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I really like wandering around http://everynoise.com/engenremap.html when i'm bored. It's kind of like a map of all the different types of music there is, with links to bands' spotify pages. Pretty cool IMO.

I read somewhere that the reason that most adults draw like eleven-year-olds is that we are very self-critical during that age, and just stop drawing. Which means no practice and therefore no skill improvement.

If you really want to learn, there's a book which claims that anyone can learn to draw at least decently using their method.

(Sorry for imposing if you're not actually interested in drawing, I just thought I should mention it)

How I take criticism depends on the delivery of criticism, who it's coming from, what it's criticizing, if I expected it, and how my life is going at the time.

I've learned people only give criticism for two reasons: to help you or to make you feel bad. 99% of the time, people only want to help. If it is the 1% when they want to make you feel bad, you'll know because criticism won't be the only way they'll make you feel bad.

I read On Writing by Stephen King, and it had some really, really great tips. He only has a handful of people who he lets read his manuscripts, and those are the only people who he takes criticism from when writing the final drafts. Everything else he dismisses as pure opinion. I think there is a great lesson here: you don't have to take criticism as the gospel truth. Criticism is only an opinion. Decide whose criticism you trust (because they know what they are talking about and have your best interests at heart) and discard the rest.

Now, even if you trust someone's criticism you don't have to follow their advice. Take a day to reflect on it and see if you agree with it. If you agree with the criticism, then find ways to fix what's wrong. If you don't agree with it, then don't change anything. But taking that day is crucial. It gets you away from any immediate thoughts about the criticism and lets you be objective. NEVER immediately accept or reject criticism, and NEVER make any changes until you've had a day or two to reflect on the criticism.

Bottom line, criticism stings, no matter what. But it's important to take time to reflect who it is coming from and whether it makes sense to accept it. Then, and only then, do I alter my work or myself according to the criticism. Also remember that criticism is based on a person's experience and preferences. Your experience and preferences are inherently different from other people. Ultimately, you decide what is best for your work/life.

Yep, totally true... living in the real world is tough for us... that's why I enjoy living on my own planet (got the idea from the Little Prince, also INFP & INFP author).
Have you guys ever wondered why we INFPs are such maladaptive daydreamers? I have... I started out with a premise, that I would have never ever survived if I had lived in the Stone Age... and I came to the conclusion, that I would exactly have been great at surviving in the Stone Age...
I have written a short book "Living in the Matrix"... it's 99 cents on Amazon
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B089SP9M7Z

If you don't want to pay any money or don't have access to Amazon Kindle readers, I can send you the book for free.

I don't have much experience in the dating world but as someone who was obsessed with the 'seduction' stuff for a while, it doesn't really help people like us. I'm not entirely sure what happened between me and the seduction forums as well as the self-help book about talking to girls, but I feel like those kind of stuff just sort of over complicate things to much. (However, Models by Mark Manson is a really good book in term of improving yourself in general if you still want some reading material).

What I found that really helped me through was actually get a really close female friend. Of course there's always that risk of you actually falling for said female friend (which is what I think I'm going through unfortunately) but after being friends with her for a while I feel much more comfortable around girls in general. Just smile and try to be funny.

Expanding on what I mean by why I think seduction is not for people like us (assuming you are an infp), I feel like we get too emotionally invested and care about people and try too hard to make stuff like seduction work. Actually a couple hours ago a FR from /r/seduction comes up my feed. I read through it and it just felt so wrong somehow. Everything seemed so technical and dry. I just don't feel like it's the right way to go, or maybe it's just not for me.

TL;DR: I read through the seduction stuff, it was interesting but after a while I've decided that it wasn't for me. Maybe try to get comfortable around girls first?

Your writing looks fine to me. Writing is more than writing stories and coming up with characters and plots. It is the art of putting words down so that they are understood and the INFP descriptions are talking about writing in this sense.

Learning to write stories well is it's own process and skill and it takes practice like anything else. Also feeling your writing is horrible is something all novelist and story writers go through. There is a fantastic book you should read on this if you haven't already and that is The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield. If you want to get a sense of what it is about he was on dozens of podcasts after it came out and they are not hard to find.

I can very much relate to your problem, i think i struggle with exactly the same thing. I think the problem is that we idealise people way to much. It's just not attractive for a woman if a man agrees with everything she does and says, in a way it's boring.

I have no problem getting woman interested in me, but going past that always is hard because somewhere along the way i start idealising her way to much and i pretty much start friendzoning myself because of the fear of recjection and i dunno general anxiety.

I recently started reading Models by Mark Manson and i really think that he has some very interesting topics in his book. I found some solutions in his book which really changed the core of who i am and what my connection to the world is. So definetly try to give it a read, i'd go as far as saying that it is a guide on how to be a man in the 21st Century.

Have you tried changing your study environment often? For example, studying at different libraries, cafes, etc. I find that if I study in the same place for too long, I start to lose focus, which can translate to loss in motivation. There's even been a study on this:

https://lifehacker.com/5631680/change-up-your-study-spaces-for-better-recall

Have you ever heard of the book "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield?

Check it out, man. He has this approach where he names the feeling of writer's block/laziness/excuses/etc "Resistance" and a really cool way of personifying the feeling; that way you have an enemy with a name and this weird identity. It creates this kinda "me vs. the forces that want to keep me from writing" feeling.

I recommend that all people I know that are creative read that book. I read it about once a year and it helps for sure.

Otherwise, it's like /u/theshadowiestkitten says, write more. Even if you are just writing pure shit, or writing your thoughts even. Just sit down and write. The hardest part is honestly sitting down and doing the work.

Also, it sounds like you're doing the whole thing digitally -- which is totally fine -- but maybe try writing with a pen and paper. Explore penmanship. One fun exercise could be to try focusing on making the words LOOK cool instead of what they are saying. I love reading old letters and noticing how the words themselves looked like art. Things like that exercise could help you make the activity fun again.

Sometimes I also tell myself: It's only because of getting lucky in the cosmic lottery that we exist! Our species evolved because of extremely fortunate and perfect circumstances -- we've come a long way and now we have this amazing capability to write shit down! You're a human! A prince and heir of the entire thing we call "reality"! Don't squander your gifts, because the Universe and our ancestors sacrificed everything for you to get here!

> Example, the tendency for INFP to feel a little weird and different (something I've heard every INFP complain about) seems to have a huge natural tendency to become a victim complex.

Very true. That's why i'm sick of posts asking if mundane everyday things are "INFP things." And in the case of when it *isn't* a mundane everyday thing for once, are we really gonna categorise actions and behaviours into "INFP things" and "non-INFP things?" Why is everyone here compelled to feel like a special snowflake?
Newsflash: Everyone is different. Sure, we may not fit in with the mainstream society but why must we purposefully alienate ourselves?

