Quiet The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking

This is as close to 5 stars I've come in a long while. I started this back in 2013 and decided to pick it up again a few months back; why I ever stopped...is beyond me. This is a very interesting read. Caine carefully navigates her way along the commonly known 'introversion' and 'extroversion' spectrum - exploring all the wonderful and unique variances and intricacies along the way. She provides a rich backing of psychological research and real word examples to help her thesis (the latter bringing a very real and down to earth aesthetic and thus avoiding any shred of pseudo-intellectualism) which I personally loved. I particularly found her research on the personality development of children to teen to be fascinating and illuminating for all sorts of reasons. Beyond this, her small chapter on 'self-monitoring' helped me understand how the quiet can conjure confidence, and how the loud can empathise without becoming a completely different person at heart. There's so much more to say but for now I'll just give you a nudge and recommend you check this book out. For the curious soul, I guarantee you'll find some answers.

The final third of the book is research focused and provides some great insights into personality types and behaviour. The first 2 thirds were more like character studies to prove that quiet people could be successful and that was not my jam.

"Now that you're an adult, you might still feel a pang of guilt when you decline a dinner invitation in favor of a good book. Or maybe you like to eat alone in restaurants and could do without the pitying looks from fellow diners. Or you're told that you're "in your head too much," a phrase that's often deployed against the quiet and cerebral." Quiet is a book that needs to be read by all introverts, to let them know that being an introvert in this world with an extrovert ideal is not a sin. All our lives, we see extroverts as the ideal being. They say we should be sociable, speak out loud, and be full of life. Of course there's nothing wrong with being extroverts; but being an introvert isn't wrong either. This book lets us know the power of introverts - that even introverts themselves might not know. Susan Cain gives us various examples of introverts that changed the world, and all sorts of research done to find out more about introversion and extroversion. To simplify this review, I will explain briefly the chapters in this book :) The book is divided into 4 parts: Part One: The Extrovert Ideal, Part Two: Your Biology, Your Self?, Part Three: Do All Cultures Have An Extrovert Ideal, and Part Four: How to Love, How to Work?. Each part then contains several chapters to explain more about it. The first part explains about The Extrovert Ideal, which explains to us how extroversion started becoming the cultural ideal. Susan Cain brought up the story of Dale Carnegie - who's famous for his public speaking skills (I even wrote a review on his book: How to Develop Self Confidence & Influence People by Public Speaking). His evolution from a farmboy to salesman to public-speaking icon is part of the rise of the Extrovert Ideal. This culture affect jobs - where corporate will always want to employ an extrovert rather than introvert - even Harvard Business School - where all the students behave as an extrovert. And so Susan Cain explained how introverts can actually be better in leadership and many other things compared to extroverts. "The lesson, says Collins, is clear. We don't need giant personalities to transform companies. We need leaders who build not their own egos but the institutions they run."... Read the full review here: http://www.thebookielooker.com/2013/1...