The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking is about people who are quiet, their qualities, and how society underestimates these people. The book starts with a bang with the example of Rosa Parks who was an African-American woman with a quiet demeanor. The place is Alabama in the 1950s. She is in a segregated bus and when she refuses for not giving a seat to a white person, she is arrested. When she is on stage with Martin Luther King, the crowd becomes motivated to fight against the injustice.
This important incident in the U.S. civil rights movement not only shows the immense power of a quiet person, but shows how an extrovert (King) can use the introvert’s (Rosa) power to create a huge impact. Author Susan Cain says, “I had always imagined Rosa Parks as a stately woman with a bold temperament, someone who could easily stand up to a busload of glowering passengers. But when she died in 2005 at the age of 92 the flood of obituaries recalled her as soft-spoken, sweet, and small in stature. They said she was 'timid and shy' but had 'the courage of a lion.' They were full of phrases like 'radical humility' and 'quiet fortitude.'”
The author, a self-confessed introvert, points out how society is biased against the introvert. From childhood they are taught that to be sociable is to be happy. Introversion is now “somewhere between a disappointment and pathology.” The Power of Introverts is not about extrovert-bashing. Extroversion is good, but we have made it into an “oppressive standard” to which introverts must conform.
So, is introversion a really “second class” trait? No, says the book. For starters, consider the introverts J.K. Rowling, Issac Newton, Albert Einstein, Gandhi, Dr Seuss, Yeats, Steven Spielberg, Larry Page and so on. It shows how introverts, with the extroverts, enrich the society. Yet in schools, ideal students should be extroverts; in organizations there is insistence on working with teams and group conformity; authors must go out and talk on TV. There are drugs that claim to cure shyness and bring about personality transformation. Introverts are not anti-social. They and extroverts have different forms of engaging with the society. For example, introverts may prefer a meaningful conversation over a wild party.
Cain insists that the problem also lies at the individual level. Introverts feel guilty, for instance, when they do not want to go to a party and wish to enjoy their solitude. Introverts should identify their power. They are the thinkers who have the richness inside them, says Cain.
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