Maybe this is more like a rant towards myself, or maybe it's true for other INFP's too. But i remember i didn't bother talk to the more "popular" kids at school, cause i dunno, they were too fucking normal/dumb for me or some dumb shit. I probably wouldn't have become best friends with them or anything, but.. it's good to at least be acquaintances. Now i'm known as the weird quiet kid. Also, now i have no friends because i was too much of a special snowflake to speak with anyone. 🙄

If you start making it a habit to tidy up after yourself, put things in designated spots, getting rid of things that aren't useful or sentimental, clean whenever you can, etc. then you'll slowly be on your way to tidiness. It also helps if you have less stuff.

Give the book "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" a try as well.

I’m listening to the audible book ‘finding your artistic voice’ by Lisa Congdon this morning. It’s pretty good, a bit obsessed with style but it’s got me thinking about my art and creating.

You can find it here:

https://www.amazon.com.au/Find-Your-Artistic-Voice-Essential/dp/1452168865

Viktor Frankl makes a similar point in his book Man's Search for Meaning. He suggests that for any action/decision at any moment, to behave as if this is the second chance you have at it and are about to do it exactly like you did the first time.

>Don't aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run—in the long-run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it

Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

So, one thing i tell myself almost daily, and on difficult days it can be nearly constant, is that feelings are intangible and not part of "reality". They only affect me and/or someone i care about if I want to share/project my.emotions onto them. But. Even in the sharing/projecting of emotions no one will ever feel exactly what i feel. Do i want a passing chemical brain reaction to control my day or mood, or do I want to look at the situation objectively and process it in whatever way needed, in private, where i can separate real fact from my emotions. Taking deep breaths and having a mantra can help to start out. OHM is very grounding and when we are in a highly emotional state. Just hum really deeply in your throat, if you can't actually chant. There are tons of guided meditations on YouTube. I read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius and got some.great quotes that I have written down to help me focus on reality and not my emotional response. Feel free to PM me if you want!

It's called rumination

If you're interested there's a book called Learned Optimism that deals with psychology and thinking styles and how it impacts life outcomes. Basically, it points out how certain ways of thinking can lead to depression and guides you on how to correct your thinking to be happier. It's based 100% on research.

It can be pretty enlightening.

Thank you!

I read this and was thinking "Man, there are so many ways to solve this kind of problem out there. There are whole sections of the library just dedicated to it! With all the information available there is no way anyone should get stuck in this kind of funk EVER!"

Then I noticed for the last few days I too have been in bit of a rut, and all the great techniques and tricks and tips I have learned the last few years were starting to slip away and that today I was spending time on Reddit and Facebook at work like I promised myself I would not and I had been contemplating the power of my ADHD-PI over me and starting to get down in general.

Then I laughed.

Because I saw how I was letting myself slip back into the very kind of funk I was mentally chastising you for! So thank you for reminding me of what I just need to do.

Some books that may or may not help you:

Vagabonding by Ralph Potts. On traveling long term.

Peace is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh. On meditation and healing.

Awakening the Giant Within by Anthony Robbins. On becoming everything you ever wanted to be.

The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. (though you can get the meat of it online pretty easily.) On getting the day started right.

The War of Art by Stephen Pressfield. On overcoming resistance and becoming a pro at your passion.

Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life by Byron Katie, though you can get basic instructions for her technique at thework.com. On a method of emotional healing through self-inquiry.

I received my MFA in creative writing (which I love) and spent the better part of a decade floundering as a technical writer and copywriter--I was well-paid and was able to acquire a lot of nice things, as I got deeper into my 30's, I realized that things really didn't matter to me as much as "making a difference" in the world. For that, I blame Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning."

I couldn't deal with the overall hollowness I felt in my job, so I quit. And now I'm pursuing my MA in counseling. And in a few months, I'll be opening my private practice as a therapist...and I couldn't be happier.

Actually, text messages take up very little storage.

Practical solution: Transfer your music/videos/photos onto an external hard disk, since these usually take up the most storage. Delete apps that you've never used within the past month, and clear the caches of apps such as FB/Twitter/Instagram as they can become bloated over time.

If you still don't have any space and want to backup your messages, you can use SMS Backup & Restore for Android. For iPhone, you can backup to iTunes or iCloud.

Hope this helps!

INTJ who struggles with anxiety and on and off with depression here. The thing that has helped me the most is experience, I'd say. Once you live with anxiety/depression long enough, you either give up, stagnate, or find ways of coping. When I was younger, I had alternated between stagnation and hopelessness, thinking that my suffering would never end. But, as I've grown older and seen/experienced more of what the world has to offer, I've gradually built up confidence and self-esteem.

I freely admit that I'm still petty and that various 'minor' events (like sitting next to a person with a cold or finding out that I'm acting as a third wheel) can unbalance me for a relatively long time (by unbalance, I mean send me into a funk or trigger a panic attack). But I've been getting better at 'taking the blows' and getting back up after some sort of failure or negative event.

I know that this will sound really weird, but I'm actually somewhat thankful that I've struggled with mental illnesses. It's made my life really, really hard in some ways, but it's also granted me more empathy, patience, and dramatically improved my problem solving skills. It's also taught me how to be resilient; if you can withstand your own mind turning against you, you can withstand almost anything.

If you haven't already done so, I'd suggest finding some way of seeing a doctor. You mentioned that you don't have the resources to see a mental health professional, so I poked around the Interbuttz and found a government website that tells you if you're eligible for affordable health insurance: https://www.healthcare.gov/screener/. Aside from treatment, I'd suggest researching methods of managing anxiety and depression.

Hope you feel better soon :)

" Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible." - Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

I started reading a book called the "The Miracle of Mindfulness". A whole chapter is dedicated to meditating and living in the moment in all situations. It has honestly helped me with this. It also made me realize that I unnecessarily stress about tiny things too.

> but I am interested in learning, so any tips

You just write. I know, the most uninspiring advice every but it's the only true advice with creative writing there is. You just write...and read. Write and read and you'll do just fine.

I would suggest Anne Lamott's 'Bird by Bird' and Stephen Kings' 'On Writing.' Both excellent books on the behind the scenes aspects of writing. Otherwise read books and just write, no matter how terrible your writing is. It's never going to get better if you don't actually do it. Writing is like panning for gold, you don't just pick up a piece of gold, you've got to pick up all the mud and rocks with it and slow over time do you work out the mud and the rocks, and then and only then do you find the gold. So start writing mud.

I'm from Kirkland, Washington.

It's nice and kind of known for a lot, but I really don't think I belong here anymore. The population has increased rapidly over the past twenty years and it is largely upper middle class now and mainly consists of 30-somethings, yuppies, and families. A lot has changed around here in that time time, especially loss of wild land and wildlife. I used to see coyote, deer, and quail all the time. Now there's a lot less trees, habitats, etc. and it feels like the traffic's getting worse and the weather's getting hotter every year.

