INTP Chip Upgrades: Boost your cognitive functions
Dominant Introverted Thinking (Ti)
Read a lot. Read a variety of topics. Read smart. Be it fiction, non-fiction, news, magazines, or blogs - anything that allows you to analyze and build your library of knowledge. I’d say, don’t waste time on things like tabloids or facebook newsfeeds of what your acquaintances are doing. Check out my brain food section.
Read things that don’t align with your point of view and analyze them. A good exercise is to read blogs or articles that give rational explanations from a point of view opposite to yours. If you’re an atheist, try reading a fundamental Christian’s argument and understand the basis of their thought process. You don’t have to agree with a value to understanding where it’s coming from. In fact, the more the opposing view pisses you off and makes you want to passionately defy its logic with yours, the better.
Find loopholes/inconsistencies in research papers. This was given as assignments in one of my 3rd-year human biology courses. The professor would give us a master’s degree candidate’s research paper draft and make us find loopholes in them. It was a great exercise for your brain.
Make a habit of googling things right away. If there are things you aren’t sure of that come up in your train of thoughts or during a conversation, google them right away, so that you’ll know the facts and won’t have to base your subsequent analysis on an assumption (or as soon as you can, if you’re in social situations and it could be considered rude).
Practice your spatial reasoning skills. These puzzles test your problem-solving skills and visual-spatial intelligence. I loved doing these when I was little. Here’s one, and here’s another one.
Auxiliary Extraverted Intuition (Ne)
Stimulate divergent thinking i.e. a thought process or method used to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions - which is the way Ne works. Try these classic creativity challenges.
Brainstorm or mind map. The goal is to generate as many ideas as possible in a short period of time. Use one idea to stimulate another idea and be creative. Don’t limit yourself to any structure.
Free write. Choose a topic and write non-stop for a short period of time. The idea is to write down whatever comes to mind about the topic, without stopping to proofread or revise.
Imagine possibilities of real-life situations. I’ve described this here: Work your Ne: an INTP’s secret to being quick-witted. I’d imagine possible conversations with people I know, stock up possible comebacks, and think of how I could manipulate the situations to go toward each possibility. Basically, try to cover everything that could happen to you in your imagination.
Think of different sides of someone you know. It’s hard to know every side of someone. Maybe you know them as a friend, but not as a coworker, and you don’t know how they act with their grandfather. It’s a fun exercise to imagine what they’d be like in other situations.
Experience new things. Visit new places. You can only generate so many ideas in your own head alone - find inspirations externally. Ne cannot come up with ideas if you don’t feed it with new experiences and information to create more connections and patterns with. Art galleries and museums are great places to let your Ne explore. I always get tons of ideas after visiting these places alone (yes, go alone, so you’re not distracted by conversations and you’re allowed to use your own imagination).
Tertiary Introverted Sensing (Si)
Memory exercises. These brain training apps have many great games that exercise your memory recall.
Dream recall right when you wake up. When you’re gaining consciousness and are still lying in bed, quickly try to recall as many details of your dream as possible. If you don’t do it right then, you’ll forget within a few seconds. I find this a fun memory exercise and you always get interesting stories.
Yoga, meditation, and relaxation techniques that help you become attuned to your internal body awareness. Quoting Personality Junkie “an often overlooked role of Si is its perception of internal bodily sensations—the body as felt and experienced from within. Perhaps more than any other function, it provides access to the raw and basic sense of “being” that exists apart from thought or outward stimuli.” I find it easy to focus during meditation since I was young (I grew up in a Buddhist family), and yoga has really helped me personally to be aware of what my body can do, and how it’s linked to my mind.
Inferior Extraverted Feelings (Fe)
Think of your favorite music, art, and literature that really touched you. Try to understand why you feel a certain way while listening/looking/reading them. Which component is more memorable to you? Which word, color or sound evoke strong feelings, and why?
Draw, paint, write, act, sing, dance, play and create music, or whatever it is that allow you to express yourself intuitively without adhering strictly to rationality and logic. Allow yourself to explore these realms and create by instinct rather than objective analysis.
Analyze the reasons you can relate to certain people and not others. How do people you can relate to make you feel, and how are they different from people you can’t? What makes you want to spend time with certain people and not others? What do you like in people and what irritates you? Quantify these feelings into words.
Observe yourself in relation to a group. Because of inferior Fe, INTPs tend to chameleonize themselves and mirror others unconsciously. It is important to be aware of what you’re doing. Observe how you’re influenced by the tone of a group you’re in, and observe how you feel differently from them.
Recognize your own needs and stand up for them. I’ve written my advice on this here: Developing inferior Fe, How happy can an INTP really get? and it’s ok to feel ‘meh’.
-eilamona
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