With Sensing viewing life as a series of distinct puzzle pieces, Sensing Thinkers naturally focus on the usefulness of the puzzle piece they care about most.  They seek to understand the things they care about as they already are, in order to get the most effective use out of themselves, others, and the world.  STs are all about creating and protecting an environment where the things they love can flourish in the use they already have.  This is how STs find and enjoy the intrinsic worth of everything, by experiencing things in the most useful, beneficial ways.

This focus on the beneficial uses of experiences tends to cause STs to look to the past, in order to learn from past experience how to do better next time.  This is where they gather most of their information to make choices and form opinions.  Sensing Thinkers are therefore very protective of the past experiences of whatever they care about most:  Some are most protective of their own past choices, while others are quick to defend the past of their chosen cause or ideology, and still others revere history itself as a trove of useful experiences to learn from.  In any case, STs want the past of whatever they care about most to be as useful as possible, and may resent any implication to the contrary.

With ST’s focus on the useful lessons to be derived from past experiences, Sensing Thinkers tend to think of people, actions, and everything in terms of “right ways” and “wrong ways.”  Even if they fear that they themselves often do things in a “wrong way,” they will naturally view themselves and others as being frankly correct or incorrect in their methods.  The right way is the most useful way, and the past illustrates right ways and wrong ways to do anything.  Often without realizing it, STs think of moral right and wrong in these terms.  Doing something the wrong way seems like a mark of foolishness, immaturity, or outright stupidity, while doing things right seems to display moral uprightness, honor, and intelligence.  Sensing Thinkers excel in learning how to find and perfect the most useful methods for whatever they focus on, yet they should be careful to remember that there are many other facets of right and wrong besides “right ways” and “wrong ways.”  As always, learning from the strengths of other cognitive types leads to the greatest usefulness of your own.