Introverted Thinking

[Decaf]

During my qualifying class we were asked to do free writes about snowmen and I ended up describing how snowmen relate to the public consciousness. Apparently that was classic iT.

After that I started looking for more instances of when I do that. Take a simple thing, potentially boring, and turn it into something that occupies my brain. As any good researcher, I looked through xkcd first

So I started thinking about other instances and I came up with M&Ms. When I have a hand full of M&Ms, I tend to pick the next one I am going to eat by how it will affect the pattern. I try to make it so that eating only one will give me a new viable pattern different then the one that exists before I eat it, and so on until they're all gone. I get quite a lot of satisfaction from this odd experience and I just wanted to hear some stories from others if you can think of similar experiences (Airport carpet patterns anyone?).

 

[Ermine]

Haha, love it. I use to entertain myself with floor patterns when I was younger. That's probably the biggest reason why I'm misunderstood a lot. I always have my reasons, but they take way too long to explain.

 

[fullerene]

haha i love xkcd. As for floor patters, I definitely used to do it a lot more. Cracks on the sidewalk were big when I was younger, and the middle school i went to in 6th grade had patterned tiles that irritated me a little (tough to follow some pattern in a crowded hallway). My parents have always been big on trying to force my little ocd symptoms out of the public eye, though (*shakes fist*), and that's one that I don't really have anymore (because, of course, if I still thought about it I'd probly still do it regardless). I'm not so much into patterns anymore at all, actually, even tho I still twitch sometimes just because things don't feel "right" unless the stuff that passes from in to outside of my field of vision is fairly symmetrical. It makes me feel like I need to turn my head, to "undo" the passing by the first time, closing my eyes, and turning my head back if i walk by anything too vivid or abnormally shaped. Haha so same idea, different symptom

 

[Decaf]

I think introverted thinking often looks like mild OCD. I feel bad for ISTP who have had a lot of those tendencies because they notice their surroundings so much more as they mature. If they tended toward that kind of behavior it might make it harder to kick those habits.

Now that I think about it, that feeling mostly shows up when I'm stressed. When I don't know what to do with myself. I used to do that at school because I felt awkward, I still do that at airports and bathrooms because frankly, there's often nothing to do. I wonder if actual debilitating OCD is a dependency on that feeling to make yourself feel comfortable.

damn... now I gotta start pulling up research and see how OCD manifests itself...

 

[fullerene]

haha you're probably right. My parents were convinced it was all the video games I played when I was younger (because that's when I used to twitch more), but honestly I don't think there was a correlation. I just couldn't explain the feeling and they ran with whatever the popular view was at the time. Ugh.

I'm not sure if it's just introverted thinking though. You might be right in that it often does manifest itself that way, but quite honestly I still do a ton of thinking and don't have problems too often. Just little twitches here and there if I'm sitting playing cards, between hands, if im sitting with the corner of a table near the edge of my vision or something. As soon as there's anything else to focus on, it's no big deal. Whatever I'm focusing on I seem to miss everything important while walking around (I was almost hit by a truck last year when I wasn't paying attention, and I frequenly walk by friends who try to stop and talk for a little). It's just that now it's more of an internal Ti, combing philosophy, religion, culture, or physics for interesting concepts and connections instead of an external Ti (if there can be such a thing), that looks for patterns like you're describing.

I also have an ISTP friend who doesn't exhibit any odd public behavior at all... actually he's quite popular. So I know it's not overwhelming even for them.

 

[zxc]

Great comic, emailed it to several friends/relatives.

I used to only step on certain spots when there were patterns on the floor, but not so much anymore. However, I do have this habit of blinking at specific times as a passenger in a car, depending on the patterns of breaks in the pavement, grass, and poles.

 

[Integer]

Damn I thought it's normal to walk like that. The footpath to my college are made of square tiles but they're arranged so that one square fits two half-squares above it and so on. Nobody has criticised me about it but it does get troublesome if the tiles are small!

Btw I love that comic strip I always get that kind of situation going on. Come to think of it, a lot of people must've thought I'm pretty dumb O_o

 

[orion119net]

I don't really do patterns, but a lot of the time I take really stupid things and do even stupider things with them...

Once at work I was bored, and was sick of the book I brought. There were some pens and some Velcro straps that we use to hold people's various appendages down/whatever. I was bored so I started playing with them.

10 minutes later I had created a super pen! I took it apart and then made a bunch of towers.

