Susan Cain has written an insightful and practical book highlighting the power of introverts in Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking.  This is an excellent resource for both introverts and extroverts.  If you are an introvert this book will provide insight and realization of your strengths and if you are an extrovert it will help you to understand and appreciate the strengths of introverts.

All of us have aspects of both introversion and extroversion in our personality but most people have a preference.  Introverts are drawn to their inner world of thought and feeling whereas extroverts prefer the external world of people and activities.  Susan Cain chronicles that we have departed from a “Culture of Character” to a “Culture of Personality” celebrating the personality type of the extrovert at the expense of the introvert.  Her TED talk, The Power of Introverts, provides a good overview of the content of the book.  A Reading Group Guide has been prepared to process the information from Quiet.

The book contains helpful “A Manifesto for Introverts”:

1. There’s a word for “people who are in their heads too much”:  thinkers.

2. Our culture rightly admires risk-takers, but we need our “heed-takers” more than ever.

3. Solitude is a catalyst for innovation.

4. Texting is popular because in an overly extroverted society, everyone craves asynchronyous, non-F2F communication.

5. We teach kids in group classrooms not because this is the best way to learn but because it’s cost-efficient, and what else would we do with the children while all the grown-ups are at work? If your child prefers to work autonomously and socialize one-on-one, there’s nothing wrong with her; she just happens not to fit the model.

6. The next generation of quiet kids can and should be raised to know their own strength.

7. Sometimes it helps to be a pretend-extrovert. There’s always time to be quiet later.

8. But in the long run, staying true to your temperament is the key to finding work you love and work that matters.

9. Everyone shines, given the right lighting. For some, it’s a Broadway spotlight, for others, a lamp lit desk.

10. Rule of thumb for networking events: one genuine new relationship is worth a fistful of business cards.

11. It’s OK to cross the street to avoid making small talk.

12. “Quiet leadership” is not an oxymoron.

13. The universal longing for heaven is not about immortality so much as the wish for a world in which everyone is always kind.

14. If the task of the first half of life is to put yourself out there, the task of the second half is to make sense of where you’ve been.

15. Love is essential, gregariousness is optional.

16. “In a gentle way, you can shake the world.” – Gandhi

Anaïs Nin wisely observes,

“Our culture made a virtue of living only as extroverts. We discouraged the inner journey, the quest for a center. So we lost our center and have to find it again.”

As an extrovert I have found this book helpful for enabling me to be sensitive to the introverts in my life.  Jesus modeled the strengths of introverts as we see His desire for solitude and prayer,

In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there.  (Mark 1:35)

This book is helpful for enabling you to celebrate your strengths and recognize your corresponding weaknesses.  (I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review).

Associate Pastor – Discipleship.  The Chu,rch at LifePark

Professor of Discipleship, Columbia International University

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