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We're told that to be great is to be bold, to be happy is to be sociable. We see ourselves as a nation of extroverts - which means that we've lost sight of who we really are. Depending on which study you consult, one third to one half of Americans are introverts - in other words, one out of every two or three people you know.

Susan Cain

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Susan Cain
Age: 56
Born: 1968
Born: March 20
Lawyer
Non-Fiction Writer
Writer
Three
Told
Introvert
Two
Study
Depending
Mean
Nations
Bold
Great
Half
Third
Every
Happy
Thirds
Introverts
Really
Words
Sight
Extroverts
People
Means
Americans
Sociable
Lost
Nation
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More quotes by Susan Cain

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Introverts .. may have strong social skills and enjoy parties and business meetings, but after a while wish they were home in their pajamas.
Susan Cain
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Every American was to become a performing self.
Susan Cain
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(Finland is a famously introverted nation. Finnish joke: How can you tell if a Finn likes you? He's staring at your shoes instead of his own.)
Susan Cain
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I'm insatiably curious about human nature. I feel very lucky that as a writer I get to learn so much about it just to do my job right.
Susan Cain
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Solitude is out of fashion. Our companies, our schools and our culture are in thrall to an idea I call the New Groupthink, which holds that creativity and achievement come from an oddly gregarious place.
Susan Cain
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A widely held, but rarely articulated, belief in our society is that the ideal self is bold, alpha, gregarious. Introversion is viewed somewhere between disappointment and pathology.
Susan Cain
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Evangelicalism has taken the Extrovert Ideal to its logical extreme...If you don't love Jesus out loud, then it must not be real love. It's not enough to forge your own spiritual connection to the divine it must be displayed publicly.
Susan Cain
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Introverts are capable of acting like extroverts for the sake of work they consider important, people they love, or anything they value highly.
Susan Cain
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Scores of studies have shown that venting doesn't soothe anger it fuels it.
Susan Cain
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The bias against introversion leads to a colossal waste of talent, energy, and happiness.
Susan Cain
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Solitude matters. And for some people it's the air they breathe.
Susan Cain
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We don't need giant personalities to transform companies. We need leaders who build not their own egos but the institutions they run.
Susan Cain
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Shyness is inherently uncomfortable introversion is not. The traits do overlap, though psychologists debate to what degree.
Susan Cain
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we have two ears and one mouth and we should use them proportionally
Susan Cain
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The purpose of school should be to prepare kids for the rest of their lives, but too often what kids need to be prepared for is surviving the school day itself.
Susan Cain
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There are only a few people out there who can completely overcome their fears, and they all live in Tibet.
Susan Cain
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Studies have shown that performance gets worse as group size increases ... If you have talented and motivated people, they should be encouraged to work alone when creativity or efficiency is the highest priority.
Susan Cain
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...remember the dangers of the New Groupthink. If it's creativity you're after, ask your employees to solve problems alone before sharing their ideas. If you want the wisdom of the crowd, gather it electronically, or in writing, and make sure people can't see each other's ideas until everyone has had a chance to contribute.
Susan Cain
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What if you love knowledge for its own sake, not necessarily as a blueprint to action? What if you wish there were more, not fewer reflective types in the world?
Susan Cain
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Another study, of 38,000 knowledge workers across different sectors, found that the simple act of being interrupted is one of the biggest barriers to productivity. Even multitasking, that prized feat of modern-day office warriors, turns out to be a myth.
Susan Cain