"Speak with conviction. Even if you believe something only fifty-five percent, say it as if you believe it a hundred percent." This quote was exorcised from Harvard Business School, an institution within which a significant number of CEOs and influential politicians are educated. It is a scary reflection of a society that recently verged upon financial ruin, and has suppressed 1/3 to 1/2 of its population -- who are, by nature, introverted.
Quiet by Susan Cain is a wake-up call.
It explains how and why contemporary western society geared itself as a processing machine, turning its citizens in to commodities, in accordance with an Extrovert Ideal. As a result many feel conflicted. They are led to believe their natural inclinations are anti-social, when there is no correlation between prosocial behaviors and a preference for high stimulation (which characterizes extroversion). They are also encouraged to become more aggressive in their conduct, or forfeit career advancement, something that can have both severe global (financial) and personal (health, anxiety) issues.
For the conflicted Quiet is an empowering book. No guilt should be felt if you would rather read than attend a party, neither should you feel inadequate when you cannot bounce from triviality to triviality in group conversation, feeling at the mercy of the first person to ask why you haven't spoken. Some people are more inclined towards deep, introspective topics, and are easily over-stimulated. The reason inadequacy should not be felt is that these perceived weaknesses can also lend strengths. Introverts and Extroverts when conversing together find mutual benefit, one from liberating lightheartedness, the other from feeling more comfortable getting serious. Introverts can also be more resistant to [risky] reward seeking behaviors like sex, status, or gambling; can be gifted with persistence; are often more intimate and faithful; and have unique powers of persuasion. Cain is careful not to say all Introverts are all these things (or even that all quiet people are introverted, as you can be a shy Extrovert), rather she intends to make readers more mindful of different behaviors.
Some have criticized Cain as having set out to present introversion as superior to extroversion. This is not the intention. The introduction tells the reader to "take what applies to you, and use the rest to improve your relationship with others". There is no such thing as a pure Introvert or Extrovert, we are all a mixture of characteristics.
The book glories in the variety that makes us human, while also warning us of it. We consistently rate confident people as more competent, regardless of merit. Groups can also reduce activity in the decision making regions of the brain while increasing activity in brain regions associated with perception, making groups comparable to mind-altering substances. However, the world would not be as it is today had Martin Luther King, Jr. not so eloquently shared his dream. The emphasis is thus on collaboration, but not strictly in the sense of group "synergy". Near the end of the civil rights movement contemporary papers gloried King and forgot all about Rosa Parks, the small, quiet women whose small act of defiance had sparked the movement, by providing a powerful banner of integrity that King could not have raised alone. Collaboration can take different forms, and it is best realized with respect of strengths and weaknesses.
Much of this review may seem familiar to those that have seen Susan Cain's excellent TED talk. Some claim the book has little more to offer, and was disappointing by comparison. I disagree. The talk raised awareness of important concepts; the book, seven years in the making, shows these concepts in action by interlacing the latest psychological findings with autobiography and many insightful case studies. It is this relatable human element that gives the book its edge. Cain also effectively conveys emotions through her endearingly self-deprecating writing style. I genuinely felt on edge during her recollections of Tony--UNLEASH THE POWER WITHIN--Robbins's seminar.
Particularly noteworthy (and absent from the TED talk) is that behaviors are not depicted as static traits. Instead we are elastic bands, capable of stretching. Free Trait Theory is particularly appealing for Introverts. It is the idea that they can act out of character, provided they are in pursuit of important personal projects. Extroverts, who benefit from increased feelings of pain and pleasure ("the buzz"), are also made aware that they have an Achilles' heel: a tendency to speed up, rather than slow down, in the face of adversity. Forced to slow down they are just as capable of positively adapting their behavior (and avoiding over-bidding or financial ruin).
Quiet is an important step forward in reevaluating the values of society and our place within it. In terms of skills, we need to understand the importance of solitary work in creative thought and be wary of the view "none of us is as smart as all of us". In terms of behavior, we need more individuals that will foster development of their institution, rather than their ego. Those that will listen, consider, and adapt, rather than bully their workforce in to passivity. The introspective may well already be aware of this, but self-doubt can debilitate action. The book is for them an affirmation of self-worth. A means of zooming out from a magnified, conflicted/distorted, introspective view, to see they are capable of making a difference.
Quiet is a brave, powerful, important book, with values we should all hold in our collective conscious.
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