Bad S vs. N Stereotypes

Time and time again, I see intuition likened to impracticality and even laziness, to a certain degree. What do I mean by that? Well, it is assumed that intuitives are somehow lacking in ability to perform daily tasks, or that they are somehow less apt to deal with the real world. It is assumed that intuitives will struggle more to complete mundane tasks like chores, because they live primarily in the abstract world of their mind and are detached from the sensory world. They will naturally dislike chores and other such tedious real world necessities. Personally, I see this description as unrealistic, and the logic of it as misleading.

Let me take a second to reverse the logic over to sensors. While intuitives are described as the above, sensors are (inversely) described as being naturally good at tedious and mundane tasks. They’re even described as liking such tasks and finding comfort in them. Some descriptions or explanations give off the idea that they have a more natural inclination toward navigating the real world in comparison to the intuitives. So, with that pretext out of the way, let me explain the inconsistencies here.

1. If it’s new, most people won’t be comfortable with it

It is the rare person that can magically just pick up a “skilled” task and do it with no prior practice or experience. Some people like to relate mechanical or hands-on tasks to the sensors specifically, and then claim that such tasks will cause intuitives stress because they’ll somehow be less capable. First, most people can do most things adequately with practice. (The kid that grew up taking junk apart will be good at taking junk apart, in comparison to the person that doesn’t try to take junk apart until later in life.) Second, a lot of people naturally stress out when approaching a new task. I’ve seen people who are claiming to be intuitives blame this on a lack of connection with the sensory world, as if sensors wouldn’t stress out in the same scenario. It simply isn’t true. Sometimes I think people use this logic as an excuse to avoid trying. (I’m not naturally inclined toward this, ergo why bother?)

I’ve seen a similar situation in regards to teenagers who are beginning to enter adulthood. For the record, we all stress out to some degree when having to deal with adult life for the first time, whether you’re a sensor or intuitive makes little difference if any. If you’ve never done the things, you’ll probably start stressing out or feel overwhelmed. That’s natural for any personality. (Granted some are prone to stressing out less than others, but that has nothing to do with sensing versus intuition.)

2. Nobody likes chores

Perhaps that statement is too absolute, but as a general rule, no one LIKES chores. No one goes “Yay! I get to do laundry today!” or some other such nonsense. Once again, I’m sure that rare person exists, but over all? No. It doesn’t matter if someone is a sensor or an intuitive, chances are they won’t like doing mundane chores. Now, I have seen many inferior Te users (whether ISFP or INFP) that enjoy cleaning. (We find safe, easy ways to use our inferior function so that we can feel accomplished in it.)

Unfortunately, this incorrect association has resulted in LAZY SENSORS trying to type themselves as intuitives. The logic usually goes something like this: “I hate doing chores. I’m not good at them. I never get anything done like I should, because I just want to do other things like play video games or daydream. This is why I can’t be a sensor.”

As far as I’m concerned, that is an insult to intuitives everywhere, because it implies that intuitives are innately lazy, which is false. Laziness is as character flaw.

3. An aptness for tedious tasks correlates to detail orientation

More specifically, the Si users or perhaps sometimes the Ni users. Bear in mind, this doesn’t mean that they have to LIKE such tasks. It just means that they may struggle less with them, and perhaps they’ll find “comfort” in those tasks, in the sense that they won’t cause anxiety. They will be relatively easy tasks that one can perform without fear of doing it incorrectly at, for instance, their place of employment. Realize though, that when I say “tedious”, I really mean tasks that require paying attention to fine details. Ni users can be detail oriented in something that matters to them, whereas, Si users tend to be detailed oriented as a rule. People like to designate these type of tasks to the realm of the sensors in general, but that is an incorrect stereotype. I’ll give you an example.

At work, I once had to compare all the files within certain folders to backups of the same folders, to ensure that each file was there and unaltered. There were a whole bunch of folders that I had to go through this process with. Basically, I had to pull up the current version and the backup version side by side in a file explorer on my computer, and compare line by line. It was incredibly tedious, and I got a headache within 10 minutes of starting. I would find excuses to go do something else (or I would get interrupted to go do something else…), and the moment I returned to continue, I had a new headache within 10 minutes. It went like clockwork. I was not made for that type of task. I’m an ISTP.

Perhaps there can be tedious tasks that don’t require detail orientation… but does anyone really enjoy those either?

In conclusion…

Each does have their own struggles and I’m not trying to detract from that, but I often see incorrect assumptions made on both sides. Obviously, intuitives are naturally more detached from the sensory world, but that is not the same thing as being incapable, similar to how sensors are capable of intuition. It has more to do with preference, and approach to life. Intuition (or the perceiving functions in general) specifically has more to do with the type of information one is inputting (Ni) or outputting (Ne).