Chapter 23 - Review of ‘Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking’ by Susan Cain
That awkward moment when you genuinely like the writer but didn't love the book
For a book that’s about introverts, by an introvert and for introverts, it sure does go on about extroverts.
As an introvert, I wanted to read a book about how introverts can survive in an extrovert world. But more than half the book is given over to explaining why extroverts are favoured in school, business, sport, mating, society and the world at large.
The scientific research is interesting but intermixed with the most baffling claptrap that seems to be symptomatic of ‘turns out’ journalism. The book opens with Rosa Parks and closes with Charlie Brown.
Much of it read like it had come from the same cookie-cutter mould as any number of American self-help books. I even started to check off the usual suspects in my head.
For example let’s:
Address the audience as America, talk about America as if it’s the world and America is the sole subject of the book. Because we Americans as Americans must America, America, America.
Cite Rosa Parks’ refusal to give…
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