Highlights from “Quiet”

Here are few highlights and quotes from this book about introversion. These are not only about in/extroversion.

1. Indeed the presence of outstanding strengths presupposes that energy needed in other areas has been channeled away from them. — Allen Shawn
2. I am a horse for a single harness, not cut out for tandem or teamwork … for well I know that in order to attain any definite goal, it is imperative that one person do the thinking and the commanding. — Albert Einstein
3. Most inventors and engineers I’ve met are like me — they’re shy and they live in their heads. They’re almost like artists. In fact, the very best of them are artists. And artists work best alone where they can control an invention’s design without a lot of other people designing it for marketing or some other committee. I don’t believe anything really revolutionary has been invented by committee. If you’re that rare engineer who’s an inventor and also an artist, I’m going to give you some advice that might be hard to take. That advice is: Work alone. You’re going to be best able to design revolutionary products and features if you’re working on your own. Not on a committee. Not on a team. — Steve Wozniak
4. While extroverts tend to attain leadership in public domains, introverts tend to attain leadership in theoretical and aesthetic fields. Outstanding introverted leaders, such as Charles Darwin, Marie Curie, Patrick White and Arthur Boyd, who have created either new fields of thought or rearranged existing knowledge, have spent long periods of their lives in solitude. Hence leadership does not only apply in social situations, but also occurs in more solitary situations such as developing new techniques in the arts, creating new philosophies, writing profound books and making scientific breakthroughs. — Janet Farrall and Leonie Kronborg in Leadership Development for the Gifted and Talented
5. I acquired a central ability that was to help me through my entire career: patience. I’m serious. Patience is usually so underrated. I mean, for all those projects, from third grade all the way to eights grade, I just learned things gradually, figuring out how to put electronic devices together without so much as cracking a book…. I learned to not worry so much about the outcome, but to concentrate on the step I was on and to try to do it as perfectly as I could when I was doing it. — Steve Wozniak
6. Psychologists usually offer three explanations for the failure of group brainstorming. The first is social loafing: in a group, some individuals tend to sit back and let others do the work. The second is production blocking: only one personal can talk or produce an idea as once, when the other group members are forced to sit passively. And the third is evaluation apprehension, meaning the fear of looking stupid in front of one’s peers.
7. That was what collaboration meant for Woz: the ability to share a donut and a brainwave with his laid-back, non-judgemental, poorly dressed colleagues — who minded not a whit when he disappeared into his cubicle to get the real work done.
8. Temperament refers to inborn, biologically based behavioral and emotional patterns that are observable in infancy and early childhood; personality is the complex brew that emerges after cultural influence and personal experience are thrown into the mix.
9. There is no one more courageous that the person who speaks with the courage of his convictions.
10. Introverts are “geared to inspect” and extroverts are “geared to respond.”
11. Extroverts are more likely to take a quick-and-dirty approach to problem-solving, trading accuracy for speed, making increasing numbers of mistakes as they go, and abandoning ship altogether when the problem seems too difficult or frustrating. Introverts think before they act, digest information thoroughly, stay on task longer, give up less easily, and work more accurately. Introverts and extroverts also direct their attention differently: if you leave them to their own devices, the introverts tend to sit around wondering about things, imagining things, recalling events from their past, and making plans for the future. The extroverts are more likely to focus on what’s happening around them. It’s as if extroverts are seeing “what is” while their introverted peers are asking “what if”.
12. If you’re a buzz-prone extrovert, then you’re lucky to enjoy lots of invigorating emotions. Make the most of them: build things, inspire others, think big. Start a company, launch a website, build an elaborate three house for your kids. But also know that you’re operating with an Achilles’ heel that you must learn to protect. Train yourself to spend energy on what’s truly meaningful to you instead of on activities that look like they’ll deliver a quick buzz of money or status or excitement. Teach yourself to pause and reflect when warning signs appear that things aren’t working out as you’d hoped. Learn from your mistakes. Seek out counterparts (from spouses to friends to business partners) who can helps rein you in and compensate for your blind spots.
13. If you’re an introvert, find your flow by using your gifts. You have the power of persistence, the tenacity to solve complex problems, and the clear-sightedness to avoid pitfalls that trip others up. You enjoy relative freedom from the temptations of superficial prizes like money and status. Indeed, your biggest challenge may be to fully harness your strengths. You may be so busy trying to appear like a zestful, reward-sensitive extrovert that you undervalue your own talents, or feel underestimated by those around you. But when you’re focused on a project that you care about, you probably find that your energy is boundless.
    So, stay true to your own nature. If you like to do things in a slow and steady way, don’t let others make you feel as if you have a race. If you enjoy depth, don’t force yourself to seek breadth. If you prefer single-tasking to multi-tasking, stick to your guns. Being relatively unmoved by rewards gives you the incalculable power to go your own way. It’s up to you to use that independence to good effect.
14. Introvert needs to trust their gut and share their ideas as powerfully as they can.
15. Words are potentially dangerous weapons that reveal things better left unsaid.
16. I have naturally formed that habit of restraining my thoughts. A thoughtless word hardly ever escaped my tongue or pen. Experience has taught me that silence is part of the spiritual discipline of a votary of truth. We find so many people impatient to talk. All this talking can hardly be said to be of any benefit to the world. It is so much waste of time. My shyness has been in reality my shield and buckler. IT has allowed me to grow it has helped me in my discernment of truth. — Mahatma Gandhi
17. Three key steps in identifying your own core personal projects. First, think back to what you loved to do when you were a child. How did you answer that questions of what you wanted to be when you grew up? The specific answer you gave may have been off the mark, but the underlying impulse was not. Second, pay attention to the work you gravitate to. Finally, pay attention to what you envy. Jealousy is an ugly emotion, but it tells the truth. You mostly envy those who have what you desire.
18. The meeting of two personalities is like that contact of two chemical substances; if there is any reaction, both are transformed. — Carl Jung
19. Introverts like people they meet in friendly contexts; extroverts prefer those they compete with.
20. With anything young and tender that most important part of the task is the beginning of it; for that is the time at which the character is being formed and the desired impression more readily taken. — Plato in The Republic
21. The secret to life is to put your self in the right lighting.
22. Spend your free time the way you like, not the way you think you’re supposed to.
23. If it’s creativity you’re after, ask your employees to solve problems along before sharing their ideas.