368 pages
English language
Published Jan. 29, 2013 by Crown.
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking is a 2012 non-fiction book written by Susan Cain. Cain argues that modern Western culture misunderstands and undervalues the traits and capabilities of introverted people, leading to "a colossal waste of talent, energy, and happiness".The book presents a history of how Western culture transformed from a culture of character to a culture of personality in which an "extrovert ideal" dominates and introversion is viewed as inferior or even pathological. Adopting scientific definitions of introversion and extroversion as preferences for different levels of stimulation, Quiet outlines the advantages and disadvantages of each temperament, emphasizing the myth of the extrovert ideal that has dominated in the West since the early twentieth century. Asserting that temperament is a core element of human identity, Cain cites research in biology, psychology, neuroscience and evolution to demonstrate that introversion is both common and normal, …
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking is a 2012 non-fiction book written by Susan Cain. Cain argues that modern Western culture misunderstands and undervalues the traits and capabilities of introverted people, leading to "a colossal waste of talent, energy, and happiness".The book presents a history of how Western culture transformed from a culture of character to a culture of personality in which an "extrovert ideal" dominates and introversion is viewed as inferior or even pathological. Adopting scientific definitions of introversion and extroversion as preferences for different levels of stimulation, Quiet outlines the advantages and disadvantages of each temperament, emphasizing the myth of the extrovert ideal that has dominated in the West since the early twentieth century. Asserting that temperament is a core element of human identity, Cain cites research in biology, psychology, neuroscience and evolution to demonstrate that introversion is both common and normal, noting that many of humankind's most creative individuals and distinguished leaders were introverts. Cain urges changes at the workplace, in schools, and in parenting; offers advice to introverts for functioning in an extrovert-dominated culture; and offers advice in communication, work, and relationships between people of differing temperament.
I can imagine this book is more entertaining as an audio book or documentary. Though as a text book I struggled to motivate myself to read a five page anecdote to learn about a single point regarding extroverts or introverts. Anecdotes were more structured around stories than topics, which later on result in some repetition. Nevertheless it provides the reader with valid points to think about.
I wish I had this book 20 years ago. Susan paints a clear picture of the American Ideal and how it's pushed as the only path to success ignoring a large portion of the population that doesn't present as the gregarious social butterfly while highlighting the strengths of the introvert. Highly recommend this book for all personality types!
Un excellent livre, très bien sourcé et documenté, sur l’introversion.
Susan Cain y explique comment l’idéal extraverti a été mis en valeur depuis le début du XXe siècle, au moins dans le monde occidental, et comment cette valorisation d’un idéal qui ne leur ressemble pas impacte la vie et la santé mentale des introvertis.
L’autrice mêle habilement des éléments tirés de recherches plus ou moins récentes en psychologie et des histoires de vie d’introverties qu’elle a rencontrés dans le cadre de ses recherches sur le sujet.
Susan Cain ne se contente pas de dresser un constat et de décrire les traits de personnalité et le fonctionnement des introvertis, elle propose également des clefs pour mieux vivre son introversion. Elle le fait avec des exemples concrets, ce qui est appréciable.
J’ai beaucoup aimé ce livre, parce que je me suis évidemment reconnu dans ce portrait de l’introverti minoritaire dans une société …
Un excellent livre, très bien sourcé et documenté, sur l’introversion.
Susan Cain y explique comment l’idéal extraverti a été mis en valeur depuis le début du XXe siècle, au moins dans le monde occidental, et comment cette valorisation d’un idéal qui ne leur ressemble pas impacte la vie et la santé mentale des introvertis.
L’autrice mêle habilement des éléments tirés de recherches plus ou moins récentes en psychologie et des histoires de vie d’introverties qu’elle a rencontrés dans le cadre de ses recherches sur le sujet.
Susan Cain ne se contente pas de dresser un constat et de décrire les traits de personnalité et le fonctionnement des introvertis, elle propose également des clefs pour mieux vivre son introversion. Elle le fait avec des exemples concrets, ce qui est appréciable.