 

[Ogion]

Yeah, i know that symmetry thing. Like stepping on every sort of tiles the same times, or similar things. I think i mostly did that when i was bored while walking. Normally i walk with a book in my hands and reading (it is really not that hard, and i always get funny looks when going a staircase while reading - and not falling
Sometimes i think it was some kind of attempt to focus more on details, since details don't interest me so much.

Ogion

 

[Decaf]

Yeah, i know that symmetry thing. Like stepping on every sort of tiles the same times, or similar things. I think i mostly did that when i was bored while walking. Normally i walk with a book in my hands and reading (it is really not that hard, and i always get funny looks when going a staircase while reading - and not falling
Sometimes i think it was some kind of attempt to focus more on details, since details don't interest me so much.

Ogion

LOL, I do that too and I get the same funny looks. I think I learned it to keep from feeling the need to interact with people in the hallway in high school, but now I think its simply the best way to walk.

 

[Ogion]

Yep, exactly.
What was actually sad about it was, that i was the only one! of 1000 pupils at our shool who would read in school. I was literally the only one sitting in the breaks in the hallways reading. The teachers always admired that, i think. They would have like more to do so.

Ogion

 

[Olba]

I used to do the walking-on-tiles thing, but I usually get bored with it.

However, I noticed distinct patterns in other things I do. For example, when eating a school lunch that usually consists of salad, potatoes/rice/etc and something with meat. I always eat the salad first, then the potatoes and leave the sauce last.

Same happens to me with ice cream that have a chocolate topping. I always eat all of the chocolate first and only then touch the insides.

Also, I'm known for playing with candy a lot. Or well, it depends on the type. For example, I've made candy pyramids or other piled structures with candy.

And of course, the same applies to pencils, erasers and so forth.

 

[Saturnine]

Ive done the tile thing, but never really thought about why. I always just thought I was bored walking down hallways and not stepping on any of the cracks was a challenge to keep my occupied not have to look anyone in the face lol

 

[October]

I've been doing the tile thing too, since I was a little kid. I guess I liked following the pattern - don't know why though, thought it was normal. Never thought it would define some type of personality more. hehe.

And I guess I tend to follow symmetry too. I just like it.

 

[nooli4]

I do the tile thing, as long as no one notices, as soon as someone notices I just stop and find something else to entertain myself.

As to not stepping on cracks, I hate to be pedantic, but I have always thought it made more sense to purposely step on the cracks. The area of pavement which is cracks is much smaller than the area of non-cracks, therefore it is more challenging to try to always step on the cracks. But maybe that's just me. I guess the point of that habit is based on superstition rather than the distribution of cracks on the pavement.

 

[Decaf]

I do the tile thing, as long as no one notices, as soon as someone notices I just stop and find something else to entertain myself.

As to not stepping on cracks, I hate to be pedantic, but I have always thought it made more sense to purposely step on the cracks. The area of pavement which is cracks is much smaller than the area of non-cracks, therefore it is more challenging to try to always step on the cracks. But maybe that's just me. I guess the point of that habit is based on superstition rather than the distribution of cracks on the pavement.

I step on the cracks too! I always thought it made sense to do so because if either slab your stepping on is structurally unsound, its better to have half your foot on a sound one. Course I think the reason I started is the same as yours. Its more of a challenge. That's why I try to jog on curbs too, though I'm not very good at it yet.

 

[severus]

I do the tile thing too! I also have to eat my food in a certain order and step twice on each square of sidewalk. Sometimes, when being driven somewhere, I will breathe in as we pass roads and out as we pass grass. Usually I get bored with that last one though.

And the comic strip was hilarious,

 

[nooli4]

I step on the cracks too!

Thank God! I was beginning to think I was the only one.

I always thought it made sense to do so because if either slab your stepping on is structurally unsound, its better to have half your foot on a sound one.

I never thought of that, but that is such a good reason. It actually has some logical reason relating to safety.

 

[grettiron]

Haha, love it. I use to entertain myself with floor patterns when I was younger. That's probably the biggest reason why I'm misunderstood a lot. I always have my reasons, but they take way too long to explain.

oh man, yes! say something unexpected in conversation and they ask "where did that come from?" then i sigh inside because it's going to take forever to explain the process. i love that comic, though xkcd really irritates me sometimes for some reason.