Here is Juanita Beach one evening a few months ago. This generally what the area looks like.

It helps that it's the Pacific Northwest, though, because I wouldn't trade this place for anywhere else in the world except maybe Amsterdam. But Bellingham, Washington is where really I hope to move back to some day. That's where I really belong.

I fit more with the description for atypical depression more than any other type. Although my official diagnosis in my medical file is clinical depression.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atypical_depression

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/atypical-depression/symptoms-causes/syc-20369747

I'm trying to do this thing where I stop buying books and actually read the stuff that I bought instead of letting them pile up on every imaginable surface. (Yes, I may or may not be the definition of a tsundoku.) I like to combine that with a cup of coffee, banana bread that I baked, and classical music or jazz playing in the background.

Oooh, the sweet, sweet life.

Today I released Ibrahim: A Tale of Two Worlds. It's my second novel in a trilogy.

Being INFP, I know creativity is like our staple crop so I thought some might appreciate exploring my particular universe.

The original novel is ~75K words. This second is ~45K and both are on sale right now. I also released some sample chapters to garner interest.

*** As a side note: I learned a lot from writing the first book that translated into much stronger prose for the second novel. So if you read the first book and feel on the fence, I'd strongly recommend picking up the second one, especially while on sale.

I have an (prob unhealthy) obsession with Stephen King, but his book On Writing is really helpful. He talks about how he writes, how he gets feedback, and how he revises. I re-read it once or twice a year just to remind myself of the big concepts.

But there are two big things to remember: 1) personality type is how you view the world. It combines people who perceive the world in similar ways and generally react in similar ways. But, it doesn't predict your talents, interests, or actions beyond a general, fuzzy, big picture of others who share similar worldviews. 2) Art (any art) is a skill. You get better by consciously working at it. "Talent" is like a steroid; it helps you progress quicker and perhaps farther than others, but it's nothing if you don't take the time to develop your skills.

One final word: it is absolutely worthless to dwell on whether you have "talent" or not. Honestly ask yourself, "Do I want to write?" If the answer is yes, then write. I'm giving you permission, right now, to write whatever you want to write. Good, bad, ugly. It doesn't matter. What would you be writing if you weren't on here worrying about whether you have writing talent? Go write it. Get off here, grab a pen, and get to work. You don't have to know whether you're the next Shakespeare or Hemmingway to begin. Start by starting.

I lost my mom to cancer when I was 8, and I think it messed me up, but I also think it trained me to handle life-shattering grief like you're facing. My philosophy is that since we all have to die sometime, it doesn't really matter when. Now of course you wish you could still hang out with your friend and get old, and you can be sad about that. But for your friend, he/she is just gone. They will never have to deal with life's problems like injury or loss of their own loved ones (even losing you!) again. We don't know what happens after death. I'm not religious so I figure it's like how it was before you were born. That's basically like sleeping, and sleeping's great, right? I don't know the circumstances of your friends death, but if they were suffering in any way, that suffering is gone.

Cherish the memories you had, and celebrate their life. Cry about them from time to time. But ultimately, dwelling on it does absolutely nothing except make you feel horrible. I'm sure your friend wouldn't want to make you feel sad, so don't let their death run your life into the ground.

Everyone you know and love will die eventually. If we let that fact bog us down, we'll squander the short amount of time we have.

PS: "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankl and "The Death of Ivan Ilych" were very therapeutic for me.

Know your relative strengths and weaknesses. It all depends on the context, and other people's personalities, of course.

For me, the hardest parts have been impracticality (e.g. dreaming and making up lists and systems instead of just vacuuming the house) and taking things personally (e.g. when the missus points out that I still haven't vacuumed the house). And sometimes being an introvert, married to an extrovert.

My strengths have probably been creativity (e.g. coming up with clever solutions at work, or new business ideas), dedication (e.g. working hard at a side project that may become a business) and empathy (e.g. acknowledging my children's feelings when others may not understand).

I try to read "self-help" books that address my weaknesses, and love the analysis and insights. This has changed my life more than once, and really appeals to my personality. (Some tips: The War of Art, The Now Habit, Mindset, any book by Henry Cloud or Dale Carnegie.)

There is an awesome book, I kid you not, called How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. My dad (another INFP) made me listen to it on the way to school in High School. It helped me very very much with this kind of problem. Also I did win friends and influence people.

Well said! I agree about mtbi, I think it's just a nice idea that has its limitations. I've been a bit frustrated though with how seriously people seem to take it, at least on the internet. Also, I've heard somewhere that the "functions" were sort of debunked.

I actually have read Nicomachean Ethics, although it's been awhile. Aristotle's cool in my book. :)

>I do use reason to temper my emotions but not to cut them off entirely, and I think it's possible to rationally explore an emotional landscape and to scrape some truth from the surface there and bring it back.

Just thought that was a lovely sentence; also, I think I do pretty much the same thing in my life. I feel like I have some kind of need to understand myself, and that's what that does for me. Haha, I think you're probably right about the navel-gazing part there. :D

Nice topic.

• "Tao Te Ching" - Laozi From general wisdom to advice on leadership, embrace the ambiguity of the style and consider (or not, it's your call) its almost limitless interpretations.

• "The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature" – Steven Pinker A nice introduction to the burgeoning, interdisciplinary field of Cognitive science.

• "Meditations" – Marcus Aurelius Explores the philosophical tenets of 'Stoicism,' how one can strengthen their soul* and how one can live a virtuous life. *Soul, as in a more Hellenistic, Stoic understanding of the soul

• "Metaphysics" – Aristotle Contrary to Platonic thought, Aristotle spake 'Substance is Essence.'

• "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" – Robert B. Cialdini Pretty self-explanatory. Learn how-to use and defend against various methods of persuasion.

• "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values" – Robert M. Pirsig The pursuit of 'Quality,' 'being in the moment,' and the ideal harmony of the rational and the romantic.

• The Unbroken Circle of Zerthimon – Planescape: Torment “Endure. In enduring, grow strong.”

• Bhagavad Gita Explores the idea of a cosmic idealism. Found many parallels to Aurelius' “Meditations”

Brief excerpts from Nietzsche's "Thus Spoke Zarathustra," Foucault's "The History of Sexuality," Kierkegaard's "Either/Or," Heidegger's "Being and Time" and Schopenhauer's "The World as Will and Representation" all left a rather favorable impression.

I think we are evolving in consciousness and generally heading in the right direction. However at the end of the day, its still our choice where we end up. We have just as much potential to destroy ourselves as we do to finding harmony. In fact, as we develop, technologically and what have you, our capacity for either increases. And thus the stakes are raised. It's a choice that is consistently being made in each and every one of us, at all times.

I do however think that we, as a collective, have not experienced a lot of the darkness that is with in us. And thus it seems bound to surface itself, and by necessity. Revolution comes before evolution. And suffering/darkness is the fuel for revolution. I mean, it doesn't have to, but it will if it must. Exactly how much darkness we have to experience in order to get back on the right path, again, is entirely up to us. We need to wake up.