J’ai beaucoup aimé ce livre, parce que je me suis évidemment reconnu dans ce portrait de l’introverti minoritaire dans une société qui valorise l’idéal extraverti. J’aurais sans doute aimé le lire il y a bien longtemps, pour m’aider à accepter ce trait de caractère et mieux vivre avec. Ce livre me semble en tout cas un bon moyen de déculpabiliser celles et ceux qui ne se reconnaissent pas dans l’idéal extraverti mis en avant dans notre société occidentale.
This is an excellent book for understanding introverts, whether you know or are one. It's full of studies, stories, examples, and suggestions. Definitely on my must read list.
https://medium.com/@sthashraddha/book-review-quiet-the-power-of-introverts-in-a-world-that-cant-stop-talking-381629552f6
There are a lot of chapters to skip in this book, because they deal mainly with (1) raising introverted children or (2) how society celebrates extroverts, but the chapters on the differences between introverts and extroverts, and adaptive strategies, were very helpful in understanding some of my tendencies as a “social introvert” — I highly value spending time with friends and have a lot of them, but I prefer one-on-one or small group interactions, and need to recharge with “alone time” afterward. I think the book is worth reading for these portions alone.
It's as is extroverts are seeing "what is" while their introverted peers are asking "what if".
I know I'm an introvert. I understand how I handle situations and how I prefer to spend my free time. Still, Quiet proved incredibly insightful and allowed me to appreciate the nuances that come with introversion.
Must we learn to stage-manage our voices, gestures, and body language until we can tell - sell - any story we want?
The book is not a self help but more of a self reflection. There were techniques or theories mentioned in the book that I practiced only through trial and error. If I had this powerful insight to how I operated in my 20's I would have been better for it. Awkward encounters or stressful situations could have been mitigated once I knew why I felt that way.
I had similar experiences that Susan Cain described for …
It's as is extroverts are seeing "what is" while their introverted peers are asking "what if".
I know I'm an introvert. I understand how I handle situations and how I prefer to spend my free time. Still, Quiet proved incredibly insightful and allowed me to appreciate the nuances that come with introversion.
Must we learn to stage-manage our voices, gestures, and body language until we can tell - sell - any story we want?
The book is not a self help but more of a self reflection. There were techniques or theories mentioned in the book that I practiced only through trial and error. If I had this powerful insight to how I operated in my 20's I would have been better for it. Awkward encounters or stressful situations could have been mitigated once I knew why I felt that way.
I had similar experiences that Susan Cain described for those shy and quiet kids. Having my personality, behavior and motivations explained so thoroughly felt a little like a personal attack. "How dare you Susan? You don't know me!" but she does and you could say she knows me better than I do.
He prefers to contribute only when he believes he has something insightful to add, or honest-to-God disagrees with someone.
There it is. This one sentence defines who I am. I have spent the majority of my life reconciling why I prefer to be quiet and pick opportunities to speak but Susan Cain cut straight to my core and has laid my soul to bare. While the book operated as a checklist for who I am it would be balanced with ways of managing those traits in a professional or personal situation.
How did we go from Character to Personality without realizing that we had sacrifices something meaningful along the way?
Even though I was enjoying the book I considered abandoning it multiple times. The material was, at times, borderline dry but also fascinating. The amount of effort Susan Cain put in to research was impressive.
The theme of each chapter was precise, the case studies, history and interviewees helped provide immense support. With each chapter offering a deep dive on a particular figure, event or significant movement and explores how introverts triggered that action, reacted to it or were influenced by it. This did lead to some topics being more engaging than others, but they all helped drive Cain's point about the power of introverts.
Fuck them extroverts woooooooo
For a book about the virtues of those who don't feel the need to fill a quiet room with small talk, this book felt overly long and drawn out. With no shortage of anecdotes about how great introverts are, the thesis was quickly beat to death. Maybe this book is for extroverted people and the repetition is for their benefit, but found it a slog.
A relatable guide on the different strengths of introverts and extroverts. This is a comforting read and helps destigmatize and utilize introverts to their full potential.
While the focus is more on the quiet side, introverts and extroverts are both celebrated throughout. So many different personalities and characteristics are covered, so that you can learn to be more effective with whatever type of person you are. The book is full of relatable moments that will explain a lot about you, your personal preferences, and of those close to you.
