Realistic vs. Practical

[Trifoilum]

In my life, I'd heard people saying the former when they meant the latter.

It is as if things that are not:
a) short term, gives immediate outcome / result.
b) relates to the speaker's problems at hand
c) tangible

is unrealistic (and therefore aren't worthy to talk about).
(and they are all STs. I don't know if there are any connections.)

Personally I called that practical;
Realistic is..just..things that happened in our lives. Racism is realistic; otherkins are realistic. My Little Pony is realistic; planning about world presidency regarding My Little Pony is unrealistic (but entertaining).
And just because they are unrealistic (or impractical) does not mean they aren't worthy to talk about, for many reasons.

But I'm not talking about the worth of unrealistic / impractical things; just...the difference between the two words.
What about you? What is being realistic and what is being practical?
Do you think both are interchangeable?

 

[Kgal]

Realistic is the perspective.
Practical means the steps/actions/items to go along with the perspective.

I've been taught to be realistic and therefore practical my whole life.

Bah. I have decided to throw the realistic chains down and am purposefully moving towards the dreaming potentials. :yo:

 

[Trifoilum]

I've been taught to be realistic and therefore practical my whole life.

It's funny, I just had an argument that essentially boils to it.

We are 'taught' to be realistic, and if you don't, that means the 'teaching' failed and therefore you are stupid....
Oh, a nice angle of ego attack (and a nice angle of ego defense, coming from me.)

 

[Kgal]

It's funny, I just had an argument that essentially boils to it.

We are 'taught' to be realistic, and if you don't, that means the 'teaching' failed and therefore you are stupid....
Oh, a nice angle of ego attack (and a nice angle of ego defense, coming from me.)

Yeh...

I was just telling Jill Hives that we are the minority when it comes to being the dreamers and intuitives. Those character traits are deemed unacceptable in the majority of societies around the world - especially now that there is one world order infecting the globe. (read Capitalism). So I would suppose in their limited view of how a person should be - if it aint' realistic - it's stupid.

I'm not sure I would denigrate my ego's desire to be Non Realistic. I would celebrate it if I were you.

I mean when you think about it - the world is a pretty f'd up place. Things the way they are aren't working so well now are they? That tells me humans need to move in the opposite direction from here.

I say....Let the impractical and the non realistic commence!

 

[Trifoilum]

Yeh...

I was just telling Jill Hives that we are the minority when it comes to being the dreamers and intuitives. Those character traits are deemed unacceptable in the majority of societies around the world - especially now that there is one world order infecting the globe. (read Capitalism). So I would suppose in their limited view of how a person should be - if it aint' realistic - it's stupid.

I'm not sure I would denigrate my ego's desire to be Non Realistic. I would celebrate it if I were you.

I mean when you think about it - the world is a pretty f'd up place. Things the way they are aren't working so well now are they? That tells me humans need to move in the opposite direction from here.

I say....Let the impractical and the non realistic commence!

I find that the ego defense also came from me; that in defending my way of thinking, I ended up resorting to mirrors and smokes.
An unnecessary one. :|

But for your words, I agreed that we are the minorities when it came to that.
I dare not question the rightfulness of that standard that made intuitives the minority for now (too much philosophizing head hurts floating floating FLOATING) though. It's easy to find reason supporting and opposing that argument.

 

[Kgal]

 

[Tin Man]

I think Kgal answered the question quite succinctly so there's no need for me to go into greater detail. What I will say is that intuitives are not the only ones who are impractical dreamers and sensors are not the only realistic ones. For example, INTJs are very well known for being realistic and practical, while ESXPs (or the ones I know) often take on tasks that are unlikely to end in any practical result.

 

[barbad0s]

Unrealistic = not relevant to the real world, or ignores real-world experience and probability for things to go a certain way, or factors that must be taken into account in a real-life situation.
Impractical = useless; cannot be put into practice.

Realistic and practical are two words that are associated with one another. "-istic" means the way something works--for example, "logistics", "ballistics", "linguistics". Therefore the word "realistic", pretty much literally means "the way reality works", NOT "what reality IS". It has nothing to do with existence or non-existence. If you're trying to mean something like "imaginative", unrealistic wouldn't be a good word choice... maybe you mean something like "imaginary" or "hypothetical".

 

[Gaze]

Realistic is the general mindset or attitude, the ideas, the mental approach. For example, it's realistic to start saving early if you want to plan for college, home or retirement. it's not considered realistic to expect to have overnight success as a top 40 musician or Hollywood actor if you don't have musical or acting talent and haven't at least worked on your music or craft, haven't played or acted at least for a few years, haven't had a few failures and rejections, etc.
Practical is the action, what someone does. For example, it isn't considered practical to wear high heels on a camping trip in the woods.

If you're planning for a trip abroad, then it's more realistic to give yourself months to plan. And when you go on the trip, it's more practical to put things in your suitcase that you will need for that trip just in case of emergencies since you may not always have access or money to purchase those items when you're there.

I think the main difference is that realism is a state of mind, while practical is more action oriented. Someone can be an idealist and practical. For example, Someone may say "I want world peace (idealistic) but I know that to achieve it would be almost impossible (realistic) so I can be practical about it by doing little things everyday to make the world an easier, safer, and nicer place to live in."

Someone can be practical but not realistic. I can be practical in my study efforts for a course, by studying hard, paying attention in class, etc. but it's not realistic for me to think I can still get an A in that course even if I received an A on the final. Why? Because I received Ds and Fs on all the coursework I completed throughout the term.

 

[sprinkles]

Realism is what you're able to accomplish.

Practicality is how likely you are to accomplish it successfully, and how optimal or valuable the method is as opposed to other methods.


For example it might be somewhat realistic for me to go shopping with a thousand pennies, but it would certainly not be practical.