Actually what makes opinions is not Ni, but rather Fe. Ni just gathers information and Fe makes opinions based on Ni's input. I usually gather information and can actually see both points of an issue. But I'm very decisive when people expect me to come up with a decision on an issue, but in my mind, I can relate to the opposing side as well. So if you ask me some thing such as "do you think religion is wrong?", I can assertively tell you that it is, but at the same time I could come up with a counter-argument of why people follow it anyway because in my head, I have considered every contingency of each side. When I say that I'm not very opinionated, I mean that I don't rigidly stand firmly on a principle if there are better ways to look at something.
Hmmm, yes this sounds like you have a very informed worldview. I suppose I was considering the issue that Ni is where all you know about the world is stored, and if something contradicts that (and your worldview is dominant) then you are more likely to assert that you are right, primarily because what's most important for a Pi-dominant is what's up there stored about their world. Also, when I don't feel comfortable asserting an opinion is precisely when I don't have enough information about the issue to make an informed opinion. I do have opinions, I'm just so aware that they are uninformed that I don't want to voice them; they'll change soon anyway.
Also, I should add that I have conceptualized Fe as a function used for judging what effects our actions will have on others. Basically I see it as how we come to understand other peoples' values and how we can appease or manipulate others to have the desired effect.
Could you elaborate on this? I always thought that Ne looked for patterns in the external environment and came up with different ways to see things.
Certainly. What I mean to say is that when an INTP (or INFP for that matter) uses Ne, it is often used in relation to the dominant Ji (Ti or Fi) function. When navigating the environment, sure Ne is what is handling the stuff coming in, looking for patterns to make sense of what's out there, but when an INxP introspects (and we do this quite a lot) he/she will pull stored information up from Si to generate possibilities from, which are subsequently analyzed (or submitted to Fi for evaluation). As Si always accompanies Ne, this is always an option for Ne users.
For example, I might pull up a memory of an interaction I had with someone, do a quick consultation of Fe to get my footing of where the person is probably coming from, and then generate ideas for what that person's perspective might have been, or how that person might have reacted if I did X or Y or Z. I don't do this a whole lot nowadays, having realized that my Fe will likely never be developed enough to give a good understanding of the impact my actions will have with others. But I've been doing it a whole lot with music, pulling up a song and noticing, for the first time, that the pattern here is similar to the one there, but a minor variation was made somewhere in it. It often seems to come out rather spontaneously, with me never really "pulling up" the music so much as just find myself thinking, "hmmm, yes, that would make sense..." Thus I could be confusing introverted Ne with unconscious Ni (though I doubt it; half of the discussion about Ni sounds like its not under conscious control anyway).
I agree with BlinkandThink, however, that Ne is normally used externally, as exhibited by what was quoted. I wouldn't worry too much about it though, because subsequent discussion has made me think you are actually an INFJ.
I am very task-oriented (or, at least, I was a couple of years ago), so it's possible for an INTP to be such, but yeah, I'd now argue INFJ. Not sure how accurate Razare's distinction about comforting people is, but I'd be much more inclined to listen to their concerns, empathize with them, then tell what I think they should do (usually phrasing it as, "well, what I'd do is...") regardless of whether I'd never do that because the person is completely different from me. Either way, it doesn't sound at all like the direct-solution method.
