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Consciously choosing your influencers

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I don't really think you can, to be honest. I think being influenced is wholly unconscious, and the closest one can get to "choosing" their influencers is pursuing something that they're already unconsciously interested in, which leads to more stimulation in that direction.
 

Rook

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To be concious of ones influences is to be aware of their effects. If you are aware of their effects, you can change those effects. Thus you can choose to read up on a philospher, and his words may influence you, but you determine how they influence you.
 

Grayman

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How do you do it?

I personally don't believe that choosing who influences you or what influences you is practical. I believe choosing how it or they influence you is very practical.

A drug addict can influence you in a positive way if you choose it.

Choosing not to be influenced at all is to maintain ignorance.
 

Cherry Cola

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I don't really think you can, to be honest. I think being influenced is wholly unconscious, and the closest one can get to "choosing" their influencers is pursuing something that they're already unconsciously interested in, which leads to more stimulation in that direction.

Yeah but this applies to all choices.

I think you select your influences consciously when you read about or in other ways seek out information about people whose work you want to read before you do so basically. It probably comes more natural to J types, INTJ's do this a lot (in my experience), and INFJ's do it quite a lot as well.
 
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Yeah but this applies to all choices.

I think you select your influences consciously when you read about or in other ways seek out information about people whose work you want to read before you do so basically. It probably comes more natural to J types, INTJ's do this a lot (in my experience), and INFJ's do it quite a lot as well.
I think we should define or section off "influence." I mean, even if one chooses their influencers, they're still being influenced by what influenced their influencers. :D
I don't think level of influence or conscious investigative choice is type-specific either, though method (reading) probably is.
 

B.C.P.

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I've also noticed J-types cherry-picking information (sorry for the pun).

As an INTP I think that approach is ignorant because it prevents them from understanding other viewpoints. But I also understand that it is how they remain so focused upon one idea. Ignorance is bliss for some, but to the INTP - the seeker of truth - it is blindness.

To this point in the thread, I think anyone who said that "no contact" is the best way to prevent being influenced, is right.

How you handle the influence does not change the fact that you're being influenced. But it does reveal that influence is not inherently a bad thing - it all depends on how you react to it. The "drug user" example is a great illustration of that.
 
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How do you do it?

Pick the physical sensations with which you surround yourself (to the extent within your reasonable personal control of course).

Take the Television for example:

assuming one would like to be more intelligent/ informed/ indepedent/ self reliant etc: get up and turn the inane Television off. Then throw it in the garbage. Or at least watch edifying/ uplifting/ affirming television shows. And choose to mute all the retarded commercials and do something else while waiting for the show to come back on.

assuming one wants to be the average lazy moron: sit there with a glazed over look and take whatever the Television vomits into your skull through your two eyes and ears.
 

Grayman

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Yeah but this applies to all choices.

I think you select your influences consciously when you read about or in other ways seek out information about people whose work you want to read before you do so basically. It probably comes more natural to J types, INTJ's do this a lot (in my experience), and INFJ's do it quite a lot as well.

Consider this, you can talk and influence those around you or you can listen and be influenced but you cannot talk and listen at the same time. A J is more likely to influence while the P is more likely to seek influence. The INTP seeks to be influenced in their thoughts and are not likely to act on it and that is why people will view the intp as not being influenced. People cannot see the large amount of influence inside the head of the intp but they can see how the intj has been influenced when he in turn influences the world.
 

Hadoblado

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I deliberately forgo influence in order to maintain a sense of achievement when I work something out on my own. Once I feel I have a good sense of something, then I'm more than happy to read up on it and check my comprehension.
 

Grayman

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I deliberately forgo influence in order to maintain a sense of achievement when I work something out on my own. Once I feel I have a good sense of something, then I'm more than happy to read up on it and check my comprehension.

You are still under old influences. You are only forgoing new ones.
 

Grayman

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I want to add that Te and Fe are more influenced by people directly when it pertains to logic or values.

Se and Ne are more influenced by the environment whether it be sensual or conceptual patterns and stimuli.
 

Hadoblado

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You are still under old influences. You are only forgoing new ones.

Yep. Well... err... maybe.

If I have an innate predisposition towards rejecting influences, then the presumption that old influences are at play may be false. There is no potential childhood influence that I am even close to being similar to.

I am similar to my father, but he had very little chance to influence me, and I have openly rejected his influence for the vast majority of our interactions. That I now perceive our similarities despite still not accepting his influence leads me to believe that the similarities are largely genetic.

You are assuming some large impact of the social environment, and yes, it plays a role. However, nature and nurture are a complex interaction, and making broad-stroke claims about influences for people you know little of is likely ill-advised.
 

Grayman

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You are assuming some large impact of the social environment, and yes, it plays a role. However, nature and nurture are a complex interaction, and making broad-stroke claims about influences for people you know little of is likely ill-advised.

Consider your last statement, where you referring to social or academic achievements?
 

Hadoblado

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Consider your last statement, where you referring to social or academic achievements?

