Oh, dear gods. That's just mean. Then I'd have to come up with some stupid, socially acceptable excuse to leave as quickly as possible. Of course some days, I just don't give a whip about socially acceptable and will just do things.
My sense of humour has been known to be a little on the mean side on occasion, but only with people I know well. Well, mostly with people I know well.
Introversion doesn't really mean shy and socially awkward, though. It's more an aspect of how much you pay attention to your environment - and thus how much your environment stimulates you or how quickly it overloads you. Paying more attention than other people also means you tend to have an eye for detail, are more contemplative and reflective, and don't take unnecessary risks.
Yeah, I explained badly. What I meant was that I suspect when I was introverted (based on testing, etc) I probably wasn't as introverted as people might have thought, since I was more just shy and socially awkward. Equally, I suspect I'm not as extroverted as some might think me now, since they are basing that around me being comfortable in front of an audience, and talkative, etc. My natural state is still pretty contemplative when given opportunity, and my wife constantly complains about how I think things though to within an inch of their life. But I've definitely shifted more towards extroversion, for various reasons.
As for your question, I am absolutely not one of those introverts who has been shamed by our culture if extroversion into wanting to be an extrovert. I'm quite happy with who I am. And so too should the rest of us be.
That's part of my question, yes.
My industry is a weird one. Business systems. You have programmers who basically want to only talk to each other, and only about tech topics, and sales guys who will talk the leg off an armchair at a moments notice, regardless of whether they have something to say. I commonly (as in daily) work with Sri Lankans and Swedes (not locals, but people who have recently arrived) and see the different cultural expressions of introversion and extroversion, and what different people value.
And I've kinda aimed myself to move from (maybe) a 4 to about a 6 on my little scale. From a professional point of view this has helped a lot (I run my own business now, so have to get out of my comfort zone a lot) but it's obviously a LONG term process, and part of it involves faking it for long enough that it begins being reality.
Personally, I would in no way see a 6 as better than a 4. Just slightly different. But equally, I wouldn't see a 4 as better than a 6. I do, however, think it's a little easier to travel through life as a 6.
(Ugh...that's a lot of numbers in one paragraph given that those numbers have no real meaning, but I'm hoping that makes some sense)
A book recommendation for everybody: go read
Susan Cain's "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that can't Stop Talking." (amazon.com link) This book explained so much of my life it wasn't even funny. And it also made me kind of angry that my culture puts extroversion on a pedestal. I'm done capitulating to that (not that I ever did much to begin with).
I suspect it comes down to being true to yourself, for the most part. If your introversion is a product of social awkwardness and being unable to force yourself to do something that you want to, then it's a problem. If you have a quiet, reflective nature, and the world is something you look to understand and think about as you travel through life, then more power to you.
(By you, I mean 'whomever', not you specifically, Quint...)
