|
63975c7
|
Open-plan offices have been found to reduce productivity and impair memory. They're associated with high staff turnover. They make people sick, hostile, unmotivated, and insecure. Open-plan workers are more likely to suffer from high blood pressure and elevated stress levels and to get the flu; they argue more with their colleagues; they worry about coworkers eavesdropping on their phone calls and spying on their computer screens. They have..
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
a2af0d2
|
Evangelicalism has taken the Extrovert Ideal to its logical extreme, McHugh is telling us. If you don't love Jesus out loud, then it must not be real love. It's not enough to forge your own spiritual connection to the divine; Is it any wonder that introverts like Pastor McHugh start to question their own hearts?
|
|
extroversion
|
Susan Cain |
|
e625661
|
a psychologist named Solomon Asch conducted a series of now-famous experiments on the dangers of group influence. Asch gathered student volunteers into groups and had them take a vision test. He showed them a picture of three lines of varying lengths and asked questions about how the lines compared with one another: which was longer, which one matched the length of a fourth line, and so on. His questions were so simple that 95 percent of st..
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
18d78e5
|
High-reactive kids also tend to think and feel deeply about what they've noticed, and to bring an extra degree of nuance to everyday experiences.
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
07ee9c7
|
Introverts living under the Extrovert Ideal are like women in a man's world,
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
3e8af4b
|
That's because top performers overwhelmingly worked for companies that gave their workers the most privacy, personal space, control over their physical environments, and freedom from interruption. Sixty-two percent of the best performers said that their workspace was acceptably private, compared to only 19 percent of the worst performers; 76 percent of the worst performers but only 38 percent of the top performers said that people often int..
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
7837950
|
you want to make sure that your spouse cares what other people think. It's better to mind too much than to mind too little.
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
06ffe1a
|
Many psychologists would also agree that introverts and extroverts work differently. Extroverts tend to tackle assignments quickly. They make fast (sometimes rash) decisions, and are comfortable multitasking and risk-taking. They enjoy "the thrill of the chase" for rewards like money and status. Introverts often work more slowly and deliberately. They like to focus on one task at a time and can have mighty powers of concentration. They're r..
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
d322f0d
|
If you're thinking in more complicated ways," she told me, "then talking about the weather or where you went for the holidays is not quite as interesting as talking about values or morality."
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
d61867d
|
Parks herself seemed aware of this paradox, calling her autobiography Quiet Strength--a title that challenges us to question our assumptions. Why shouldn't quiet be strong? And what else can quiet do that we don't give it credit for?
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
fad7cbc
|
Studies have shown that, indeed, introverts are more likely than extroverts to express intimate facts about themselves online that their family and friends would be surprised to read, to say that they can express the "real me" online, and to spend more time in certain kinds of online discussions. They welcome the chance to communicate digitally. The same person who would never raise his hand in a lecture hall of two hundred people might blo..
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
0641da2
|
Maybe they're not even introverts--only 70 percent of sensitive people are, according to Aron, while the other 30 percent are extroverts (although this group tends to report craving more downtime and solitude than your typical extrovert).
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
a7d1503
|
One of the best things you can do for an introverted child is to work with him on his reaction to novelty. Remember that introverts react not only to new people, but also to new places and events. So don't mistake your child's caution in new situations for an inability to relate to others. He's recoiling from novelty or overstimulation, not from human contact.
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
7f73a52
|
As an introvert might be expected to do, he'd prepared thoroughly for the speech, not only rehearsing his remarks but also making sure he could cite the latest research. Even
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
d3a4d78
|
He also suffered from a certain amount of what he calls "reputational confusion," in which he became known for being over-the-top effervescent, and the reputation fed on itself. This was the persona that others knew, so it was the persona he felt obliged to serve up."
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
3d76cf2
|
our reverence for alpha status blinds us to things that are good and smart and wise. For
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
3c436b6
|
Men who were too quiet around women risked being thought gay; as a popular 1926 sex guide observed, "homosexuals are invariably timid, shy, retiring."
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
940d5e6
|
shy and introverted people might choose to spend their days in behind-the-scenes pursuits like inventing, or researching, or
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
e5758bb
|
When people are skilled at adopting free traits, it can be hard to believe that they're acting out of character. Professor Little's students are usually incredulous when he claims to be an introvert. But Little is far from unique; many people, especially those in leadership roles, engage in a certain level of pretend-extroversion.
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
a3a3a7b
|
For many introverts like David, adolescence is the great stumbling place, the dark and tangled thicket of low self-esteem and social unease. In middle and high school, the main currency is vivacity and gregariousness; attributes like depth and sensitivity don't count for much.
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
4592229
|
Introverts living under the Extrovert Ideal are like women in a man's world, discounted because of a trait that goes to the core of who they are. Extroversion is an enormously appealing personality style, but we've turned it into an oppressive standard to which most of us feel we must conform.
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
08f809c
|
Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know. --LAO ZI, The Way of Lao Zi
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
69a2748
|
Highly sensitive people also process information about their environments--both physical and emotional--unusually deeply. They tend to notice subtleties that others miss--another person's shift in mood, say, or a lightbulb burning a touch too brightly.
