The Eight Functions

Now let me break down the eight functions, and describe their strengths and weaknesses. If a function is your first function, you will likely experience the weaknesses more acutely.

Extraverted Feeling (Fe) - These people make decisions based on the emotions and values of others in a group. They are very expressive, in tune with group vibes and dynamics, and care a lot about outward appearances. Their strengths are they tend to have great social skills, be well liked, be very fashionable and charismatic. Their weaknesses are they tend to lack self identity, be prone to martyrdom, group think, and tend to be more superficial.

Extraverted Thinking (Te) - These people make decisions based on what is most efficient, effective, and gets practical real world results. They tend to be domineering, highly disciplined, and organized. They make great managers, and leaders. When compared with Ti, which I will discuss later, they tend not to be overly focused on logic and tend to be focused on results. Their strengths are their discipline, tendency to be seen as leaders, and conscientiousness. Their weaknesses are the fact that they can be overly cruel, insensitive, and workaholics.

Introverted Feeling (Fi) - These people tend to march to their own drum, and make decisions based on what matches their self expression and values. They have a strong need to adhere to their moral compass and values. Their strengths are that they are resolute, very dependable friends, tend to be good artists, and have a strong moral compass. Their weaknesses are their tendency towards irrationality, mood swings, and stubbornness.

Introverted Thinking (Ti) - These people make decisions based on what makes the most sense to them. A person with strong Ti will not want to do something they know that will achieve great results without understanding why and how it works, while a Te person just cares that it works. They strongly value logical consistency and value the truth above all else when making decisions, while Te people just value effectiveness. They tend to stack and stack logical blocks on top of each other, and go really deep into different subjects. These are the people who understand the ins and outs of complex systems, the philosophers, and the mathematicians. Their strengths are they tend to be highly logical, good at understanding complex concepts and systems, highly self aware, and have strong identities. Their weaknesses are they can be very socially unaware, prone to selfishness, insensitive, and get lost in their heads.

The information gathering functions are more elusive and difficult to define, especially the introverted ones. However, this time with some assistance from ChatGPT, I will do my best to explain them as clearly as possible.

Extraverted Intuition (Ne) - Extraverted intuitives love to gather a lot of information about many different concepts, and share it with others. When analyzing information, they make many connections between seemingly unrelated concepts and can derive new insights from them. These people tend to be jacks of all trades, but masters of none. They love discovering novel ideas and concepts, and get bored with repetition. Their strengths are ability to quickly understand new ideas, their proneness toward entrepreneurship, love for knowledge, flexibility, and adaptability. Their weaknesses are being generally disorganized, scattered, and forgetful, having a hard time finishing tasks they start, lack of discipline, and propensity towards boredom.

Introverted Intuition (Ni) - In the general population, this is the rarest cognitive function to have as your dominant. It is similar to extraverted intuition in that it gathers concepts and ideas. However, it is much more elusive, in that it tends to focus more on organizing concepts one already has learnt subconsciously rather than focusing on learning new ones. Because of this, those with introverted intuition tend to get a lot of hunches, and learn new information before realizing how they learned the new information. They may have a hard time explaining the things they know, and often use many metaphors and analogies. Their strengths are they tend to have strong visions for the future, can set and outline clear goals, and tend to be very creative and good at strategizing. Their weaknesses are difficulties communicating, overthinking, perfectionism, excessive need to exert control, and tendency to disconnect from reality. Because of their excellent vision, they can also make great CEOs and administrators. It is often joked that people with Ne start businesses, and people with Ni run them.

Extraverted Sensing (Se) - These people are very in touch with their physical surroundings, live in the moment, and are very present focused. They gather objective information about the world around them and use them to develop practical and real world skills, such as sports, building things, dancing, truck driving, anything that is a physical skill. They are very practical people and have great understanding of objective, physical reality. Their strengths are their spontaneity, ease in developing physical skills, being highly alert, and having a practical, realistic outlook. Their weaknesses are their tendency to lack foresight, impulsiveness, and dislike of routines.

Introverted Sensing (Si) - If Ne and Ni are future focused, focusing on what “could be”, Se is present focused, focused on “what is”, then Si is past focused, focused on “what was”. These people have strong memories, and recall objective information from the past and use that to process information in the present. They often have an active narrative in their head about whatever it is they are experiencing, while Se people just live in the moment. They also focus on concrete facts about the past, and are very detail-oriented, while intuitives, especially Ne, are more big picture oriented. They rely a lot on their memory and subjective life experience. Their strengths are strong organization and discipline, being very reliable, attention to detail, and excellent memories. Their weaknesses are a tendency to overly focus on minutia, obsession with tradition, resistance and dislike of change, and difficulty with abstract thought.

It is important to note that all these functions describe are modes of cognition. Because everything is a spectrum, and everyone has all eight functions, two people with the exact same four letters can still have different personalities. Additionally, how you think, which is what the functions describe, can be independent of what you use your thoughts for. Therefore, behaviors may or may not map onto personality, although they do on average. This is also why I believe most MBTI tests, even the 16 personalities ones, are bullshit. They ask questions about behaviors rather than cognition. I believe the best way to know your true personality is to understand the functions, think “which am I using more on a daily basis?”, and come to the conclusion that way. Additionally, to avoid bias, you should ask the people who know you well to validate whether they see you that way. There are many thinkers who will test as feelers, because the way the questions are asked may make them seem insensitive. Likewise, there are many feelers who will test as thinkers because the way the questions are asked may make them seem overly irrational. Additionally, people rely on their dominant functions to varying degrees. Since everyone was wondering, I am an ENTP by the way.

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