Someone wrote a whole treatise on how to be more introverted, but they didn’t publish it anywhere.
You had me in the first half, ngl. Then you revealed the second half and I angry laughed at myself. Good job. 👍
WAIT - Why am I talking?
For the people who can’t shut up during meetings when they don’t have anything useful to add.
I have actually said that exact phrase out loud on occasion. I used to be really quite introvert but then I found my group and I’m pretty extrovert with them! Sometimes so much so that I realise I’ve been ‘holding forth’ and should probably shut up and let everyone else have a go.
I’ve been going to therapy after realizing I’m somewhat autistic and had a revelation that for all the groups I’ve been in where I felt extroverted the other people were also neurodivergent. It feels awesome to find a group that you really jive with!
There is a very good book on exactly this topic. “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking” by Susan Cain
I wish it were mandatory for anyone in a managerial position to read this.
They say, “don’t judge a book by its cover!” yet I’m compelled to tell myself, I’m enthralled over the Title, not the cover.
The introverted extroverted propaganda is a scam, people are complex and aren’t one way all the time.
It’s not about being one way all the time, it’s about how people recharge.
Nobody recharges by being around groups of people all the time though. Everyone needs a break, even from family and close friends.
Anecdotally, I’m “extroverted” but it still takes energy to interact with people.
I originally upvoted dark whatever instead of you. Coming back 2hr later I changed my votes because (metaphorically) as you said, it’s not black or white, it’s shades of gray.
In my youth I often thought of myself as an introvert, because, “I just don’t like people.” As I’ve grown I’ve come to realize that I’m perfectly sociable in the right crowd.
To that end, I’ve come to see myself as an introverted extrovert, it vice versa, because idk proper terms. But I’m much more talkative (for better or worse) around people I identify with, whereas if I were alone around a group of new people, I shut down and retreat to my safe corner.
People are very multifaceted individually and it’s such a strange oxymoron that “there is no true ideal” is an objective fact, no matter how much we wish it to be so.
Unfortunately, until people can (on whole) see both positives and negatives per individual person/situation, and not just the dogma attached to each piece, we may never overcome this roadblock…