I didn’t expect the chapters on raising introverted children or the differences between Eastern and Western culture, but they were great. I was also surprised at how many different events the author went to in order to see introverts and extroverts in their ideal environments. Negotiating, stimulation, study, group work, and small talk were some other good topics covered.
A very subtly nuanced exposition, very interesting and self revelatory.
There's a lot of good stuff in this book, but I felt there was also a ton of unnecessary repetition and summarizing. The book could have been more impactful having been condensed in my opinion.
Overall, this was very validating and interesting and gave me a little more confidence in who I am.
I'm guessing that avid readers tend even more toward introversion than other groups, yet I noticed that even my reading choices are influenced by our cultural bias toward extroversion. Susan Cain lifts the curtain and exposes this bias, and explores the alternatives. Some science is referenced, but I think Cain is wise to avoid being mired in psychological debates and keep a pragmatic focus. The real revelation has more to do with how I can behave naturally and still navigate my cultural environment, a valuable perspective.
I tend to think there are many misconceptions around introverts; we live in a world that seems to praise extroverts. Susan Cain tries to help people understand the importance of introverts and why we need a balance between the two personality traits. Susan is an introvert herself and found her job as a lawyer expected an extroverted personality. However embracing her introversion, she was able to prove herself a valuable employer and lawyer; so much so that she went on to become a negotiations consultant.
Quiet is a book that seeks out to explain the need for introverts, while also looking at the history between these two personality types. I myself am extremely introverted and my Myers–Briggs Type Indicator is INTJ (this can change over time but I will not go into that at the moment). I found it useful to understand the history in how society deals with introverts; …
I tend to think there are many misconceptions around introverts; we live in a world that seems to praise extroverts. Susan Cain tries to help people understand the importance of introverts and why we need a balance between the two personality traits. Susan is an introvert herself and found her job as a lawyer expected an extroverted personality. However embracing her introversion, she was able to prove herself a valuable employer and lawyer; so much so that she went on to become a negotiations consultant.
Quiet is a book that seeks out to explain the need for introverts, while also looking at the history between these two personality types. I myself am extremely introverted and my Myers–Briggs Type Indicator is INTJ (this can change over time but I will not go into that at the moment). I found it useful to understand the history in how society deals with introverts; some of which still feels very relevant today. I remember reading sections focusing on the 1950s and 60s, thinking this happened to me and is still happening in today’s society. This leaves me to think that people do not have an understanding on the personalities and how to manage introverts.
Susan Cain goes into a lot of detail with suggestions on how to fit into such an extroverted world, from developing a pseudo-extroverted personality to finding a quiet place to work. Obviously it does depend on your different situations but I think there were some interesting ideas to implement. She also goes into the problems with open offices and productivity levels as well as the extroverted nature of church. I was surprised by just how much this book covered.
I really enjoyed Quiet and feel like I learnt a lot, however it just makes me want to learn more, especially about the history (it is a vicious cycle). I want to give this book to my parents because I think they might actually benefit in learning about the topic. In fact I want to give this book to everyone, I feel like it is an important topic and we need to know that people are different and need to be treated differently. This is another book to fulfil my passion for learning about psychology and I would happily take some recommendations based on this book.
This book originally appeared on my blog; www.knowledgelost.org/book-reviews/genre/non-fiction/quiet-by-susan-cain/
Synthesizes several different approaches to personality theory without getting overly deep into the psychology. Generally a good, critical look at how American culture emphasizes extroverted traits. I would recommend this book to anyone: to extroverts, so they can have better personal and professional relationships with introverts; and to introverts, to better understand their own strengths and weaknesses. This book doesn't quite cross the line into truly amazing territory, but it is the best pop-psych book on the subject at the moment. Many more will surely follow.
I've seen this book a lot in bookstores last time I went to the US. This is a book that tries to convince you that "in an extrovert world, introverts also have their place and here's why/how". In practice, a lot of stroking the right way of the probable audience fo this book, not that much science, a lot of shortcuts (usually associated to "yeah of course it's a bit complicated than that, but still"). Dispensable.