This is exactly why it is a responsibility for each and every one of us to live the highest expression of ourselves. To quote cloud atlas, "What is an ocean, but a multitude of drops." Seriously. Everything we do creates a wave, a ripple.

Some medium articles I made related:

https://medium.com/@krishansapkota/on-the-new-generation-those-before-us-empowerment-3cecd32f8808

https://medium.com/@krishansapkota/on-the-ego-fear-resistance-and-freedom-6fd79405df2e

Rule 2 - Don’t take anything personal. Outside of the people who really know you well, everything negative people say about you is generally them projecting their shitty mindsets onto you. If it’s not someone who cares about you who’s trying to be helpful and constructive, just let it roll off your back.

And I’d suggest reading this book, it changed my outlook on stuff like this. Game changer

YES. I am a totally different person with exercise in terms of my state of mind. I feel like after a good workout, I am present in the moment and not thinking about other things (less ADD). But without it, my mind races often in a scatter-brained fashion.

It's proven that exercise has similar effects on the mind as ADD medication: https://www.webmd.com/add-adhd/adult-adhd-and-exercise#1

I'm so glad that someone here can relate to this. Overall, as you stated I feel better and more confident with exercise for sure.

Not 'medical' as such, but playing games on a bright, colourful screen for hours whilst in bed is hardly conductive of you nodding off immediately after.

>What can I do about it?

Install Flux on all computers, and phone if you have Android. Try to avoid using them so close to bed time, and do something that isn't so stimulating for you. Normally I'd suggest a book, but INFP's tend to get quite engrossed in the same way the game's music and characters went round in your head for a while. You just need to wind down for a little longer I think :)

For future reference, a link is always helpful.

I’d say my primary ways are probably quality time & physical touch. And then words of affirmation at a close second.

I am pretty obsessed Simple Desktops, with a preference for darker backgrounds. This has been my background for months.

The skills you would benefit from learning don't really lend themselves to a quick comment in a Reddit thread. Do yourself a favor and invest the time and effort (and a small amount of money) to buy and read a book by an expert on the subject.

Here's a good one, written by David Burns, M.D., a plain-spoken and compassionate therapist with several decades of experience. It's titled When Panic Attacks: The New, Drug-Free Anxiety Therapy That Can Change Your Life.

You can see it here at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/When-Panic-Attacks-Drug-Free-Anxiety/dp/076792083X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1524105630&sr=8-1&keywords=burns+panic

Anxiety, and panic attacks, are quite common. Don't feel that there's something terribly wrong with you. But it's good to educated about what's going on with your body, and what you can do to manage these episodes. And a book like the one mentioned can take you a long way toward that goal.

Best wishes to you.

It's up on Etsy and Amazon :)

It's because we tend to seek and fear connection at the same time. Something that deeply resonated with me was this book, describing the connection survival style. I can just reccomend every INFP who struggels with this to take a look at this book.

Nice. I just read a book about a philosopher and doctor named Viktor Frankl. He wrote about his time in a nazi concentration camp and how he found the will to survive. It was called "Man's Search for Meaning". It was pretty good. I liked a lot of his thoughts and ideas.

When I was young I liked to read heroic fantasy. From Redwall to Earthsea, Middle Earth to Pern, Discworld to Forgotten Realms... I loved spending time in fantastic worlds with swords and magic and heroism.

Now-a-days I find I don't have the focus for reading so much anymore, it's really hard to get absorbed in something and resist the internet-of-distractions for the time a book requires -- drives me crazy but I guess that's part of the toll we pay to live in the cyber-future. When I do manage to crack one open, I'm fascinated with classic literature, books that have had a profound impact on culture, and books that people personally recommend as having "changed their life" or "changed their perspective" in some way. I'm also a big fan of dystopia; but for the most part I feel like I'm chasing some kind of personal growth from the literature that I consume.

The last few books I've read have been: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (Didn't like it), Flowers for Algernon, Brave New World, A Confederacy of Dunces, Alice in Wonderland, The Alchemist, and Siddhartha. I'd say Flowers, The Alchemist, and Siddhartha are all seriously good INFP material.

Would recommend reading, The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. He personifies, 'Resistance' as the force which keeps us from doing our work and thus failing to realise our potential.

"Any act that rejects immediate gratification in favor of long-term growth, health or integrity … will elicit Resistance." - The War of Art.

You're welcome. That's great that you've already done some short story work. Maybe you'd enjoy writing short stories more than novels? At least for starters.

> I get suck into a false impression that I need to tackle the task in a very TJ manner.

Might I suggest reading Ray Bradbury's Zen in the Art of Writing. If you want to get a fever for writing from the heart and not from your brain, there might be a lot of stuff in there you can hold on to and run with.

Some quotes from Bradbury on his seat-of-the-pants writing style:

"Plot is no more than footprints left in the snow after your characters have run by on their way to incredible destinations"

"The trouble with a lot of people who try to write is they intellectualize about it. That comes after. The intellect is given to us by God to test things once they’re done, not to worry about things ahead of time"

>Some of my weaknesses are writing dialogue and moving the story along.

Just takes practice. If you've never read the book "Bird by Bird," by Anne Lamott, I suggest you do. It's a book about writing.

If I remember correctly, I use to be INTJ. This was years ago when I took the test. I remember visiting the INTJ subreddit a lot and everything, (and dang they use to be pretty arrogant back then, I don't know if they still are now). I considered my mind my greatest gift, and I liked math and using logic to solve problems. The problem was, after graduating from high school, I realized I had depression, and this depression lasted for a while. Well I started doing a lot of reading, exploring things I never thought to explore before. I started reading a lot into eastern philosophy, started reading self-help books, and picked up a book called "Think and Grow Rich." Well reading this book was the beginning of a big change in me. The book talked a lot about the importance of the "subconscious mind", and for the first time, I was learning about the importance of using my intuition, which was something I kinda ignored up until this point. This in combination with all the eastern philosophy I learned, helped me to bring balance to my mind. I use to rely so much on logic and reasoning, so much that I ignored my intuition and feeling, now I strive for balance between the two, both I find are extremely helpful :) Although apparently I lean slightly towards the feeling part now, as shown by my "INFP". Honestly I still think it's pretty crazy how much I've changed as a person in the last 3 years.

I just call myself an InxP, probably about 60/40 F/T personally. There are people out there who will try to get you into their thinking about MBTI, people who think that the Ti-Fe vs Fi-Te is a black-and-white situation. Basically, "You can't go in if you're also going out! What are you, retarded?" Look, I love Jung, think he's a brilliant person, and I love that he recognized these very important axes. But if you look at real people--real people multitask. And it's entirely possible that a person can be looking at the feeling/thinking dichotomy, without giving brain preference to either one. It may not be statistically likely, but it happens.

