Is my personality style iNTj or iNTp?

The Mastermind Personality Style

The Portrait of the Mastermind (iNTj)

Of the four aspects of strategic analysis and definition it is the contingency planning or entailment organizing role that reaches the highest development in Masterminds. Entailing or contingency planning is not an informative activity, rather it is a directive one in which the planner tells others what to do and in what order to do it. As the organizing capabilities the Masterminds increase so does their inclination to take charge of whatever is going on.

It is in their abilities that Masterminds differ from the other Rationals, while in most of their attitudes they are just like the others. However there is one attitude that sets them apart from other Rationals: they tend to be much more self-confident than the rest, having, for obscure reasons, developed a very strong will. They are rather rare, comprising no more than, say, one percent of the population. Being very judicious, decisions come naturally to them; indeed, they can hardly rest until they have things settled, decided, and set. They are the people who are able to formulate coherent and comprehensive contingency plans, hence contingency organizers or “entailers.”

Masterminds will adopt ideas only if they are useful, which is to say if they work efficiently toward accomplishing the Mastermind’s well-defined goals. Natural leaders, Masterminds are not at all eager to take command of projects or groups, preferring to stay in the background until others demonstrate their inability to lead. Once in charge, however, Masterminds are the supreme pragmatists, seeing reality as a crucible for refining their strategies for goal-directed action. In a sense, Masterminds approach reality as they would a giant chess board, always seeking strategies that have a high payoff, and always devising contingency plans in case of error or adversity. To the Mastermind, organizational structure and operational procedures are never arbitrary, never set in concrete, but are quite malleable and can be changed, improved, streamlined. In their drive for efficient action, Masterminds are the most open-minded of all the types. No idea is too far-fetched to be entertained-if it is useful. Masterminds are natural brainstormers, always open to new concepts and, in fact, aggressively seeking them. They are also alert to the consequences of applying new ideas or positions. Theories which cannot be made to work are quickly discarded by the Masterminds. On the other hand, Masterminds can be quite ruthless in implementing effective ideas, seldom counting personal cost in terms of time and energy.

See the next post for the description of an iNTp.

2 Responses to “Is my personality style iNTj or iNTp?”

  1. Anonymous says:

    I am doing searches cross referencing Myers Brigg results with blog content. I decided to do my own pattern INTJ (not that I think this some pancea of behavioral profiling, but its fun and somewhat useful). Anyway, I am enjoying browsing through your journal and seeing a damn lot Internet articles (something that I totally have on my computer). I have so many that I have special subject lisings (ie. Economics or Psychology – Social Economics) as headers and then one line abstracts following them.

    I went to the bar with a friend last night and shorted out. I feel embarrassed by it, but it was just too much. I left him there (drunk [he took a taxi home]) and then ran 5 miles to wind down. Well, this post is going nowhere so have a nice day.

  2. Anonymous2 says:

    I’m decidedly INTP, though I’m always suspicious if that’s the correct assertions. I’ve taken the Myers-Briggs test several times with different results (ISTJ, ISTP, INTP). Of course, this is through out a span of several years as well. See how it “evolves”? Anyhow, for now, I’m comfortably INTP, so if anyone doesn’t like it, they can shove it up their ….

    OK, how did i come up with this conclusion? Wasn’t easy. In fact, it took me a several years (God’s truth!) of contemplations and reflections. Somehow, I couldn’t decide which is fits me best. One point of view I got was that, at some stances, I fit the ISTJ description, while on the others, I fit on the ISTP or INTP. Drove me NUTS! So, there’s time lapse between these moments of “truth”!

    In the end, I like INTP better because, to heck with all the contemplations and reflections! Take the Achem Razor’s philosophy – The simpler, the better! Or the KISS principle can work as well.

    Therefore, in deciding if you’re INTP or INTJ, the key points are:
    1. Be honest to yourself, clear out the garbage that people expect from you.
    2. Take sometime to reflect and do not hurry to conclusions.
    3. Then, go for the Achem Razor or KISS thing.
    4. While you’re at it, don’t sweat about it. It doesn’t matter if you’re not what you think you are, you’re you and that’s the most important thing.

Leave a Reply