I rarely do what I am about to do, but for some reason I feel I must this time. I’ve been reading Steve Pavlina’s [blog](http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/ “Pavlina’s Blog”) for sometime now, and I’ve had mixed emotions about most of his posts. However, he struck a nerve with me with a recent post entitled ["How to Go From Introvert to Extrovert."](http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/09/how-to-go-from-introvert-to-extrovert/ “I hesitate to link to it because I’m not promoting his ideas”) Besides the egregious stereotyping and bashing of extroverts in the post and its comments, it fails to explain the most important question; why would you want to become an extrovert if you are an introvert to begin with?
I have been very heavily into the [Myers-Briggs]( http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes1.htm “Take the test now to find our what you are!”) stuff for a while now, and there is a lot you can learn about yourself and others once you know their personality type. But one thing that it is supposed to do is help you understand how to interact with others on a personal and professional level without changing who you are.
Just to clarify, being an introvert or an extrovert has nothing to do with intelligence as Pavlina might have you believe; ” I often viewed extroverts as lacking in intelligence and depth”. (He backs off from that statement as the post continues, but it fuels a fire for his audience on the topic.) It is about where you get your energy. Introverts tend to recharge their batteries alone on a mountain somewhere; extroverts like to go out and have a beer with 100 of their closest friends.
There are a lot of people who fall into the middle of the road and actually enjoy both types of activities. I like to call this group “situational extroverts”. I myself belong to this group. We like to be the center of attention in group settings (speaking out in meetings, filling leadership voids, etc.), but if given a choice, we prefer to spend the bulk of our time with a pair of headphones and our [iPods]( http://www.apple.com/ipodnano/ “The coolest iPod ever”) in our own little worlds.
Pavlina talks of how “over a long period of time, [he] eventually found [himself] becoming more and more extroverted.” But even he admits that this is not something he aspired to. In fact, it seems to have naturally occurred in his life as a result of his life direction I would suppose. Or more likely, it is a result of the self-confidence and courage that generally comes with age.
To encourage introverts to become extroverts is likened to trying to convince Christians to become Jewish. It’s just not likely and very unnatural for them. But knowing each other and their beliefs and customs will allow them to work together towards a common goal in most cases. It is safe to say that a world without introverts would be a very difficult and noisy place, while a world devoid of extroverts would be rather isolated and slow.
I’m not going to go into a long diatribe about the other three letter combinations of Myers-Briggs, but suffice it to say that being and extrovert or an introvert is not a good or bad thing. It doesn’t say anything about who you are and very little about what motivates you.
This is not a good versus evil, or even a rich versus poor level argument where one of the two choices is socially more desirable than the other. It’s more of a [Sonny and Cher](http://www.tvparty.com/bgifs6/schead1.jpg “Sonny and Cher in happier times”) or [peanut butter and jelly](http://www.clappingfetus.com/Flash/peanutbutterjelly.html “Peanut butter jelly time”) type … individually they’re not much, but together they’re a hit.
Don’t fall for the implication that in order to get along in life, you must become something else. Understanding yourself is the key. Know your strengths and weaknesses and apply that knowledge and you’ll be far more successful and I would assume less bitter and frustrated. Good luck.
Yeah, I was a bit miffed by Steve’s post too. I think that instead of denying one’s temperament, it is more fruitful to learn how to hone one’s strengths and acknowledge weaknesses. In recognizing your weaknesses you are likely to confront some fears you have associated with your weaknesses which can be very catalytic to personal growth. Of course strengths and weaknesses are often determined against external benchmarks of what society accepts as strength and weakness. I would instead attempt to consciously determine your own internal standards for strength and weakness using your personal feelings, fears, and intuition, and use these personal standards as a baseline for growth.
I think it really is worse to be an introvert in American society, because American culture continually attacks introverts. It really is harder for introverts to get most jobs in the United States than extroverts, even when being an extrovert doesn’t really have anything to do with the job, it is just seen as better by this society and so by the employers. Extroverts both get paid and promoted more. For introverts, it seems like the best choice for equality is to go to a country such as China or Japan where introverts are seen as better in that society.
Anna – thanks for the comments, but I’ve not been able to find any statistics to support your theory that extroverts get most of the jobs. Our society does make life more difficult in the educational systems for introverts but they generally seem to make it out ok. Judging by my office alone, the “I”s have it. I believe we are outnumbered 4 to 1.
Statistics do show that 10-30% of the population are introverted. As IQ goes up, that percentage does too. When you look at the fact that more intelligence/education are directly correlated to more income, I think it is hard to conclude that introverts have it worse off overall.