How do you think?

[Intellect]

Whenever I'm doing something creative/intellectually demanding and I hit a road block, I always stand up and pace back and forth while I figure out what to do next. It seems to help me get the wheels turning again.

What kind of stuff do you guys do to brainstorm or think things through?

 

[intpz]

I usually have an answer for everything, whether due to a plan or just "because." When I'm out of answers (rarely, after tries of different things) and I need to think (am frustrated as fuck and could kill a man if he asked me what time it is), I go to take a walk. Otherwise, I'd go socialize or for a fast drive in the outskirts, but I have no car nor do I know people I'd like to socialize with. Although, this all could be prevented if I had money in the first place, as over 99% of the things that I run out of answers for derive from the lack of money in some form.

 

[Architect]

Change tasks. That puts the problem in the back of my mind where it'll get solved. I'll then come back to it, usually the next morning, and what had seemed difficult will usually be clear.

So I try to keep a hopper of things to work on (not hard to do) so I can switch around.

 

[jmontroy90]

Lay down in bed. There's absolutely no risk of falling asleep if my brain is lit up, and the lack of needing to do anything other than stay laying down helps me get real internal.

 

[skip]

Change tasks. That puts the problem in the back of my mind where it'll get solved. I'll then come back to it, usually the next morning, and what had seemed difficult will usually be clear.

So I try to keep a hopper of things to work on (not hard to do) so I can switch around.

Same. Have you ever had an employer who had a problem with this?

 

[NinjaSurfer]

like a Bauss

 

[Proletar]

I usually start playing mind-games. Like asking myself "How would I solve this problem if I was high on drugs/smarter." It's about letting in your creativity on the problem.

If that fails, I do something else. If that fails, I consult a professional.

 

[Architect]

Same. Have you ever had an employer who had a problem with this?

@skip

Ha, good question. Luckily I've worked for scientific institutions and companies that cater to them which are tolerant of crazy haired geniuses. It has varied, some times I was expected/needed to stick to a desk at work for a set period of time (and reinforced by the many meetings). Other positions I've had were the opposite.

My present job is very loose, I work on a solo big feature, in a small team, and can flex it throughout the day. I only spend a few hours at work just to show my face, and flex my time in solving problems throughout the day. Hard to say how much time I put into work, as I'm more or less always thinking about it. But then I'm more or less always thinking about a number of problems.

Yeah, my present job is very INTP friendly.

 

[Distant]

If it is something I have to figure out but I am not interested in, such as my current 3K words essay on F Barths view on ethnicity, I usually just go on the internet and forget about it for a while. I continue doing this until the deadline suddenly approaches, before I cook a full thermos of coffee and clear my desk. I close my eyes and make it clear to myself that there is no way around this, all defense mechanisms will fail, and I can't do anything else than figure out the current problem before I have figured it out/completed the task. Then I do it, marathon style.

Well, that was really more of a way to stop procrastination.

Other intellectually or emotionally demanding tasks, like figuring how I should act in a given social situation, future academic/career choices, my view on the state of Germany, or what recreational activities I should sign up for, I usually figure out by a night lying awake staring in the ceiling

 

[FlowerThug]

Put it off till the deadline is deathly close. If there is no deadline, I put it off till my mind wanders back to it.
Not sure how this'll translate over to my life as an employee. Up until now, I've been employed doing things that don't exactly require me to think.

 

[gilliatt]

Let's say how we 'ought' to think. Thinking in terms of 'fundamental'. An example, a two story house. It has a foundation, roof, floor etc. Everything depends on everything. It has structure. Certain ideas are the ground floor or foundation of cognition, other parts are dependents to form the whole. Thinking in terms of fundamentals means never accepting a conclusion while ignoring its base, it means knowing and validating the deepest ideas on which one's conclusion rests.
Lying is wrong because it is incompatible with the requirements of self-preservation. 'Why should a man who is committed to selfless service necessarily tell the truth?' Most people want him to lie for their own happiness. Lying is self-destructive. A policy of lying leads to a war against reality, which no one can win. There is a reality, our minds are able to know these facts, to know reality. The issue of lying is merely a consequence, a derivative which rests on a complex philosophic foundation.
So it boils down to the issue of fundamentals which is a large part of 'thinking in principle. And our thinking, we are basically trying to understand the world without confusion, floating abstractions. This requires logic, logical structure, back to the fundamentals of philosophy.
Thinking about say Capitalism or Freedom. We know what they are but what do they depend on? How they can be proved? All the way back to metaphysics and epistemology. Everyone needs a system of thought, a complete philosophy of life.

 

[Ganpot]

Change tasks. That puts the problem in the back of my mind where it'll get solved.

That never works for me. I invariably just forget about the task entirely in my enthusiasm for some other mental puzzle.

Oh look, an elephant smilie!