Introverts

I was browsing over at Samizdata when I came across this article on introversion by Jonathan Rauch.

“Do you know someone who needs hours alone every day? Who loves quiet conversations about feelings or ideas, and can give a dynamite presentation to a big audience, but seems awkward in groups and maladroit at small talk? Who has to be dragged to parties and then needs the rest of the day to recuperate? Who growls or scowls or grunts or winces when accosted with pleasantries by people who are just trying to be nice?

If so, do you tell this person he is “too serious,” or ask if he is okay? Regard him as aloof, arrogant, rude? Redouble your efforts to draw him out?

If you answered yes to these questions, chances are that you have an introvert on your hands”

My, oh my – a portrait of me. One of the commenters pointed to another article that looks at the situation from the perspective of the introverted child coping with school.

“It can be loud, crowded, superficial, boring, overstimulating, and focused on action, not reflection.”

My memories of school precisely. While I reserve some scepticism for psychological profiling, I regularly went through the Myers-Briggs personality tests during my working career and always came out as an INTJ personality type. Whatever your opinion on the Myers-Briggs tool, it is accurate in identifying me as an introvert. I do enjoy solitude, quiet, wide open spaces and the company of small, select groups rather than crowds. I can experience loneliness in a crowd.

This would seem to contradict my preferred profession. I am a trainer and assessor who has to meet new people on a daily basis, take charge of the situation and deliver training to potentially large groups of people. I do this without apparent concern. Inside, though, I am a bundle of nerves, going over what I am about to say before saying it. This, typically, is a characteristic of the introvert. Yet I can do it seamlessly, acting out a part without my audience being aware of the inner turmoil. So why put myself through it? Because I like it, I suppose. I enjoy training – it is only the initial pre-course nerves that are a problem; and, frankly, if they stopped, I would realise that my edge was going and it would be time to seek a new profession. Those nerves keep me honed.

It is a curious fact that most of the trainers I have encountered in my career, have, like me, been introverts who take to a stage and perform with a new persona every time they enter the training room. We’re all frustrated actors, I guess.

I particularly like Mr Rauch’s summing up:

“…when you see an introvert lost in thought, don’t say “What’s the matter?” or “Are you all right?”

Third, don’t say anything else, either. “

Indeed.