"But you still 'prefer' one over the other, right?" Sure, all other things being equal, but in real life, they're almost never equal.

What thinking types don't want to admit is that there is basically nothing objective, if you look at it from from a "hard" scientific stance. But you have to be willing to be really scientific about it, something that most thinkers won't do, because their lives and livelihood depend on it.

"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" is a book I'd recommend, in relationship to the thinking/feeling dichotomy. There's an important part in it which talks about the futility of the scientific method, because it can never control for outside variables that it can't see. "Godel Escher Bach" also talks about this to some extent.

Step 1: Do things you like or that sound like fun to you with other people. You sound like you are kind of already doing that. Keep it up.

Step 2: Read and put into practice the principles of the book How To Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.

Step 3: Spend time with people.

Really that is all there is to it. It may take time. It took me a year of being where I am before I connected with my friends. However, I am in a small town in the middle of nowhere and most of my friends are in a city an hour away. But we have a great time so it is worth the trip.

I would still consider myself turbulent, but I do feel like I've become much healthier. I'm 33, and I feel like I'm finally getting comfortable with who I am. I guess I've learned to embrace some aspects of my personality, and some of the worse aspects I've tried to fix. It's definitely a process. I also think the poster who said to find a good calming activity is spot-on. We all need a break from our mind sometimes. I find playing music to be that for me... I can still be active, but my mind is focused on the activity instead of going who-knows-where. I'll also do art thats calming. Reading is usually great for me too (depending on what it is). I've also learned better what my personality tends towards, and I try not to trust my feelings so much. Feelings can be deceptive, you can tell yourself lies and make yourself believe them. I try to keep a good, grounded perspective. Writing them out or talking to someone who understands is helpful. There's a book called "The Feeling Good Handbook" which deals with that and has helped me a lot with depression and all that stuff.

I read about everything, I prefer biographies and science. A few recent books I have gone through:

• Memoirs of a Geisha (biography)
• Brave New World by Alduous Huxley (totally weird futurism)
• The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein (about shock-capitalism)
• The Little Prince by Antione de Saint Exupery (a totally INFP story about people's lives)
• Dear Leader by Jang Jin-Sung (biography of an Ex-North Korean)
• Waking Up by Sam Harris (spirituality without religion)
• Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother (chinese-american mother raising her kids)

I don't tend to finish books I start, I like to flutter around until I find something absorbing that hooks me. I also picked up a psychology text book (that was fun), and a couple of auto-repair/automotive engineering books. I'm still looking for easily digested biology books, might be hard to find the right ones. I used to read physics and chemistry; Feynman, Faraday, Dyson, I'm picking them back up + others.

My favorite would have to be Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and the rest of the series by Douglas Adams. On the Non fiction side I would recommend - A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy - by William B. Irvine

Yes. And I think form is important.

A recent, helpful book has been Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. As romantics, form is not usually the forte of INFPs. But we need to learn.

At the same time, form doesn't have to come right away. Anne Lamott talks about the importance of "shitty first drafts." Let yourself get it all out in the beginning. If you can do this, amazing! Since drafting is so difficult for so many people. Then begin to arrange and organize your thoughts into a form that works.

Man, I did this all the fucking time when reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Also lots of times during Gödel, Escher, Bach and Hesse's Steppenwolf. It feels like whatever I just read knocked something loose inside me, and I want to go around and scream in peoples' faces the truth I just uncovered, but since there's usually nobody around when I read, I have to settle for walking around the room like a caged tiger.

I'm in a counseling psychology program right now and just read Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl. Is a quick read; his position is essentially that we create meaning for ourselves through creative works, connectedness to others and even finding meaning in our suffering. I believe Staring at the Sun by Irvin Yolom would be a good place to look for getting through this time. Touch is important, being open and present with those around you. Existential questions must be dealt with in the here and now because, existentially, that's all you have. It can be hard to focus on how you feel now vs what happened earlier or what you anticipate in the future. Becoming increasingly self aware and accepting your responsibility for what happens now in your life is a part of the process. I think you could benefit right now from the perspective that therapy could provide. If that's available to you I'd say go for it.

The ENFP I know is a huge existentialist, and she's taught me all about it and inspired me to read more of it on my own. It's wholesome, heady stuff, once you're well grounded in what you're reading.

To any wary of it- you don't need to decide the purpose of humanity as a whole. Shrink it down a little. Go with you. As you think, as you reflect, as you feel, you are more than the animal tendencies of your bones or the nihilism you find as you grasp for something bigger. Do life for you, for your fulfillment, for your happiness.

I'm gonna keep touting this book, since it's fresh on my mind, but Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning is a fantastic, moving book about the above.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. I just feels everything about it fits perfectly into the INFP viewpoint. And makes us balanced and strong.

OP, if you read and implement that, I'll read and implement yours.

I doubt the mbti is meant to be taken seriously from a scientific standpoint (in fact I think most psychologists reject it). It's good at spotting what some people have in common but no one is limited to a set of thoughts and behaviors based on their personality type. There's also lots of room for individuality no matter how you divide people up, since human nature is in part malleable and adapts to culture and subcultures.

Have you ever read Nicomachean Ethics? Aristotle makes pretty much the same argument about emotion as a mean between different extremes, he sort of disagrees with Plato who argued that it's the role of reason to rule over one's emotions (Plato even argued that aside from hymns to the gods, poetry and theater should be censored to prevent people becoming too passionate). Aristotle would argue that emotions exist as a mean, and one should neither be devoid of emotion or overcome with them, with reason determining the amount which was healthy and good (his argument for theater was that empathy allowed people to experience catharsis without being affected by tragedy). Plato's later writings softened up on emotion, and he eventually recognized emotions as important motivators.

I think the defining feature of the infp personality type, more than simply being introverted or intuitive because that changes depending on the situation, we define ourselves by our search for inner peace. It's difficult because we have such a set view of how the world ought to be vs how it actually is. Some respond by becoming bitter or desensitized but I try to have hope, that with time and effort the way the world is and how it ought to be won't be so different. I do use reason to temper my emotions but not to cut them off entirely, and I think it's possible to rationally explore an emotional landscape and to scrape some truth from the surface there and bring it back. But maybe instead of Idealists or Dreamers they should call infps Extreme Naval-gazers. ;)

I recommend reading, studying, and practicing each day the concepts outlined in Thich Nhat Hanh's <em>The Miracle of Mindfulness</em>.

I honestly relate to a LOT of this. I think a lot of INFPs are prone to social anxiety and being kind of a loner. And probably stems from a bit of lack of self confidence.

Although I think sometimes you just have to say, "Eff this I"m going to try it" and just jump right into it before you conjure up that overthinking storm inside your own head.

