidLife both use an algorithm based on the one in that applet.

Thanks for the welcome, but I already seem to be one of the board's more active members.