Stages of Si Development

...according to our own personal understanding and experience. This may be different for other TiNe (I'd love to compare experiences) but for the sake of writing and initiating a dialogue, I'll start with what our path has shown us.

Developmental Stage 1

• Lack of Precedent (all "On Base Principles")
  The initial starting point for the TiNe can be compared to a blank canvass. And if it is not a blank canvass, Ti strives to make it so by dismantling any existing protocols and circumstantial beliefs that their environment has instilled. What this translates to, functionally, is that the TiNe likes to form their paradigm from absolute scratch. In order for Ti to feel that its framework is crystalline it has to try to recreate a truth structure from bare bones, which means throwing away any assumptions of how the world works.
  
  This leads to a very philosophical, existential and epistemological inquiry where before any knowledge can even start to accumulate, the TiNe may need to decide how to accumulate knowledge (epistemology). The down side to this is that the TiNe may end up "reinventing the wheel" so to speak. Everything has to be rediscovered again. And the TiNe can spend a great amount of time and energy (years) establishing this initial foundation --- while ultimately being rather sparse on actual data.
  
  The initial framework that a Ti-lead comes to build is one that will be incredibly high on conceptual purity but very fickle in terms of information. As we will come to see, the absence of information can have large effects on the underlying framework.
  
  
• Lack of Context ("where do I put this puzzle piece?")
  
  
  
  From my limited experience with TiNe's, this first stage also displays a person who can be overwhelmed with new information as each new dataset presents a dilemma as far as where to contextualize it in this evolving truth-paradigm. If a lot of new information is assimilated, without knowing "why" it has to fit the way it's supposed to, friction can develop. For example, learning rote procedures of language rules or math rules without the teacher explaining the cascade of principles which give each element a place in a structure -- can be disquieting and even lead to rejection or retaliation. For myself, I know I did very poorly in classes that took this data-dump approach to life, such as World History. Data for its own sake is often not engaging enough and seems like needless trivia or noise.
  

Developmental Stage 2

• Paradigm Constructions & Simulations
  After an initial period of questioning and disassembly, when the TiNe feels ready to start holding a self-made paradigm, information begins to be contextualized. The sometimes solipsist spirals that can develop in the first stage, where no information is considered truly knowable, are matured -- or at least one makes a decision to accept a sort of empiricist principle rather than remain within rationalism.
  
  The TiNe may come to realize that their Ti framework is actually a lot stronger when supported by data and that more data = more solidity. They may start to seek out data and begin tying together different elements. There exists in this phase some risk of forcing data within the model without noticing it. A self-awareness of this tendency helps prevent the TiNe from making any "absolute" statements, and can allow paradigms to instead be suggested as possible simulations or interpretations of the data.
  
  
• Taxonomies & Lexicons
  While the above represents the TiNe's shift toward an information dependent model of reality, Si also births a new ability in the generation of taxonomies and data architectures. The most common form of this effect that I've seen is the construction of a lexicon of definitions. As Ti's evaluation of the world leads to greater general knowledge of how different components work together, there is an increasing need to store this knowledge in a way that can be referenced. The way Ti+Si handles this need is through a lexicon where each new term is personally redefined, but all of them come together into that elegant symmetry that Ti so desires.
  
  In its more undiluted form, Ti actually dislikes definitions because of the subjectivity inherent to the delineation/definition process. What defines something simple like a "pen" or where the concept of a beach starts and ends is a grey area that necessitates a degree of relativism and thus imprecision. When faced with other people's models and concepts, Ti may ask "is that even a real thing?" "how do I know that these delineations were even rightly formed in the first place? how do we know there are these many types/layers/facets and not more?" - Ti will have a general tendency to distrust the packaged and boxed definitions of others, because as a compass type it does not trust others to rightly delineate information.
  
  But in this stage of development, Ti yields to the usefulness in definition-forming and collaborates with Si to create a storage of accumulated truth that can be referenced as bite-sized concepts. It becomes less important that the Si concepts be exactly delineated (though Ti will never give up on this pursuit), and it becomes more a matter of simulating a knowledge structure that is helpful for understanding reality.
  
  a. Data Modeling
  
  My work on cognitive type is actually a perfect example of this at work in a TiNe. All of the terms I made up, and the delineation of 110 signals is, in many ways, arbitrary but also necessary for the ability to communicate (Fe) firsthand experience (Si) to others in a concise and consistent (Ti) way. Other TiNe use similar data modeling techniques to give form and quantification to their Ti's comprehension of the world.
  
  In fact, this very thread and its siblings (and how they are divided into Stages) is a real-time example of this use of Si within the confines of primary Ti in order to organize one's experiences and knowledge into understandable and digestible sequences. It makes for a helpful teaching tool and ultimately supports the agenda of Fe which aims for communication. There's a bit of a "textbook" quality to the Ti+Si articulation style because of this.
  
  

Developmental Stage 3

• I'm apparently not at this level yet, and I don't know exactly what this entails...