Introversion

(bright music) - As an introvert myself I think my biggest power with respect to introversion is I can listen a lot. I have a lot of listening skills. So when you listen to a lot of people you are able to judge them better without any reservations. So use that to your advantage. Listen to all kinds of people. Get a lot of opinions and you will be surprised at when you hear what people have to say. - I honestly bounce back-and-forth. At home I'm pretty quiet. My idea of a good time is to have maybe four or five friends over. And we sit around in the kitchen or in the patio and talk and cook together. And it's more of an intimate experience because you can get to know people. You don't have to be constantly shifting conversations or have an awkward interaction with so-and-so. Or it's like, wait, who invited you? How did you get here? And I would much rather have a more focused experience. You know it's like, at the same time, I love going to concerts. I love being on stage. I love having that conversation. And that's kind of an extroverted piece of me. - There's gotta be an awareness from other folks, obviously, too that not everybody is an extrovert. Not everybody's gonna have that ability to just be around people and love people and do that. And figure out hey, you know what? In the large group this person isn't comfortable doing that but maybe we do a one-on-one. Maybe we go do something after this meeting. Or we set up some time so I can get their thoughts. One of the important things is, if I know I'm gonna have to go that. Have to, see there's my introvert. I have to go to that event in the evening to meet people, I'll take time in the middle of the day. I'll skip a session or I'll take some time in between sessions and I'll go find a chair. I'll find a corner somewhere. I'll listen to some music. I'll write some code. I'll do something where I get some of that downtime in the middle of the day so that I don't lose all my energy to do things later in the day as well. - Introversion is more how you deal with energy and relating to other people. It's not so much whether you're shy or socially awkward but just whether being around people gives you energy or takes energy away. So as someone who's more introverted myself, some things that I've done is just made sure to make time for that sort of recharging. So I can still go to a conference and I can still attend talks and talk to people but I might take a time slot and not go to a talk and go back to my room and just rest and recharge for getting out there and talking to more people later on. - Well, the two probably most important things to people are they want to be known and they want to know you. And in that, they want to be accepted. I want you to know who I am but only if you'll accept me. But you can't accept me if you don't know who I am. So I've got to put myself out there but I want to be accepted. So how do you do both of those? How do you be known and accepted without letting yourself be known? You can't love somebody that you don't know. And so you gotta put yourself out there but it's scary. But the good news is you'll rarely ever get a negative reaction. And if you do, the good thing is is that person is basically saying I'm out. And then you're done. (bright music)