 

[Kuu]

Floor patterns!! Noooooo I tend to find patterns more easily than following them, though I still do so consciously for some unknown reason. Maybe the floor patterns were purposely designed as a puzzle to lead us into the headquarters of the powerful, secret INTP society. That or I just need to drop the videogames (sometimes I find myself fascinated by the surreal architecture of videogames). The desire to put in subconsciously manipulative patterns, colors and spatial sequences to guide people through buildings is too strong when designing spaces, so maybe some patterns are actually intentional... but when I have to do it I cannot get them to being effective, beautiful, subtle and intricate at the same time. It's so frustrating and in the end I just put some mediocre, meaningless and uninteresting pattern to meet my deadlines.

 

[Decaf]

when I have to do it I cannot get them to being effective, beautiful, subtle and intricate at the same time. It's so frustrating and in the end I just put some mediocre, meaningless and uninteresting pattern to meet my deadlines.

I played the Sims for a while trying to build magnificent buildings of compact function combined with aesthetic appeal and whatnot, but I always fell short of my vision, so eventually I blamed the medium and uninstalled it

I'm still working on the blueprints for my refurbished missle silo home. Need to figure out how to create a sustainable alternative sewage system... hmmm...

 

[Ogion]

You know, for the task of creating a living place in which you could live autarchic, i would highly recommend John Seymour to you (I have one of his books as pdf, so if you like...).
And for the fun part i may link to this:
A Steampunks Guide to the Apocalypse

Ogion

 

[October]

Sometimes, when being driven somewhere, I will breathe in as we pass roads and out as we pass grass. Usually I get bored with that last one though.

I do the same thing but with blinking and with shadows on the road and grass.

 

[IfloatTHRUlife]

Lol i haven't thought about anything like that in a while but i use to imagine a figure...not exactly any certain person, just a person running along the road and jumping over any stretches of road or anyones driveway, sometimes signs or whatever i saw...sometimes i would just have my fingers up and they would take the place of the "figure" and i would just run along with my fingers, pushing my arm up to resemble the figure jumping...i bet it was extremely odd to watch from anyone else's angle...i have gained a sort of passion for cars and now when i go on any ride i normally zone out thinking about the car riding down the road and i listen to the exhaust and sort of "feel" the car.....even thinking about it now has made me slightly zone out and i am mistyping things and having to go back and fix it Ive rambled enough now...you guys/gals turns

 

[Ogion]

Yes, this "Person-who-jumps-over-the-street-parts" i played too. Well, it was more just arcs than e person, but it was the same kind of thing.
I am wondering if this is a "intp-thing" (annoying combination, after having it read in the forum so often ) or if most people do something like this.

Ogion

 

[IfloatTHRUlife]

AHHHH this is a much better way of explaining it..there wasnt really a certain figure like i said, once you mentioned arks it made sense..thank you..lol

 

[IfloatTHRUlife]

Lol i forgot to mention what i thought about the topic you brought up in the other post but DERRRRR......i think its a good possibility a lot of introverted kids would probably play such games since if they enjoy being alone they have to keep themselves entertained somehow and at a young age, before you have much mental growth all you have is "play" and if it be by yourself then you will most likely have certain games you play at whatever time and im pretty sure all of us should see some consistency with this. Even now i entertain myself but through different forms...be it theoretical conversations with my brother, i often act really "goofy" a lot of people have called me. This is basicly me being really loose and just entertaining myself since everyone else around me is boring most of the time...in any serious setting there is no play, its back to the normal calm thinking.

 

[Ogion]

Hm, yes, and i think it depends upon ones imagination too.
It is stupid, but many people (most adults i think) think "play" is something for children. But i think playing is actually a very good help in learning. If i combine a computer game with some knowledge about biology and environmental change, than most would probably learn that stuff faster with the game than from a textbook or something.

Ogion

 

[IfloatTHRUlife]

ahhh indeed i do think of such methods as being superior to the conventional school education...it wouldn't be anywhere near as "forced" on children as school is but if someone really wants to learn they will. I even think of play being healthy for anyone, im only 18 so i don't know how much experience i have but if someone doesn't have any kind of play or humor in their life...they have a sort of sad life.

 

[zxc]

I do the same thing but with blinking and with shadows on the road and grass.

I do the exact same thing with blinking as I pass grass/roads/poles!!

 

[grey matters]

I used to do the floor pattern thing a lot when I was a kid too. Now that I am almost 40 I only find myself doing this when I am bored and my mind is drifting off while I am walking somewhere.

 

[transformers]

I used to do the floor pattern thing as a kid too, never knew it was an INTP trait.

