Author of the week: Susan Cain

last updated 8 January 2015

Susan Cain is fighting back for all introverts, said Zosia Bielski in the Toronto Globe and Mail. For years, the former Wall Street lawyer felt uneasy in a world that seems to favor brash, outgoing personalities. Like many introverts, she learned to “pass” as an extrovert, faking gregariousness. But in her first book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, Cain argues that society has been shortchanging introverts and sacrificing the full benefits of the creative and sustained thinking they specialize in. “Introverts are sent a message from a very early age that they should always strive to be more outgoing,” Cain says. “To devalue introversion is a waste of talent, energy, and happiness.”

Whatever you do, don’t label Cain—or her fellow introverts—as “shy,” said Gareth Cook in Scientific American. “Introversion is different from shyness,” she says. “Shyness is the fear of negative judgment”; introverts simply operate best in “quiet, minimally stimulating environments.” Sadly, they can’t always find them. Many workplaces “now organize workers into groups, believing that creativity and productivity come from a gregarious place,” Cain writes. “This is nonsense, of course. Our greatest thinkers have often worked in solitude.” She hopes her book will help empower her fellow introverts to be themselves. “It’s never a good idea to organize society in a way that depletes the energy of half the population,” she says. “We discovered this with women decades ago.”