World of Ideas vs. World of Facts

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What does the world of ideas and the world of facts mean? What is the difference between them? I have been told by a few members on here that I am to much into the world of ideas? What do they mean?

World of Ideas - Being interested in what may be.

World of Facts - Being interested in what is.

Constantly dwelling on how to achieve FTL space travel but not focusing on how to get us off petroleum-based fuels would be a good example of living more in the world of ideas compared to the world of facts.

I get what you're saying my friend. The world of ideas describes me to a tee. It is a part of my personality.
http://www.16personalities.com/intp-personality

This confirms what I have been thinking. It is no wonder I end up getting into debates with others on here and asking so many questions about their ideas. I am looking at future possibilities and they're looking at here and now. After analyzing myself for a bit and looking up definitions and personality types and finally asking this I understand what you mean when you said and I am paraphrasing that I am looking to much into the world of ideas.

Besides my social skills issues, pragmatic issues and executive functioning issues I have problems dealing in the world of the facts or what is in front of me. I'm excellent when it comes to things like programming, philosophy, and other strengths that INTP's have but this is another weakness of mine I will have to learn to either overcome or deal with especially when communicating with others who think with this function.

Do you have any tips on how I can deal in the world of facts a bit better than the world of ideas?

facts are determined and constrained by physical reality. Ideas are not. The only sensible constraint on ideas is logical consistency. It is possible to construct a set of logically consistent ideas which has no counterpart in the physical world. Mathematicians do it all the time. What about a 25 dimensional space? Easy Peasey. However physical space is either 4 dimensional or 11 dimensional if string theory is correct and that is not a sure thing.

ruveyn

Some ideas are where facts come from, hypothesis are tested against nature, tested to see if they can predict behaviours, tested again, experiments repeated, the hypothesis can be changed to meet the test results and built upon, eventually if it is a good idea it will attain the status of theory. Other ideas are not so fortunate in their construct and are nonsensical yet bizarrely still believed by many. EG Evolutionary Theory as the former and Baraminology as the latter.

A world of ideas is vital for the growth and knowledge of humanity. What is also needed are the filters to discern what is nonsense and what it sensible.