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
4bb31ed
|
Imagine how much better you'll be at this sweet-spot game once you're aware of playing it. You can set up your work, your hobbies, and your social life so that you spend as much time inside your sweet spot as possible. People who are aware of their sweet spots have the power to leave jobs that exhaust them and start new and satisfying businesses. They can hunt for homes based on the temperaments of their family members--with cozy window sea..
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
200e477
|
Even T. S. Eliot's famous 1915 poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock--in which he laments the need to "prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet"--seems a cri de coeur about the new demands of self-presentation."
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
8ad6ca6
|
A well-known study out of UC Berkeley by organizational behavior professor Philip Tetlock found that television pundits--that is, people who earn their livings by holding forth confidently on the basis of limited information--make worse predictions about political and economic trends than they would by random chance. And the very worst prognosticators tend to be the most famous and the most confident--the very ones who would be considered n..
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
8dedcfb
|
It can be hard for extroverts to understand how badly introverts need to recharge at the end of a busy day.
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
27594c7
|
Aron and a team of scientists have also found that when sensitive people see faces of people experiencing strong feelings, they have more activation than others do in areas of the brain associated with empathy and with trying to control strong emotions. It's as if, like Eleanor Roosevelt, they can't help but feel what others feel.
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
4a37ad4
|
Enjoyment appears at the boundary between boredom and anxiety, when the challenges are just balanced with the person's capacity to act.
|
|
inspirational
flow
|
Susan Cain |
|
41b2059
|
Scientists now know that the brain is incapable of paying attention to two things at the same time. What looks like multitasking is really switching back and forth between multiple tasks, which reduces productivity and increases mistakes by up to 50 percent.
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
bc4020f
|
If this is true--if solitude is an important key to creativity--then we might all want to develop a taste for it. We'd want to teach our kids to work independently. We'd want to give employees plenty of privacy and autonomy. Yet increasingly we do just the opposite.
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
b0ab94f
|
Restraint, Gandhi believed, was one of his greatest assets. And it was born of his shyness: I have naturally formed the habit of restraining my thoughts. A thoughtless word hardly ever escaped my tongue or pen. Experience has taught me that silence is part of the spiritual discipline of a votary of truth. We find so many people impatient to talk. All this talking can hardly be said to be of any benefit to the world. It is so much waste of t..
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
e716c7c
|
A reward-sensitive person is highly motivated to seek rewards--from a promotion to a lottery jackpot to an enjoyable evening out with friends. Reward sensitivity motivates us to pursue goals like sex and money, social status and influence.
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
58ed5fc
|
Use your natural powers - of persistence, concentration, and insight - to do work you love and work that matters. Solve problems, make art, and think deeply
|
|
power
|
Susan Cain |
|
09c6d56
|
Another study, of 38,000 knowledge workers across different sectors, found that the simple act of being interrupted is one of the biggest barriers to productivity. Even multitasking, that prized feat of modern-day office warriors, turns out to be a myth. Scientists now know that the brain is incapable of paying attention to two things at the same time. What looks like multitasking is really switching back and forth between multiple tasks, w..
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
a9b3083
|
Extroverts tend to tackle assignments quickly. They make fast (sometimes rash) decisions, and are comfortable multitasking and risk-taking. They enjoy "the thrill of the chase" for rewards like money and status. Introverts often work more slowly and deliberately. They like to focus on one task at a time and can have mighty powers of concentration. They're relatively immune to the lures of wealth and fame."
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
31c28a0
|
how did we go from Character to Personality without realizing that we had sacrificed something meaningful along the way?
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
984d6d4
|
Shyness is the fear of social disapproval or humiliation, while introversion is a preference for environments that are not overstimulating.
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
1cf297c
|
introverts prefer to work independently, and solitude can be a catalyst to innovation
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
f5e6320
|
Without introverts, the world would be devoid of: the theory of gravity the theory of relativity W. B. Yeats's "The Second Coming" Chopin's nocturnes Proust's In Search of Lost Time Peter Pan Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm The Cat in the Hat Charlie Brown Schindler's List, E.T., and Close Encounters of the Third Kind"
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
ec08cef
|
Psychologists often discuss the difference between "temperament" and "personality." Temperament refers to inborn, biologically based behavioral and emotional patterns that are observable in infancy and early childhood; personality is the complex brew that emerges after cultural influence and personal experience are thrown into the mix. Some say that temperament is the foundation, and personality is the building. Kagan's work helped link cer..
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
9f1c708
|
Why did these leaders' effectiveness turn on whether their employees were passive or proactive? Grant says it makes sense that introverts are uniquely good at leading initiative-takers. Because of their inclination to listen to others and lack of interest in dominating social situations, introverts are more likely to hear and implement suggestions. Having benefited from the talents of their followers, they are then likely to motivate them t..
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
b19ce0f
|
the simple act of being interrupted is one of the biggest barriers to productivity.
|
|
|
Susan Cain |
|
d99a397
|
When your conscientiousness impels you to take on more than you can handle, you begin to lose interest, even in tasks that normally engage you. You also risk your physical health. "Emotional labor," which is the effort we make to control and change our own emotions, is associated with stress, burnout, and even physical symptoms like an increase in cardiovascular disease. Professor Little believes that prolonged acting out of character may a..
|
|
|
Susan Cain |