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Susan Cain, author of Quiet, speaks on the power of introverts, who often struggle in the group work environments that have become so popular in schools and open plan workspaces.

“For some, solitude matters. It is the air that they breathe.”

“One third to one half of all people are introverts.”

“We have moved from a culture of character out on the frontier to a culture of personality in urban settings. Magnetism and charisma are now seen as important.”

“Studies show that we rank fast and frequent talkers as more competent, likable and even smarter than slow ones.”

“Stop the madness of constant group work. Just stop it.”

Here is her TED Talk and TED blog summary.

8 responses to “An Introvert’s Bag of Books”

  1. Yes…we are taking over soon…

  2. Great portrait – it is true – the emphasis on extraverts in American culture is unhealthy… got to be more balanced approach.

    Also this weekend something very sad happened: today Russian opposition is "lost" to Putin, but there were no real elections anyway to speak of… Peter Gabriel is joining the voices of Russian opposition: dercircus.livejournal.com/147791.html
    I feel the same. Most people do not understand the significance of this event in the US.

  3. agreed!!
    nothing like a closed door.

  4. some miss all the irony… 😉

  5. I hate to miss anything…do share

  6. This all very sensible… Think of all the great artists, writers and philosophers in history working alone… we have become very, very strange indeed to value endless chat and meaningless interaction over their lonely struggles.

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