Behold the Mastermind

Of all the types of people in our world, the mastermind is one of the most unique and most rare. If you know 100 people, maybe one of them is a mastermind. Less than 3% of the world's population consists of masterminds and their introverted nature makes them especially hard to find.

How to Recognize a Mastermind

Being introverted, a mastermind is usually drained by prolonged periods of exposure to large crowds of people. They keep a few close friends and care not for more. For a mastermind, the quality of their interactions holds much higher value than the quantity of interactions.

When thinking, the mastermind will always focus on the big picture. Even when forced to dive into the details, he or she will think about how each detail ties into the greater whole. Forward thinking, the mastermind will have plans that span weeks, months, or even years into the future. On top of that, they will have contingencies and fail-safes to back up nearly every action they take.

Masterminds think more than they feel. They have set criteria for how they act, how they think, and even how they choose their friends. This can make the mastermind seem cold and uncaring as they often overlook how their actions can impact the feeling of others. On the other side of the same coin, they are seldom hurt when others act against them in favor of logic as long as the mastermind gets a chance to understand the logic behind the decision.

Finally, masterminds have rules for almost everything, often many more than they need. This is a mechanism that permits them to control situations by making them more predictable. It does, however, make their lives more limiting as they tend to avoid situations they feel they can't control reliably.

What to do with a Mastermind

Masterminds hold a unique capability to lead, but often have no desire to do so. Typically, if a group lacks a leader or has one who is completely inept, any masterminds in the group will step up to the plate and take over. Once this is done, their authority is unshakable. He or she will create new systems that increase efficiency and, if possible, automate many parts of group management. If this is what you want, convince the mastermind to take leadership and you can reap the benefits of the systems he or she creates. If you wish to lead over the mastermind, prove that you are active and capable. The mastermind will be happy to follow.

The analytical parts of the mastermind make them especially useful as problem solvers. If you need to solve a problem, give it to a mastermind. Problems are like candy to them, they can't help but solve them. Be prepared, however, as the solution a mastermind comes up with is bound to be complicated if complication increases efficiency or the chances of success. If the solution is rejected without appropriate evidence to back up the logic behind the rejection, the mastermind will provide a hard defense. These situations can often damage the mastermind's loyalty to you.

In relationships, masterminds can be difficult. Typically, they carry around a rule set for what they desire in a partner and they will often reject those who doesn't meet the majority of their requirements. Once in a relationship, he or she will create a system for how they will act in the relationship and, possibly, how they expect their partner to act. This can really limit their ability to be romantic. To make matters worse, while not incapable of legitimate love, masterminds have difficulty feeling many of the less intense emotions. To compensate for this, they will learn to fake several or all of them. To a semi-educated observer, it will often seem that a mastermind is lying when they are very much trying to be sincere. On the contrary, the ability to fake emotions makes them very effective liars if they are of malicious intent. Trust and honesty are very important components in a relationship with a mastermind, even more so than with people of other personalities.


References

Portrait of the Mastermind
INTJ