 

[Reverse Transcriptase]

[bimgx=600]http://portlandsfavorite.com/files/2009/04/omsi.jpg[/bimgx]

This is an entrance to a museum I went to a lot as a kid with my little INTJ brother. You see those brick lines? Yeah. You can imagine what happened.

[bimgx=600]http://lh4.ggpht.com/_n0pwoIWBmwI/SedwW8E5y0I/AAAAAAAAAdc/Lhx-2DIAyXk/DSC_0128.JPG[/bimgx]

I went back there a couple years ago, and it was really really hard to resist the urge to walk on the grid.

 

[Darby]

[bimgx=600]http://portlandsfavorite.com/files/2009/04/omsi.jpg[/bimgx]

This is an entrance to a museum I went to a lot as a kid with my little INTJ brother. You see those brick lines? Yeah. You can imagine what happened.

[bimgx=600]http://lh4.ggpht.com/_n0pwoIWBmwI/SedwW8E5y0I/AAAAAAAAAdc/Lhx-2DIAyXk/DSC_0128.JPG[/bimgx]

I went back there a couple years ago, and it was really really hard to resist the urge to walk on the grid.

OMG! OMSI!!!! The MOST fun place ever, especially for tile walkers, it's one of the few places I still can't resist it. I still do the breathing thing for grass and cross streets, although I breathed out on cross streets because streets are curved, and the car kindof moves up when you pass it, so it's like pushing the air out of your lungs, and it wasn't grass so much as just being back on a flat road again.

 

[preilemus]

hehe.

When I eat candies, I always eat whichever colour I have the most of, so eventually I whittle down to one of each, at which point I may or may not pop them all into my mouth at once.

I also count the buttons on remotes to see if there are an even or odd number of buttons.

Oh, and here is my all time favourite: whenever I am walking somewhere and I am alone, I will connect imaginary lines between all the objects that I see.
example: If I see three leaves on the ground, then I will form a triangle. Of course, there's always more than three leaves, so as I walk I connect another, and another, and make shapes from anything I see during my walk.

Edit: I guess I should add that I actually do the third one pretty much anywhere, it's just that it is particularly strong when I am actually moving around and going places, adding new dots, etc.

 

[Ogion]

Wow, that was some thread-necromacy there, transformers. :P
Though nice to have the forum reach an age where this is possible.

Ogion

 

[Ashenstar]

@RT

*GASP* DINOSAUR! I want to ride on it!

<_<

I say you (or anyone else for that matter) shouldn't try to resist the tile walking. I do it too. I like to move in the fashion of a chess knight on square tiles.​

When I was little there was a floor with tiles that were rectangular in the kitchen. They pointed horizontally and vertically and diagonally in a pattern. I would step on each set with my feet placed on the tiles to go in the same direction.​

Seriously though, that dinosaur. ​

 

[Decaf]

I went back there a couple years ago, and it was really really hard to resist the urge to walk on the grid.

Now I suppose I need to go to OMSI again. Anyone know what the main exhibit is right now?

 

[Ashenstar]

Now I suppose I need to go to OMSI again. Anyone know what the main exhibit is right now?

I'm not too sure but I think I remember hearing something about.. well.. a T-REX!!!

heh heh

I also think there is going to be a dinosaur exhibit at the rose garden arena thingy?

Edit:yeah OMSI is housing Samson the Trex. and here... http://www.omsi.edu/featured-exhibit

oh and this

http://www.rosequarter.com/RQEventDetail/tabid/97/EventID/708/Default.aspx

 

[Geminii]

Yup. As I got older and more aware of social norms, I stopped doing it so much physically, but it was always there in my head. Arcs, lines between things, patterns in everything.

One recent-ish thing was forcing myself to go out and be social with some people I'd mostly never met before, and the first thing I noticed on reaching the table in the bar was that three people had ordered food and had been given those order-stick things that have a number on top and stand about a foot and a half off the table so the staff bringing the food can spot which table to go to across the floor. The three numbers were not only all square numbers, but their square roots would have made the sides of a right triangle.

So yeah. I go out to be social, and the thing that hits me in the first half-second is not anything about the people at the table, but the mathematical relationships between their food order numbers. Way to nerd out when I'm supposed to be training up my social side. :/

Or driving. Driving down the freeway which has a train track right beside it, I'm estimating the cruising speed of the trains which pass me, their average speed when station stops are included, or how long it should take to get to a previously signposted crossroad given the distance and the speed I'm travelling at, minus the number of seconds it took me to work that out - and then I'll count down the seconds to see how accurate the signposting was...