Are you an introvert and looking for a book written specifically for you to help you harness your inner power? Then this book is for YOU! Here is my book review Susan Cain’s book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking.. This book has helped me better understand the positive things of being an introvert and that it’s ok to have this personality type!
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The Power of Introverts
It’s hard to be an introvert in a world of the extrovert ideal. Social interaction is draining for introverts whereas it’s recharging for extroverts. This is something that I’ve struggled with my whole life from being an introverted child to an introverted adult but have finally come to understand the need for quiet time and time to recharge.
My husband and children have come to understand it as well as I tell them that I need my introvert time in order to recharge after a social event, social situations, or even just everyday life. They know that if I don’t have alone time, I get grumpy.
Contents of Quiet
There are 4 parts to the book with chapters in each part.
Part 1: The Extrovert Ideal
1. The Rise of the “Mighty Likeable Fellow”: How Extroversion Became the Cultural Ideal
2. The Myth of Charismatic Leadership: The Culture of Personality, a Hundred Years Later
3. When Collaboration Kills Creativity: The Rise of the New Groupthink and the Power of Working Alone
Part 2: Your Biology, Your Self?
4. Is Temperament Destany?: Nature, Nurture, and the Orchid Hypothesis
5. Beyond Temperament: The Role of Free Will (And the Secret of Public Speaking for Interverts)
6. “Franklin was a Politician but Eleanor Spoke Out of Conscience”: Why Cool is Overrated
7. Why Did Wall Street Crash and Warren Buffett Prosper?: How Introverts and Extroverts Think (and Process Dopamine) Differently
Part 3: Do All Cultures Have An Extrovert Ideal?
8. Soft Power: Asian Americans and the Extrovert Ideal
Part 4: How to Love, How to Work
9. When Should You Act More Extroverted than you Really Are?
10. The Communication Gap: How to Talk to Members of the Opposite Type
11. On Cobblers and Generals: How to Cultivate Quiet Kids in a World that can’t Hear Them
Quiet Book Review: Part 1
Part One: The Extrovert Ideal
The first chapter goes into how extroversion became the cultural ideal which is so interesting to read that extroversion wasn’t always the ideal or majority. The shift from the Culture of Character to the Culture of Personality is discussed and how it wasn’t until then that people started to focus on how others perceived them that extroverted behaviors became the ideal.. This is also when self-help books came into being and became popular to help people improve their personality, in a sense, to better appeal to others.
It’s really interesting as an introvert to read how being an extrovert became ideal in large part due to the business world evolving and the advertising industry encouraging it by advertising products that would make one more extroverted and in turn likable by others.
This also helps me realize that since extroverted behaviors weren’t always the norm or preferred, it seems as though at some point everyone had to either adapt to the new extrovert ideal or stay introverted and in a sense, suffer the consequences.
The second chapter starts with a review of being at a Tony Robbins Seminar and how he gets people in the crowd fired up and involved. According to Cain, developing an extroverted personality was a way of standing out in a crowd which can make us more successful, and some thing, better people. She goes on to explore Harvard Business School where there isn’t only the extrovert ideal but it’s darn near required! However, not all successful business owners are extroverts, there are some who are introverts as well and are able to harness the power of introverts. Cain goes on to discuss Rosa Parks using passive resistance instead of
The final chapter within the first part is all about collaboration killing creativity and whether things such as brainstorming are actually helpful or not. The difference between working on one’s own, in small groups, or in large groups of different people are discussed.
I’m not going to delve into the rest of the book as I don’t want to give too much away. It’s all really interesting and helpful though to learn more about personality traits such as these to help understand yourself and others.
How ‘Quiet’ Speaks to Me
Recently someone suggested I read the book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking. I decided to listen to it via audiobook and found it to be so empowering for an introvert like me!
I’m an extreme introvert, through and through. Even at the age of 38, I still struggle with feeling “less than” due to being such an introvert. I have actually thrived over the past years starting in quarantine during the COVID pandemic, as I’m fine just being with my husband three little children. It’s given me time to find new introverted hobbies and expand on the hobbies I knew I already enjoyed but generally didn’t have any time for.
This book helped me realize that there isn’t something “wrong” with me, but rather, that I just need to figure out how to carve time out to be alone and recharge. This is hard to do as a stay-at-home mom of 3-year-old twins and a 5-year-old who is about to start online Kindergarten, but something I need to make sure I do at least once during the day with them.
Before being a stay-at-home mom I was a school psychologist and I was lucky enough to have my own office. I loved being able to work in my office, alone, on paperwork, working with a student 1:1, or with a small group of staff. I dreaded meetings with parents at the end of an evaluation, partially because they drained me. I never realized how necessary that closed-door office was for me until I became a stay-at-home mom and no longer had the luxury.
I love how Susan Cain mentioned that those who are introverts tend to start blogs because obviously, I have blogs as an introverted person. As an only child and an introvert, I’ve always loved writing. As a teen, I wrote a book and separately, over 1,000 poems. It’s great to continue writing, something I really enjoy.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who is an introvert, who wants a better understanding of introverts and the power they hold, teachers, parents, etc. Really it’d be good for anyone to read or listen to.
The world really was created for extroverts and it’s something that introverts struggle with daily, whether they consciously know it or not.
As a mom of identical twins and a son two years older, I have gained invaluable experience in the realm, and chaos, of parenting. With a Master's Degree and Education Specialist Degree in School Psychology, I spent years as a school psychologist, helping children navigate through their educational and emotional challenges. Now as a stay at home mom and professional blogger, I combine my areas of expertise to help you in your parenting journey.