Quiet. The Power of Introverts in a world that can’t stop talking by Susan Cain

E x c e l l e n t ! Guess what, I’m an introvert and my husband too. This book made me understand how some of my introvert traits work and how some of those traits aren’t bad at all. It has some theory on psychology and real life examples to complement. 

Cain says that our (western) society has been designed to favour extroverted personalities. That is why in many cases introverted people either feel they cannot fit in or have to pretend to be extroverted to blend in. This causes great mental and physical strain on them. Cain explains how long-term studies focusing on the brain’s Amygdala were able to identify babies and children who were high-reactive to external stimuli. Most of those children grew up to become introverts. 

Cain draws a line between Introversion and concepts such as shyness (fear of failure or rejection), social anxiety (chronic disabling form of shyness). Introversion is not a handicap it only means that people prefer to be on their own, have time to think or make decisions. Something I found very interesting is how Brainstorming, very popular in management for example and thought to be an efficient way to induce creative ideas, “doesn’t actually work.” Several studies show how performance “gets worse as group size increases” even if the groups are comprised mostly by extroverts. Another point against brainstorming (or any other group or collaboratively activities) is that the extroverts’s ideas are given more importance as they are the ones who speak the most but not necessarily the ones with the better ideas. Introverts could be more creative and come up with better ideas if they were allowed to work alone. 

There is more: introvert children, extrovert-introvert relationships (couples and parents-children) and introverts at work. Read the book!