what if you don't think of a function as a skill, but rather as a pleasure seeking principle.
according to jung, the introverted function finds itself confronted with an overwhelmingly animated world. the reason for this impression is that the world has been animated through a powerful subconscious extroverted principle, upon which i will shed some light in the next paragraph. the introverted reaction is to counteract the constant change and overwhelming richness through introverted abstraction, which grants an impression of steadiness and familiarity. you could say Ni want's to live within it's own dream and not hear about the winds of change out there and Ti want's to orient itself towards his understanding of guiding principles of reality and not bother to consider possibilities that are only fleeting, exceptions so to say.
the extroverted function finds itself confronted with a world that seems sorta empty or lifeless. the reason is that his unconscious is considering the world from an introverted point of view, emphasizing what aspects of it as relevant and familiar to the subject. the extroverted function desires to animate this empty world consciously by - carl jung uses a german word similar to empathy - by feeling for it, by being passionate about it, like you may add excitement to your favorite game, when you are keen on paying attention to every detail of it like it's all pure gold.
there is pleasure in stability but also pleasure in animation.
there is terror in boredom and terror in being overwhelmed.
if i get this right, introverts are consciously participating in the process of introversion while their extroverted apprehension of reality is presented to them as a given fact. and for extroverts the opposite is true.
so INFJ seek to stabilize their world through Ni and through Ti, and INTP seek to stabilize it through Ti and Si.
in a simple life most need for stabilisation and entertainment is already achieved through the dominant function. the auxiliary function is more challenged, when life becomes more complex and unpredictable, in adult years.
the question of the thread remains of course and i also believe that the Ti of the average INFJ can be compared to a 12 year old Ti of an INTP, but not in skill, more in presence and influence. you can observe that the average INFJ has highly anti intellectual attitudes, they despise intellectual abstractions and don't realize that their intuitions are also subjective abstractions from reality (they will mistake them as objective metaphysical truth). only bright INFJ grow beyond this stage and begin to appreciate the power of Ti abstractions and only after their twenties, well into their thirties. but here i examine how conscious the function is, not how much impact it has on the cognition of the person. the young INFJ loves to ask questions (why, how, seeking understanding) and entertain all sorts of conceptual answers, which is clearly a Ti driven behavior. and then he never holds on to any of those answers, they pass by, as if their general relevance beyond this one instance/situation/context is not realized. this displays the unconscious quality of Ti, Ti is not trying to build an army of useful concepts, it's like a child that plays with a toy soldier, then forgets about it again.
what remains unclear to me is in how far the i/e-version of the dominant function is working against the unconscious opposite version of the same function or that of another function. or is against the totality of the unconscious psyche.
