jtotheizzoe:

Susan Cain talks to Scientific American about her book Quiet : The Power of Introverts. There is great value in those who prefer introversion, and it is quite different from shyness. Yet our society does not reward this work ethic and social style, even though as many as two-thirds of people are introverts. A wonderful interview.

Many introverts feel there’s something wrong with them, and try to pass as extroverts. But whenever you try to pass as something you’re not, you lose a part of yourself along the way. You especially lose a sense of how to spend your time. Introverts are constantly going to parties and such when they’d really prefer to be home reading, studying, inventing, meditating, designing, thinking, cooking…or any number of other quiet and worthwhile activities.

According to the latest research, one third to one half of us are introverts – that’s one out of every two or three people you know. But you’d never guess that, right? That’s because introverts learn from an early age to act like pretend-extroverts.