"Quiet" is a book by Susan Cain whose full title tells the story:
"Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking." It
is an interestingly structured book--one can almost see the note cards
piling up and being ordered as the research proceeded--that traces the
history of scientific thought about our introverted and extroverted
personae, applies some of these observations to modern life and then
theorizes about the future, hinting at value judgments.
She starts with Jung's binary--inner thoughts and feelings vs. people and activity-- then progresses to high reactive personality and low reactive personalities (where the inner, thoughtful individual is highly reactive, the low reactive extroverted) to sensitive vs. insensitive and ends with postmodern man where social life is a performance with masks. In all of these stations she tries to explain the concepts that distinguish the introvert and extrovert at the time.
She spends some time on three good modern examples of extroverts in business, religion and education. The business model is the Tony Robbins sales program which tries to teach confidence and interaction. The Saddleback Church emphasizes the active, non-contemplative life. In the final educational example, Harvard Business School gives her a chance to mix education with business. Here she spends some time with the program's approach that is guided by the current understanding of the predictors of success: Sociability and verbal fluency.
In the final section she comes to some soft conclusions about business, government and education. She claims extroverts helped bring us the bank meltdown of 2008 as well as disasters like Enron. Cain writes we must create “a greater balance of power” between those who rush to speak and do and those who sit back and think. Introverts she says reassuringly are “relatively immune to the lures of wealth and fame” — and all of us must learn to “embrace the power of quiet.” Education too.
Generally I avoid books that give me tests, sound like a Janice Ian song or verge into self-help. This book started comparing the last centuries as the Age of Character and the modern age as the Age of Personality. This I thought might be interesting. Our emphasis on personal reward, immediate gratification, our apparent superficial thinking and especially our seeing reward in celebrity could serve as an interesting counterpoint to the Age of Character. Unfortunately it was not to be. The tiny stream of introvert gradually took on more and more characteristics until it became a river of broad qualities, spilling into generalities and flooding everywhere like an astrology chart. It became a compilation of things everyone will recognize but really doesn't mean much.
She starts with Jung's binary--inner thoughts and feelings vs. people and activity-- then progresses to high reactive personality and low reactive personalities (where the inner, thoughtful individual is highly reactive, the low reactive extroverted) to sensitive vs. insensitive and ends with postmodern man where social life is a performance with masks. In all of these stations she tries to explain the concepts that distinguish the introvert and extrovert at the time.
She spends some time on three good modern examples of extroverts in business, religion and education. The business model is the Tony Robbins sales program which tries to teach confidence and interaction. The Saddleback Church emphasizes the active, non-contemplative life. In the final educational example, Harvard Business School gives her a chance to mix education with business. Here she spends some time with the program's approach that is guided by the current understanding of the predictors of success: Sociability and verbal fluency.
In the final section she comes to some soft conclusions about business, government and education. She claims extroverts helped bring us the bank meltdown of 2008 as well as disasters like Enron. Cain writes we must create “a greater balance of power” between those who rush to speak and do and those who sit back and think. Introverts she says reassuringly are “relatively immune to the lures of wealth and fame” — and all of us must learn to “embrace the power of quiet.” Education too.
Generally I avoid books that give me tests, sound like a Janice Ian song or verge into self-help. This book started comparing the last centuries as the Age of Character and the modern age as the Age of Personality. This I thought might be interesting. Our emphasis on personal reward, immediate gratification, our apparent superficial thinking and especially our seeing reward in celebrity could serve as an interesting counterpoint to the Age of Character. Unfortunately it was not to be. The tiny stream of introvert gradually took on more and more characteristics until it became a river of broad qualities, spilling into generalities and flooding everywhere like an astrology chart. It became a compilation of things everyone will recognize but really doesn't mean much.
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