A question about Ni and Aha! moments ...

[BlinkandThink]

There are many times when I'll spend a long time pondering the solution to a dilemma, only to end up with lots of iffy results.

Then I'll let it go or fall asleep and an answer will appear to me in a flash ... one that's better than what I could have come up with consciously. Then all I need to do is write it down.


Is this me using Ni without realizing it?


I've never considered myself an Ni user because I engage in Ne so heavily. Am I using it and just overlooking it? Or is this actually some sort of Ne combo that just looks like Ni? Because I really can't relate to any of the Ni prediction stuff ... whenever I determine what's going to happen, I'm clearly using Si.

 

[Moxie]

To be honest, Ni, Ne, Si, Se still confuses me, so we'll both have to wait for those wiser than me to answer your question! I don't know that I will ever figure out which goes where. But I do the same thing - if I let a problem go and sleep on it, oftentimes I will have the perfect solution the next day. But... this is going to sound weird... oftentimes I remember the thought processes it took me to get there, even though I was sleeping....

 

[Siamese cat]

I think it is. I'm pretty sure that we are all using all of our functions but in different situations and to different extent, but since I'm not an expert in this area my opinion on this may not be valid.

For me using Ni looks like this. During my graduation year I got homework that involved inverted pendulum problem, specifically bringing pendulum to an inverted position. Now this is something that's been done many times in engineering and using many different methods, but I got the task of using fuzzy controller which is basically intuitive method of control. I've spent days going through materials and several nights in a row I was dreaming of a child on a swing begging me to swing her higher. First few days I wasn't making any connection of these dreams and what I was doing awake although it's quite obvious now. The last dream I had involved again the girl on the swing and me thinking how to swing her higher because she was fidgeting in the seat and making me harder to swing her. When I managed to swing her I swung her over the poll and at that moment got an idea what I should try to do with my controller. Since I remember dreams extremely well, it was easy implementing that solution later. And generally many, many things made much more sense to me when I stop analyzing them constantly, and just get up and go to make coffee, or take a walk, sometimes it's something I see, sometimes something I hear that makes that final connection when everything just falls into right place and starts to make sense. Sometimes I think that I managed to graduate thanks to Ni solely.