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I’ve wanted to read Quiet by Susan Cain ever since I saw her TedTalk and, luckily, I found it on my aunt’s bookshelf a few months ago. Between university readings and seminars, but mostly in big chunks of reading & some afternoons this holiday, I managed to finish it. It’s a very easy read and seems well-researched, combining interesting personal narratives with scientific studies.
The book is divided into four main parts, the first presenting the “extroversion ideal” in our contemporary occidental society, the second showing studies related to biological bases for our temperament, the third dealing with cultural differences just a little bit and the fourth with advices on how to manage living in the “loud” world. Without going into detail, I think it’s easy to see how the West values extroversion, sociability, talking in public, being a good leader, aggressive, popular and loud, assertive and unflinching. This focus however fails to see all the good things about being an introvert (or having one nearby), like Susan Cain shows us: a quiet power, a tenacity to follow your goals, careful thinking and deep introspection. Studies on children and adults seem to show that introversion/extraversion is innate: introverts are physically more sensitive to the environment, the react more strongly and feel more, generally. Extroverts seem to be more sensitive to gratification, making them more likely to act head on, without thinking; they seem to be more “cool” in all senses, both detached and likely to make a good impression. Apparently the two “kinds” process dopamine differently, introverts being more oriented towards avoiding threat. How do they end up doing amazing things nonetheless? Cain mentiones Mihaly Csikszentmihaly’s theory on flux, a state in which you pursue your passion for its own reason, blissfully. In the fourth part the author shows how Asian Americans handle the extroversion ideal of outside society, while being encouraged inside their own family to be polite rather than assertive, to stay at home and study rather than socialize. Its main argument is, I think, to show how relative the ideal is: if you swap kids, what is normal in one family/culture is abnormal in another.
Susan Cain does a beautiful work of revealing the power of introversion into a fast-pace & loud world, the great work introverts have done over the centuries, as well as the great contribution they can still bring, if only one makes the effort to listen. I liked the book and it made me feel more at ease with identifying as an introvert, although of course it’s more of a continuum than a fixed state. I would have liked more information on the cultural and individual psychological aspects, rather than the fixed, general biological traits, but maybe that could be the subject of another book. All in all, a good read.
The book is divided into four main parts, the first presenting the “extroversion ideal” in our contemporary occidental society, the second showing studies related to biological bases for our temperament, the third dealing with cultural differences just a little bit and the fourth with advices on how to manage living in the “loud” world. Without going into detail, I think it’s easy to see how the West values extroversion, sociability, talking in public, being a good leader, aggressive, popular and loud, assertive and unflinching. This focus however fails to see all the good things about being an introvert (or having one nearby), like Susan Cain shows us: a quiet power, a tenacity to follow your goals, careful thinking and deep introspection. Studies on children and adults seem to show that introversion/extraversion is innate: introverts are physically more sensitive to the environment, the react more strongly and feel more, generally. Extroverts seem to be more sensitive to gratification, making them more likely to act head on, without thinking; they seem to be more “cool” in all senses, both detached and likely to make a good impression. Apparently the two “kinds” process dopamine differently, introverts being more oriented towards avoiding threat. How do they end up doing amazing things nonetheless? Cain mentiones Mihaly Csikszentmihaly’s theory on flux, a state in which you pursue your passion for its own reason, blissfully. In the fourth part the author shows how Asian Americans handle the extroversion ideal of outside society, while being encouraged inside their own family to be polite rather than assertive, to stay at home and study rather than socialize. Its main argument is, I think, to show how relative the ideal is: if you swap kids, what is normal in one family/culture is abnormal in another.
Susan Cain does a beautiful work of revealing the power of introversion into a fast-pace & loud world, the great work introverts have done over the centuries, as well as the great contribution they can still bring, if only one makes the effort to listen. I liked the book and it made me feel more at ease with identifying as an introvert, although of course it’s more of a continuum than a fixed state. I would have liked more information on the cultural and individual psychological aspects, rather than the fixed, general biological traits, but maybe that could be the subject of another book. All in all, a good read.