shallow and deep

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Uuh.. I hope this will make sense.;;;;

From what I've read, a lot of people here (not all, but lots) have more simple and straight-forward thoughts and feelings than lots of NTs. I think it's the kind of thing that doctors call developmental delay, and it's what makes some of us seem like children or animals to other people.

I think I am like this. If I wanted, I think I could dip deeper into the kind of more complex emotions that normal adults feel, but I don't like to, and I don't see the reason to. It seems like the more complex your emotions are, the more "deep" you are, and this is supposed to make you more wise or something. It's a good thing to be deep. The more deep a book or movie is, the more praise it gets. And being shallow is BAD. Shallow people are looked down upon, I'm sure you all know.

And I'm not really sure how to explain what I'm trying to get at here...

I live with the same things other people live with. In my life, people have died and stuff has happened and I have felt the impact of it. And I don't think I have complex reactions to these things, but I don't see why it is bad to have simple feelings, as long as they are sincere and accurate. Is simple the same as shallow? Because simple sure seems to be the opposite of deep. Deep seems very complicated. And I fear that maybe I'm wrong to have simpler feelings, because of the high regard people have for complex and mature emotions. Does anyone else feel this way? Is it wrong, is it inaccurate? What is the immense worth of deep thought and emotion? Should I be trying to think deeper..?

I'm sorry this is so scrambled. Answer or talk about whatever aspect of it you want to, I guess.

Wow that was a very sigint observation

It's a reflection of how little confidence most people have about their own feelings and thinking, that they so easily are swayed by complex emotions or obtuse explanations of simply phenomenons. When one is comfortable in is own skin, he does not see the world as complex and alien, rather, he sees himself as an alien in a simply world. Being a stranger to many emotions and theories of the populace may make us seem less mature or cognitively underdeveloped, but I think that we have bypassed the meaningless details of the world, and focus primarily on our objectives in life. We are in touch with the deep confines of our inner selves, and therefore do not need to dig for deeper insights into the external world.

There is a difference between being shallow and thinking in a simplified way.

Being shallow, to me, marks a person as superficial, without depth of personality, morals, ethics, behaviour. In my opinion it is not necessarily related to thinking.

You can be a deep thinker, but hugely superficial......just as you can be a thinker in a simplified way but have a depth to spirit.

The latter, for me, is much more beneficial........and I feel that maybe this relates to you. I am a "simplified thinker" but complex in spirit and morality. So I do analyse a lot of matter, but pay little attention to what other people seem to hold important ie: certain emotional responses. Some emotional responses from people are downright terrifying. But as I get older, I do realise that I do have an emotinal tapestry, but the difficulty is expressing it to the satisfaction of others.

I inherantly follow a linear path of thinking......lots of "ergo's" in my language .......getting from point A to point B is a process. Logic, logic, logic........

If I am completely off the mark, my apologies.

Mics

When I hear about 'shallow' and 'deep', I always think of a swimming pool.

I think of myself as someone who has lived in the shallow end for most of my life (probably whilst thinking I was 'deep') and got thrown into the deep end of adult emotions in my early twenties. I don't like the adult emotions; they nearly all seem negative; shame, humiliation, grief and heartbreak, but I'm starting to float again, just like back in the shallow end when I was young.

Being 'deep' in the normal NT definition means that you don't say everything that passes into your head, and people cannot always figure out what your are thinking or understand your words. It's supposed to be a compliment, but to be honest, I prefer superficial people; they are easier to work out.

There's also the yin/yang side of things - the opposites being one. One comes through utter complexity and on the other side there is utter simplicity. Or, one says something very simple, and it is as deep as a person gets.

Or the Japanese tea ceremony, not that I know anything about it, except that the aim is for total simplicity, that being the most complex activity.

In other words, never judge a book by its cover.

I'm basically deep, and usually I rant about how shallow the rest of the world seems to be, but I get sick of depth sometimes. Once I'd had so much depth and intellectual challenge that I actually wanted to watch an episode of Coronation Street But that was extreme.

Depth is often revered but a lot of the most popular media is shallow.

Simplicity is a word the Shakers used to use, to describe the innocent, straightforward way of life that they aspired to. I think there was some merit in the idea.....we humans do tend to overcomplicate everything we touch, intellectualising it out of existence and using the complications for competitive advantage.

As was said, it's very Yin & Yang.

As Michhsta mentioned, being shallow is being superficial rather than being simple. Sometimes the simplest things are the most profound. Just look at Forrest Gump's quote about life being like a box of chocolates.

If you think most people are deep you are sadly mistaken, most people are shallow as a puddle of water, convuluted/nonsensical =/= deep. There is a saying "If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with BS". I don't believe in "NTs" or "normals" anyway, I've yet to meet one of these mythical creatures, all the so-called "normals" I've met are not very "normal", which isn't a bad thing as individuality is a part of diversity and makes the world more interesting. The myth of "normality" is a big fat lie, every time I hear the word "normal" I think of some "Leave it to Beaver" type people.

interesting thread.

@pascalflower first, what a lovely and well-written paragraph (the first reply). on the last bit ("rather be fake normal than...) you are, of course, aware that "normal" comes from "norm" meaning simply, "common."

it's not a synonym for "good" or "healthy" (tho sometimes they coincide) nor is it an actual "thing." it's a construct, an abstraction.

saints aren't the norm, for example, nor are great leaders, gifted musicians, and so on, and yet, some would prefer having such traits over being closer to the norm.

i'm thinking that what you actually mean is, you prefer to be healthy, or maybe you're saying you prefer not to stand out? (just guessing, obviously).

last thing: if you were *fake* normal, you wouldn't really be normal then, would you?

I agree about us being more like children, or animals. When I first got sick, my mum lovingly told me that I wasn't like most 23 year olds. She told me that I'm a puppy. I do have the innocence of a puppy.

I dont think you are shallow at all. I think you are a deep thinker...but unlike many deep thinkers who hide the real meanings of what they say or feel behind symbolism and dual meanings and other forms of obscurity...you are clear, deep and spendid like the coral reef....instead of murky shark infested waters of some "deep" people.

Shallow people are too tossed about like the sand in the waves of popular culture and what other people tell them to think and act to be able to think about anything independantly.

and as far as the rest of you...stop discounting yourself. You all have intelegent, well thought-out answers.

I have a very deep and rich inner life. My problem is LABELING the fine shades of emotion and feeling that I am experiencing.