Susan Cain - People Quotes

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Solitude matters, and for some people it is the air that they breathe.

Susan Cain
We don't ask why God chose as his prophet a stutterer with a public speaking phobia. But we should. The book of Exodus is short on explication, but its stories suggest that introversion plays yin to the yang of extroversion; that the medium is not always the message; and that people followed Moses because his words were thoughtful, not because he spoke them well.

Susan Cain
The other thing Aron found about sensitive people is that sometimes they're highly empathic. It's as if they have thinner boundaries separating them from other people's emotions and from the tragedies and cruelties of the world. They tend to have unusually strong consciences.... they're acutely aware of the consequences of a lapse in their own behavior.

Susan Cain
It's as if they have thinner boundaries separating them from other people's emotions and from the tragedies and cruelties of the world.

Susan Cain
I worry that there are people who are put in positions of authority because they're good talkers, but they don't have good ideas. It's so easy to confuse schmoozing ability with talent. Someone seems like a good presenter, easy to get along with, and those traits are rewarded. Well, why is that? They're valuable traits, but we put too much of a premium on presenting and not enough on substance and critical thinking.

Susan Cain
Now that you're an adult, you might still feel a pang of guilt when you decline a dinner invitation in favor of a good book. Or maybe you like to eat alone in restaurants and could do without the pitying looks from fellow diners. Or you're told that you're "in your head too much", a phrase that's often deployed against the quiet and cerebral. Or maybe there's another word for such people: thinkers.

Susan Cain
Most introverts aren't aware of how they are constantly spending their time in ways that they would prefer not to be. They've been doing it all their lives, so it just becomes second nature. I'm trying to give people entitlement inside their own minds to be who they are.

Susan Cain
Open-plan offices have been found to reduce productivity and impair memory. They're associated with high staff turnover. They make people sick, hostile, unmotivated, and insecure.

Susan Cain
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
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
Our culture is biased against quiet and reserved people, but introverts are responsible for some of humanity's greatest achievements.

Susan Cain
The same person who would never raise his hand in a lecture hall of two hundred people might blog to two thousand, or two million, without thinking twice. The same person who finds it difficult to introduce himself to strangers might establish a presence online and then extend these relationships into the real world.

Susan Cain
There are only a few people out there who can completely overcome their fears, and they all live in Tibet.

Susan Cain
The emphasis is on community, on participating in more and more programs and events, on meeting more and more people. It's a constant tension for many introverts that they're not living that out. And in a religious world, there's more at stake when you feel that tension. It doesn't feel like 'I'm not doing as well as I'd like.' It feels like 'God isn't pleased with me.'

Susan Cain