Quiet

Quiet by Susan Cain

This is the first time I've done a review of a non-fiction book. I'll keep the summary short.

Summary (with spoilers):

Cain talks about the "extrovert ideal" in United States culture, which privileges extroverted personalities over introverted personalities. She uses the Harvard Business School as an example of an extreme extrovert culture.

Cain discusses the nature/nurture debate, bringing up physiological elements that influence introversion. She looks at introversion in terms of sensitivity, arguing that people who are more sensitive to outside stimuli are more likely to be introverts. There's an interesting experiment where researchers played recordings of balloons popping, etc. for babies, and were able to predict which would grow up to be introverts based on how the babies reacted. The highly reactive babies were more sensitive, and therefore more likely to exhibit introverted qualities when they got older.

Cain argues that we should pay more attention to the positive qualities of introversion and examines introverted leadership.

My Thoughts:

Although I had high hopes for this book, I wasn't impressed. I could sense the author's bitterness at having to grow up in an extroverted world. Although she repeatedly says that she hopes the book will cause introverts to be at peace with who they are, I don't think she spends enough time on the positive aspects of introversion. In fact, most of the time she's talking about extroverts (the extrovert ideal, comparing introverts to extroverts, etc.) I would have enjoyed the book if it had been more focused on what it means to be an introvert, not about how introverts can survive in an extroverted world. Perhaps the author would have sounded less resentful if she had written the book in a more introvert-focused way.

The most interesting bits of the book talked about the effect of physiology on introversion. Although introversion is influenced by environment, it's also highly hereditary. However, I had some friends note that some of the experiments/findings seemed flawed, like arguing that introverts might be more sensitive to coffee when it's probably a separate gene that influences caffeine sensitivity.

I wouldn't recommend this book. I have so much difficulty finding good non-fiction books. There's always a worry that the book won't be factually accurate (although Quiet contained a substantial amount of footnotes, which is a good sign).