Thursday, March 27, 2025
Finished reading: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain đđ
Fascinating deep dive into the world of introversion and extroversion. Some meaningful parts of our temperament are genetic and passed down from our parents. If youâre a fussy, highly sensitive baby at four months, thereâs a good chance youâll grow up to be introverted. There seems to be a biological connection between high physical sensitivity and introversion.
Highly sensitive people also process information about their environmentsâboth physical and emotionalâunusually deeply. They tend to notice subtleties that others missâanother personâs shift in mood, say, or a lightbulb burning a touch too brightly.
According to Cain, bloggers are almost always introverts. Weâll share personal details with an online multitude they would never disclose at a cocktail party. This is me.
The U.S. is one of the most extroverted countries in the world, while countries in Asia rank among the most introverted. The difference relates in part to genetics but mostly to cultural norms.
Social anxiety disorder in Japan, known as taijin kyofusho, takes the form not of excessive worry about embarrassing oneself, as it does in the United States, but of embarrassing others.
Best takeaway: An introverted/extroverted couple likely has a conflict in their degree of shared sociability. Cain recommends a âFree Trait Agreementâ where each partner agrees to a balance of activities in their free time, i.e., a wife who wants to go out every Saturday night and a husband who wants to relax by the firework out a schedule: half the time theyâll go out, and half the time theyâll stay home. Helpful for this INTJ.