I think it's great that you already have a plan with church volunteering. You could also try social anxiety meetups on meetup.com and maybe even try volunteering with animals to start with since animals are a bit easier to deal with than people, too. Or even the elderly. Just as suggestions.

Nobody is judging you as harshly as you judge yourself! And worse case scenario, if something doesn't work out you just don't have to go to it anymore and you can try something else. And what better time than the holidays to do something.

It doesn't have anything to do with being a true Christian. Humans need socialization and companionship, that's just normal needs. God saw Adam was lonely and made Eve! I don't believe he wanted to see anyone just all by their lonesome.

Of course this is all advice I can take myself and it's easier to hype someone else up than it is to hype myself up! But what is life if we just waste it away sitting at home all by ourselves.

As for chronic illness, it might be helpful to find an in-person support group and that can also be a way to feel more socially fulfilled, too.

I use dual monitors so here's both of mine together https://gyazo.com/42859f1e4347e4cf30bc89b3bd6c25c0

On the left is my favorite character Mizore Shirayuki, and on the right is one of my favorite musicians Nujabes.

I don't have firsthand experience with data science, but I've done a few R courses on Pluralsight. If there's opportunity in your geographical area, I think it might work out well. The nice thing about R is that you can use it in Power Bi to make a lot of cool visualizations - that is if Power Bi doesn't have the visualization you're looking for.

I've dabbled with quite a few programming languages (some obscure like CLIPS), but in terms of my main competencies, I'm fairly adept with .NET (C#) and Javascript (including Angular and JQuery). As a full-stack developer I also work with SQL and MySQL.

Compared to Delphi, Java, PHP and C++ I've found C# to be the easiest to learn, but also difficult to master. There's a ton of resources if you want to learn it and Visual Studio is a very user-friendly IDE. My favorite language is Javascript (including its libraries and frameworks). Codepen pretty much showcases why one would like it so much. There's a lot of creativity to be had. There's a few nice charting libraries, my favorite being D3, but it's still a far cry from applications like Power Bi and QlikView in terms of how you much effort it takes to extract, transform and visualize the data.

Learning HTML and CSS is also beneficial.

Title: Somber Thoughts Song: Together We Will Live Forever by Clint Mansell + Rainymood

Somber, n.-

1) so shaded as to be dark and gloomy

2) of a dismal or depressing character

3) of a dull or heavy cast or shade: dark colored

*Somber, when the light a person shines is eclipsed by the mass of the burdens they carry. *

Somber thoughts to parlay our ideas and actions

Because we're just beings of light

Engulfed from the inside out with

Pent up hate laced with the yearning

For someone to come and save us

From ourselves.

Somber hearts slathered in black gold

Miners and pan handlers garbed from head to toe

In dark matter robes and dark star mukluks

Mistakenly, here to harvest that which we hold dear

The shining light

of the soul.

Somber bodies sloshing through the Dark Marsh

All alone, all alone, only a head lamp to guide

Those with pockets lined with keys and maps

And apologies of acceptances and thank yous from days long past

Though just one I'm Sorry with a side of smiles will do

Because the warmth of another's body

Is enough to burn away

All the pain.

In the vein of your trip to Paris -

We once took the train with a friend to Tver, Russia on a beautiful summer day to visit the estate of Leo Tolstoy, Yasnaya Polyana. I wasn't expecting anything but summer, lunch, and a nice outing.

After wandering the estate for some many beautiful hours we decided to follow a trail out into the woods that was marked Tolstoy's burial place. Coming upon it, it was nothing like I had expected. It was a green grassy sod mound in a rich wooded glade. There before me, was Leo Tolstoy, serene and covered in rich green grass. Even 150 years gone, Tolstoy was still a joy to behold.

Some things are greater than we are, and for that we must carry on to find out what they are.

Look at this, fabulous. This is Leo Tolstoy:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g298486-d300457-i42280967-Yasnaya_Polyana_Museum_Estate_of_Leo_Tolstoy-Tula_Tula_Oblast_Central_Russ.html

There's also shy ENFPs which are afraid that others are judging them and they feel really insecure about speaking their mind. I fall inbetween the E and the I NFP. I definitely need alone time but depending on the conversation and connection, I certainly do feel charged up after communicating. This is a pretty good image - https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=social+anxiety+graphic&amp;view=detailv2&amp;&amp;id=807A43176B8DA7320B8CEBF398FB0DBA4C968A97&amp;selectedIndex=66&amp;ccid=JvO5iSf9&amp;simid=608006356007782912&amp;thid=OIP.M26f3b98927fdd7c431df46aa5501529do0 There's another but I can't find it right now with dozens of eyeballs.

Just want to chime in and say you have incredible composition skills. It does sound like you need some 'dreamer' type friends like Xanatos first suggested. However from experience meeting new friends and putting in the time to feel a connection is so tricky. Now that I think of it, I met a stranger through meetup.com in my early 20's and that worked instantly. We ended up becoming quick friends and hanging out, even traveling once. And the dreamer thing, well acting on those many... many.. many dreams is hard but it can lead toward similar minded people. For example, if I ever start my quest to find a robotics guy to help with this halloween idea I have thats bound to bring lots of exciting new opportunities and silliness to my lonely adult life.

Lastly, I don't understand your frustration with 'fragments of others' paragraph. It's a wonderful thing that your loved ones get to live on though you. It's a common theme in stories that parents have kids so that a part of them lives on, hopefully the better part :)

There are different concepts of &quot;aloneness&quot;, sounds like you have existential isolation, a hallmark of INFP.

Whew. That's a looooong list. RateYourMusic list, this is about 10% of all the music I love, these are only full albums that I've listened through to the end.
For the past few months I've been in love with Pyrrhon, an abrasive and dissonant noise-rock/death metal/mathcore band with a pretty unique style.

I made a thing!

https://rateyourmusic.com/list/Tristan_Geoff/lonely-directionless-community-college-student-core/

And I feel. I struggle with both the public speaking and socializing aspect. I've also never felt like people are gravitated towards me? I'm relatively new to the MBTI thing still.

Yeah, move out ASAP and live your own life. Roommates are a great idea for cheap living. I lived in a sunroom of a three bedroom house for a year in grad school making me the fourth roommate so my rent was less than 200$ per month. Craigslist is a great place to find these kinds of arrangements. Just meet the people and see the place before committing to anything.

[IxFP] Best thing I've seen on the internet all week! The last movement of the piece really hit home and resonated. Do you have any writing profiles/would you be willing to share more? It actually slightly reminds me of a thing I wrote: http://www.wattpad.com/20012318-life-vol-1-pt-4

I like to write, draw, paint (when it's worth it to me to make the huge mess :P), play piano/violin/guitar and sing. Like I said, IxFP... <_<" :P I tend towards the S behaviorally and the N cognitively in many ways, but I'm a pretty even balance of both. If you want I'd love any feedback on my poems/other writing. :)

You can find a free audio book version on librivox.org as well. I would say this book represents the uglier sides of an potential INFP due to an unhealthy environment.

