i require a shrubbery.
It's not a bad way of looking at it, and I can see similarities. Ultimately though, that's not the case. I'm planning on working on a post to go more indepth and I'll link it here once I've finished it.
In general Ni recognizes and remembers metaphysical data.
When a Si user thinks of the metaphysical idea happiness, it thinks of all the happy times it's experienced and all the objects it associates with happiness. When Ni thinks of a metaphysical idea like happiness and thinks of what it applies and how it would affect external data.
When a Si user thinks of a car it thinks of all the experiences a car has been through and all the things it associates with it.
When Ni thinks of a car it quickly finds a metaphysical idea it associates with it. The idea of motion or travel or rotation. For Ni, a car is just something that is made up of these things.
Understand that there is some overlap here. Ni doms can still emulate Si and Si doms can still emulate Ni.