Theory of Like-Mindedness

This Theory of Like-mindedness is based on psychology. Psychological aspects of human beings consisting of different behavioural styles are being highlighted. A person may be judged by his circle of friends. The type of company a person keeps (Hindi and Marathi language it is known as ‘Sangat’) tends to have a long term impact on an individual’s life. Basically, there happen to be two type of people in the world. Some people have a mentality like that of ‘donkeys’ and the rest have a mentality like that of ‘horses.’ Such persons have a typical manner of thinking.

– Definition of those who think like ‘donkeys’:

Such type of mentality includes people who do not understand what is right and what is wrong, what is good and what is bad, who normally tend to drift on a wrong path, who do not tend to use logic and common sense, who put their blinders on their eyes and live their lives, who let others take their decisions, who follow a herd mentality, who think everything that is new is beneficial while whatever is old is useless thereby ignoring the utility aspect.

– Definition of those who think like ‘horses’:

Such type of mentality includes people who have a level of understanding due to which they know what is right and what is wrong, what is good and bad, who use logic and common sense, who are aware about their surroundings, who are thinkers, who think about the future, who tend to make the right decisions, who believe in following what is right rather than implementing what they think is right, who consider the utility aspect before taking decisions.

Examples of similar behavioural styles:

Trekkers like people who are trekkers, photographers like people who are photographers, drinkers like people who are drinkers, people who are religious tend to like people who are religious, those who like to travel frequently are more inclined towards people who are fond of travelling, people with a silent nature like people who are of a silent nature, those who are liars mostly tilt towards liars, those who tend to find some loopholes and take undue advantage of the same are mostly inclined towards people who have a similar nature, people having a nature of living a lavish lifestyle irrespective of their financial situation like people of a similar mentality, those who try to conserve nature like people who believe in conserving the nature, those who read books like people who are readers, those who think about the future and then take their decisions like people who are future oriented, companies while hiring usually try to gauge the candidate whether the candidate happens to be culturally fit for the company and whether he shall follow the values and way of working of the company.

In the corporate world, as far as the field of Human Resources is concerned, psychology matters a lot at the time of Recruitment and while retaining the employees within the company. A company that understands the psychology of its employees and provides them with the necessary facilities and a good working environment may be termed as an employee-friendly company. Human beings having similar behavioural traits think they shall be able to spend a good time with someone having a similar nature.

Examples of opposite behavioural styles:

People good at mathematics shall not be able to spend a good time with someone who is a poet, in the case of marriages there happens to be a saying ‘opposites attract’ — but in reality many a times it poses a problem in future as both the partners find a difficulty in adjusting with each other, practical people may have a difficulty to adjust with emotional people, decision makers are unable to adjust with people who are of a spoon-feeding nature, mentality of creative persons have a mismatch with persons having a copy-paste type of a mentality, an intelligent guy who has been hired for a small back-office job would not last long on that particular job as he will always find ways to excel in his life, those who do not wish to make a progress in their lives are the best persons to be hired for small back-office type of jobs, a person may not like to spend time with someone who has an opposite nature.

Conclusion: A person having a certain type of mentality shall always like a person with a similar type of mentality.

Disclaimer: This happens to be a theory. Sometimes reality may be different from this Theory of Like-Mindedness.

Author of Theory of Like-Mindedness: Nikhil Pravin Deshpande