Here here.

Start with well structured object oriented languages. C# or JAVA, or C++ if you feel like you can do it right away.

If you know any of these 3 languages (especially C++), you wont have any difficulty with the others (Like php or even JS). Also, theres literally nothing you cant do with those. Especially C++

I myself prefer JAVA, and have been trying to learn RUST (A fairly new language that is trying to face off C/C++)

I don't like advertising myself, but I love movies and I think you'll find quite a few on here that most INFPs will love:

https://letterboxd.com/ambedo/list/my-favorite-films/

Most on the first 30 should be enjoyable :)

>I like the idea of posting to forums and getting replies, but it's hard to have legit convos that way ya know?

Maybe someone can start a tinychat room. It's a live chat and video chat site..

https://tinychat.com/

I was active on Tinychat for a while. I'm probably going to get back into it.

A room for INFPs might be a good thing to start (maybe I'll get around to do it), because tinychat is notorious for aggressive debating, and stoners. Young crowd in general too.

Hello! As you might already know, the INFP functions include Fi-Ne-Si-Te, in that sequence. This means that Fi is the primary function and the rest follows chronologically.

&nbsp;

This page will do a great job of summarizing each of the functions.

&nbsp;

I think to understand Fi, you can refer to this page. It does a great job of showing the difference between an Fi user and an Fe user. I immediately knew I valued my authenticity and uniqueness, so I was an Fi user.

&nbsp;

I think to know whether you use Fi primarily over Ne, it can also be deduced by whether or not you think of yourself as an introvert or an extrovert. An extrovert will use the functions such as Ne, Fe, Te, Se primarily whereas an introvert will use the functions such as Ni, Fi, Ti, Si primarily. So an INFP (Fi-Ne-Si-Te) will primarily use Fi whereas an ENFP (Ne-Fi-Te-Si) will use Ne primarily.

&nbsp;

These are just a few of the tips I used to finally come to a conclusion on my type. If you need more confirmation, you can also look at interviews of other INFP celebrities (Johnny Depp, Kurt Cobain, Heath Ledger, Bjork, etc.) vs ENFP celebrities (Robin Williams, Ellen Degeneres, Shia LaBeouf, etc.) to see whose behavior you more closely resemble.

&nbsp;

If you need any other help, just feel free to PM and I'd love to help you out :)

Using low-end hardware with open source software to make awesome stuff is about the coolest and most compelling kind of endeavour I can imagine. In my eyes, your music EP deserves to succeed simply because of the authenticity of the groundwork you're laying in order to bring something new and creative into the world---a narrative of one who makes narratives.

The old Dell Latitude E6500 laptop I'm using to type this has been running Manjaro Linux for a full year now. One of my primary uses for it is web development, but I've also been working on some fiction writing on it using the open source distraction-free writing software FocusWriter. (I've actually been using FocusWriter since before I had this Linux distro set up.) I use GIMP for image editing, Inkscape for logo design and other vector editing (mostly to produce SVGs for web design), and Pencil for making wireframes. I really like my setup, both for its unique quirks, for the customization that I put in it, and for what it enables me to create.

The tools that we use to create are part of the stories of how a thing was made, and those stories are special, in my opinion.

here is the amazon.com link, just choose your country domain =) the universal link is having a problem idk why.

https://www.amazon.com/-/pt/dp/B08KNWNDPT/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_pt_BR=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&amp;dchild=1&amp;keywords=your+sweet+voice+in+the+dark&amp;qid=1617748932&amp;refinements=p_n_feature_twenty_browse-bin%3A13054657011&amp;rnid=13054642...

and yes, I do feel happy for having published even though the sales are not so good. "Your Sweet Voice in the dark" novel was a very important step in my life. I do hope you can also achieeve this dream =D

oh, that was an universal link. I do not know why this was happening. I am sending the amazon.com domain, you just have to change for your country =)

https://www.amazon.com/-/pt/dp/B08KNWNDPT/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_pt_BR=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&amp;dchild=1&amp;keywords=your+sweet+voice+in+the+dark&amp;qid=1617748932&amp;refinements=p_n_feature_twenty_browse-bin%3A13054657011&amp;rnid=13054642...

Hello, I am sorry. I do not know why this is happening. that was an universal link. here is the link for us. you just have to choose your country domain =) thank you

https://www.amazon.com/-/pt/dp/B08KNWNDPT/ref=sr_1_1?__mk_pt_BR=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&amp;dchild=1&amp;keywords=your+sweet+voice+in+the+dark&amp;qid=1617748932&amp;refinements=p_n_feature_twenty_browse-bin%3A13054657011&amp;rnid=13054642...

Sounds like you have lots of gratitude in your life. So much so that it overwhelms you with joy! Are you able to successfully communicate your feelings to your SO? The need to be seen and heard is very strong, especially with significant others. It takes some amount of emotional study in order to understand our feelings and deal with issues. As an INTP myself, a process of understanding social protocol had to be learned academically, especially since I was raised in an emotionally unintelligent household.

Marshall Rosenberg wrote a book, using his life's work of communication, in order to help resolve conflicts between people and conflicts within ourselves. This compassionate communication shaman traveled the world sharing his revelations. Marshall's method of understanding our feelings and needs changed my life forever, for the better. Perhaps his methods will help you, and your INTP, communicate with yourselves and each other a little better =]

Book

YouTube

A lot of tarot readers are also deck collectors. :)

I order my decks online, typically. There is a Waite-Smith mini deck (in a tin) available from Amazon for only 10 dollars, and I highly recommend getting a physical deck if you can. The deck I linked has really nice coloring too, it's on my wish list. :)

Etsy has a lot of the fancy indie decks, but you'll be paying ~$40 and up for a deck.

Go to Aeclectic Tarot to find deck reviews, or look up "tarot deck collection" on YouTube if you want to see what people have in their own collections. YouTube is my favorite way to learn about decks!

Edit: You can also get nice decks from bookstores, even Barnes and Noble - that's where I got my Shadowscapes Tarot. Since you can't look at a deck in the store, I recommend looking it up online to see if you like the cards.

I'd suggest try practicing mindfulness :) there's a phoneapp called "Calm" that I've tried, and I really like it! It costs money but you get one month for free, and even if you don't want to pay you can still listen to some of their sessions. There's one called "basics of mindfulness" that you can listen to for free.

It couldn't hurt to try, could it? ^^

This does help. Thank you for that and for taking the time to explain ❤️

I guess I should really get back to finishing this book. The miracle of mindfulness. Seems to line up with a lot of what you described

The first chapter talks about how you can't enjoy a peach if you're just mindlessly eating it without taking the time to enjoy and appreciate each bite. Have to be present at all times.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0807012394/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_dVHFFbH1BG8JS

I use this app on my android phone to track simple habits like: 1. going for walk. 2. Push up after shower. Even If i do one i see as goal accomplished for the day. That makes me do it daily and i do more than needed. The simplicity of it is astounding

You even listen to Terrence McKenna?? Lol you'll be fine! I say go for it.

