I had difficulty getting past the "my tribe is better than your tribe" stuff.
"If we introverts ran the world, it would no doubt be a calmer, saner, more peaceful sort of place."
"I suppose this common misconception has to do with our being more intelligent, more reflective, more independent, more level-headed, more refined, and more sensitive than extroverts."
Really. I suppose this might be true on average, but this makes it hard to take the article seriously.
"I had difficulty getting past the 'my tribe is better than your tribe' stuff."
Agreed. What really bugs me about this sort of piece (and about a huge number of comments in this thread), is that they tend to fetishize introversion, and make it a crutch. Introversion is clearly a real trait (and I'm one of those people who needs quiet time to "recharge"), but it's too easy to turn introversion into an excuse to avoid challenging situations and personal growth. I don't believe that's a habit to be celebrated.
I used to be much more "introverted" than I am today. Looking back, I can see that a lot of my formerly quiet behavior was a consequence of plain old shyness and fear, and I wish I had gotten over it a lot earlier than I did. For me, those years are lost.
The article itself seems to specifically differentiate between shyness and introversion and is more speaking to behaviors while with other people rather than trying to make excuses for avoiding others. In other words, it's not that an introvert avoids social interaction, just that an introvert's behavior during social interaction is different than an extravert's.
>Odd. I've been an introvert for my whole life, and this is the first time I've ever come across such a brilliant description of what's going through my mind when I'm propelled into a crowd of people and asked to endure the hot air and noise they call socializing. I'm not shy either, yet I've always lacked the compunction to talk for the sake of filling a silence. Thanks for the link. It's been mailed to all the people who've called me an anti-social bastard down the years :)
The italicized portion of this comment from elsewhere in the thread shows how some introverts feel when young. I've been told many times, in the past, that I am antisocial and have grown to resent the idea. In our society (america) antisocial is almost a pejorative. So, I remember deciding that introversion was a fine trait to have and was more desirable than the chattering extroversion of my peers. People are just reacting against the expectation of extroversion, the response is too strong at first, but then they reach a balance. That's how this sort of reaction happens.
I agree with your comment generally though. I just believe the sooner people accept that introversion is an acceptable personality trait they can lean this 'personal growth' for what it will get them instead of some misguided belief they should be acting differently. Still, I can see "oh, I'm just introverted" being a crutch for shyness and fear, I'm still getting over those. But, I'm not exactly sure how.
I agree and disagree with your comment. On one hand the tribalism in the article is a distraction from the argument he is making. On the other hand, it's pretty funny if you're an introvert. The following quote in particular, I think, was meant to be funny: "I suppose this common misconception has to do with our being more intelligent, more reflective, more independent, more level-headed, more refined, and more sensitive than extroverts," and not mean or serious. Looked at this way the "tribalism" in the piece is pretty harmless.
Introversion is the tendency to be concerned and interested with your own mental life. It's quite possible to be introverted, and still have a strong desire to please people.
I think by definition, introverts tend to not want to run things. Introverts tend to prefer contemplation over interaction, and interference or intervention are subsets of interaction, right? Even if that weren't true, the things one has to do to get to a position of being able to run things tend to be distasteful, in large amounts, to introverts.
Given the prior assumption that introverts are generally more intelligent than extroverts, we can actually make the argument that this has already happened. For example, rather than lobbying for lower prices from Microsoft or filing antitrust lawsuits, geeks invented GNU/Linux and created Google. Rather than attempting to play the extrovert's game of socializing and interacting face-to-face, introverts invented the internet, which is the single most pervasive form of communication today and happens to be a medium where anonymity is the norm and extroverts are unable to gain an advantage with their superior skills at non-verbal communication. I think technology has probably changed the world and the way people behave way more than any politician has.
Of course, that is assuming that geeks are mostly introverts, which is by no means a given. As a previous poster has said, the introvert/extrovert divide is probably a false dichotomy. I think it's more likely to be a spectrum than a binary categorization.
"If we introverts ran the world, it would no doubt be a calmer, saner, more peaceful sort of place."
"I suppose this common misconception has to do with our being more intelligent, more reflective, more independent, more level-headed, more refined, and more sensitive than extroverts."
Really. I suppose this might be true on average, but this makes it hard to take the article seriously.