Err... sorry I'm not good at this time in the morning... Achievements?

I was referring to influences in general. I didn't read anything academic before reaching my current state of initially rejecting influence.
 

Grayman

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Err... sorry I'm not good at this time in the morning... Achievements?

I was referring to influences in general. I didn't read anything academic before reaching my current state of initially rejecting influence.

Achievement was not exactly part of the point I was trying to make. I suppose the point was oversimplified and mundane without any subjective meaning.

My point is that past knowledge influences future knowledge.

I think that is the best way to say it....


When you avoid reading anything before you try to experiment or calculate the problem for yourself you are still using past knowledge to do so and it is likely that knowledge came from a teacher or from your environment or can be stemmed back to something you read or heard or even something you figured out on your own under the influence of something else you were taught.



FYI - I believe that figuring things out on your own is an admirable trait.
 

redbaron

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It's kind of annoying me that no definition has been given. So I'm going to define it first.. Not that anyone is at fault, just that the OP is ridiculously vague - perhaps intentionally? I don't know.

The best definition I can find that seems to fit best based on (limited) context is this:

: one that exerts influence

Starting from here, and assuming that yes: it is indeed possible to choose who influences you.

I think the choices I make in this regard are pretty much limited to only one situation:

Sometimes I might make the conscious decision not to bother taking the things someone else says too seriously - if they regularly lie and deceive, or have a habit of framing things in such a way that makes them look right, rather than actually demonstrating why they're right. I'd consider this a choice, it being the conscious decision to take things with a grain of salt.

After this there's really nothing. I'm influenced by the merits of the ideas put forth. It doesn't really matter to me what other people think.

I think this is why I have such a disdain for what I consider the, 'abuse' of philosophy (among other things). I think some people spend too much time reading about the worldview of others, that they never really get around to fully forming their own.

So my question after this is: why care?
 

Grayman

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Sometimes I might make the conscious decision not to bother taking the things someone else says too seriously - if they regularly lie and deceive, or have a habit of framing things in such a way that makes them look right, rather than actually demonstrating why they're right. I'd consider this a choice, it being the conscious decision to take things with a grain of salt.

I have a preference to always maintain skeptism to a finite degree. Even someone who is trustworthy often capable of being wrong.



The most obvious method of choosing your influencer is to completely remove them from your life if they exhibit constant deception, however if that is not possible you could simply invalidate them. I prefer not to remove someone from the realm of "I can learn from them." Even if the person is a deceiver, you can still learn something from them, what you learn, just will not be what is coming out of their mouth.
 

Words

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Influence as in objects, people you personally know or people you might admire from a distance? If its just personal relationships, then just Detach and connect. Detachment is easy for me but connecting has been very difficult.
 

redbaron

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Grayman...

:ahh:

Are you trying to be redundant or am I missing something here?

I mean this inoffensively, it's just confusing me because you seem to be pointing out the obvious and rephrasing things people say, only to end up making the same points and reaching the same conclusions.
 

Grayman

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Grayman...

:ahh:

Are you trying to be redundant or am I missing something here?

I mean this inoffensively, it's just confusing me because you seem to be pointing out the obvious and rephrasing things people say, only to end up making the same points and reaching the same conclusions.

It was purposeful. I told you my view. Where my view matches yours means we are in agreement. You can now understand where we stand together. At the end and the beginning I told you how 'I feel' my view differs from yours. You can now tell me if it does and if it does not and why.
 

redbaron

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It was purposeful. I told you my view. Where my view matches yours means we are in agreement. You can now understand where we stand together. At the end and the beginning I told you how 'I feel' my view differs from yours. You can now tell me if it does and if it does not and why.

Okay so it's deliberate.
 

Grayman

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Okay so it's deliberate.

Only in the context of my most recent post to you and only in part, it varies from your view. Otherwise I don't know what you are talking about.

Why are you irritated?
 

jonagelle

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You can choose the people who can influence you. You can stay away from bad people and be with good people. You avoid people who have bad habit like :eek:smoking, drinking alcohol without solving their problem, doing crime, etc. Good influence are your friends. They teach you on how to do things. They advice you on your problems. They influence you on their good habit. Joining socialization, doing charitable actions, those are good influence. Helping people. You can also be a good influence to others. Practice what you like to do. Those that are helpful, advantageous, and useful. And preach others to do the good things that you also do. Good behavior can be controlled. If you want good attitude, be in the circle of good friends.

 
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ahugenerd

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You can choose the people who can influence you. You can stay away from bad people and be with good people. You avoid people who have bad habit like :eek:smoking, drinking alcohol without solving their problem, doing crime, etc. Good influence are your friends. They teach you on how to do things. They advice you on your problems. They influence you on their good habit. Joining socialization, doing charitable actions, those are good influence. Helping people. You can also be a good influence to others. Practice what you like to do. Those that are helpful, advantageous, and useful. And preach others to do the good things that you also do. Good behavior can be controlled. If you want good attitude, be in the circle of good friends.

For some, it is not that easy.
 
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