The thing about Terrence McKenna is that, like his brother Dennis said,if he's right about even 1% of his claims, that's a very important thing in the world.

I read a book once on ayahausca and DNA where this geneticist did an anthropology thing where he went and did ayahuasca with tribes in South America to scientifically prove a connection between ayahausca and DNA. It's a VERY interesting read. He does a great job at dumbing it down to laymen's terms so that someone who's not a scientist can read the book and understand it. Then the second half of the book is all works cited. Sources for every single claim he makes during the book. So if someone wanted to they could see proof for all the things he was claiming. He does great at not adding any of his personal beliefs into the book as well, it is purely scientific. It's called the cosmic serpent : Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge https://www.amazon.com/dp/0874779642/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_5QgMBbG18AQY8

I tend to do the same, skimming over very long posts. If I don't feel like the effort in reading the entire post is going to be worth it, I skip it.

Beating laziness is the ULTIMATE battle, and you're never quite finished with it! I highly recommend a book called "The War of Art", by Steven Pressfield. It's all about overcoming that impulse of laziness, which he personifies as a creature/force called "Resistance."

Good luck!

Haha I used to carry Siddhartha in my backpack with me as well. My personal favorite, as I've read it 8 times by now.

Books for INFP's:

Hermann Hesse:

Demian

Beneath the Wheel (very INFP)

Peter Camenzind

Knulp

Fairy Tales of Hermann Hesse

Pictor's Metamorphosis

Gertrude

In fact, just read all of Hesse haha

Vonnegut:

Slaughter House 5

Sirens of Titan

Cat's Cradle

Also:

Catcher in the Rye

Brave New World

Letters to a Young Poet

Flowers for Algernon

Man's Search for Meaning

Persepolis

Your Illustrated Guide to Becoming One with the Universe

White Nights and Other Stories (Dostoevsky)

The Letters of Vincent Van Gogh

Candide

The Stranger

This Is It (Alan Watts)

Crime and Punishment

I'm 23 and my hopes and dreams for my life change weekly if not every other day, that's what it feels like anyway.

The thing for me is that my dreams take money, not a lot but it'll take some. So in the mean time I work full time as a 911 dispatcher and only have to work 3 and a half days a week. It helps that I'm in a beach town so it's only busy about 4 months out of the year so the stress is fairly minimal.

It's not what I ever pictured myself doing but it pays the bills and plenty left over to save for the future. As a guy who dropped out of college and doesn't have many skills beyond customer service this works well enough for me.

You should read Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl, if you haven't already the book helps shed some light on how even in the worst situations people manage to continue on in life.

• Mindfulness in Plain English
• What you can change and what you can't
• The Harry Potter series

I just read a Stephen King book called "On Writing." It's about writing. He doesn't plan anything. He just goes for it with only a vague sense of where things are going. His reasoning, or at least one part of his reasoning, is that if he's on the edge of his seat not knowing exactly what's gonna happen next, then the reader will most certainly feel the same way.

I also read a piece by Ray Bradburry where he talked about not planning things out. His exact words were, "I thought you could beat, pummel, and thrash an idea into existence. Under such treatment, of course, any decent idea folds up its paws, turns on its back, fixes its eyes on eternity, and dies." He let things happen naturally without a predetermined notion of the plot--he did not try to control the story but gave the story control over itself.

I only mention this because someone else suggested you plan things out. This could certainly be a good idea--there are many writers who plan things in great detail. But many don't, so I suggest trying both ways. You could find writing without a plan gives you more freedom, which makes the process more enjoyable.

At any rate, I really recommend this Stephen King book. I've never even read a normal Steven King novel but this is a compelling, simple, and thoughtful book on writing by someone who is a bona-fide writer.

“If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), "Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist?" chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.”

― Steven Pressfield, The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

Books are necessities to me. Some favorites would be: Murakami, Dostoyevsky (literary fiction), Nietzsche, St. Augustine (philo), Whitman, Yeats, Rimbaud, Ginsberg, and Bukowski (poetry). So far I've only read one memorable autobiography which is When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi.

Read The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. If your interest is photography, do that. Take wedding photos to make ends meet if you have to or other odd jobs, but see yourself as photographer and do that as your profession. You don't have to get rich, you just have to be able to keep doing it.

I'm actually highly organized. I have a natural inclination to keep everything where I know where it is, and I almost never lose anything.
If you have any messes or clutter, I do highly suggest reading "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" by Marie Kondo - it's an INFP-friendly method of creating a serene and un-cluttered environment for yourself. The sequel, "Spark Joy" has organizing tips and methods for people who are already finished the first book, and are mid-way or finished with their de-cluttering journey.
Entropy occurs, but you can always re-organize your stuff to create your ideal environment. I used to be an organized mess, and now, after de-cluttering a ton of my stuff, I am just organized.

Because love is worth the pain, and joy is worth the sorrow. We can know neither without their opposite; we cannot appreciate either if nothing conflicts with them.

Even then, it's a curious thing, what with its ability to make men weep and sing, change hawks into doves, transcend raw emotion... ^({that's the power of love})

So, what is love? ^({baby, don't hurt me})

You want to know what love is? ^({you want me to show you?})

My favorite explanation can be found in the Bible. (Note: If you don't like religion, just pretend I'm quoting The Art of War or something like that.) 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 - often quoted during weddings and suchlike - describes it like this:

"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."

Love's not worth giving up on, because it won't give up on you. Sure, it's strong, sudden, sometimes cruel, but it might just save your life. ^({again, that's the power of love!})

It is that "Diplomatic Intelligence" that Kiersey talks about in the Please Understand Me books. It is a characteristic of all Idealist iNtuitive Feelers. I remember when two of my friends in college had a falling out and it split one of my circle of friends. I was the only one in that circle who could talk to and was accepted by both sides. The whole thing was predicated on mutual misunderstanding about the existence of a romantic relationship (both are INTJs if I remember correctly). Edit: for the record I was perfectly happy and comfortable in this situation. I like my friends and I hate to loose them for dumb reasons like picking a side when both sides are both right and wrong.

Anyways you are fine, and they will be fine. There is a whole field of study out there on negotiation and mediation which uses and hones the ability to be in this kind of situation and help resolve it professionally. I would highly recommend the book Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher, William L. Ury, and Bruce Patton if you are interested in it.

Are you really okay to live in this crazy mess? Or are you just too scared to do something about it?

I have been working through Marie Kondo's <em>The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up</em> which has been helpful with this.

I recommend 2 books that changed my outlook on procrastination. The War of Art by Steven Pressfield, The Now Habit by Neil Fiore.

Get them, you'll never look at procrastination the same way.