April 7, 2013

I find it increasingly tiresome to apologize for my need to be alone to recharge, for reasons that echo why many women are tired of educating men about equality.

Still, there has been progress and I feel hope every time the world seems closer to understanding what introversion is and is not.

The major milestones in my mind were Jonathan Rauch’s 2003 piece in the Atlantic Monthly, “Caring for your introvert” and more recently Susan Cain’s book “Quiet” and TED talk.

Just in the past few days there have been really enjoyable blog posts by Chris Coyier and D. Keith Robinson which all reflect a common set of realizations:

it’s rude to treat us like we’re broken or ignore us when we need to exit

we’re not letting you down and you’re not owed an explanation

we are biologically different and deserve equality

“extroverts make the best leaders and salespeople” is a myth

it’s amazing how much you can get done in a day if you just sit and do it

we’re not allergic to people — just ones that are uncomfortable in silence

We introverts represent a massive segment of the population, yet we have no interest in having meetings to celebrate this fact.

However, if they keep treating us like the Other we might just hire some extroverts to lobby on our behalf while we put on headphones and get shit done.

Signed,

the people who designed the hardware, software and network infrastructure you’re reading this on

If you want to talk, I’m on Twitter.

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