The Hamlet Project

This book I’m reading is about introverts – it’s subtitled “How to thrive in an extrovert world.” It’s not the most well-written book in the world but it’s breaking my mind open. I’m coming out, right here, right now, as an introvert. I’m here to tell you there’s nothing to be ashamed of and I’m only now starting to understand what it means. The world is not made for us. There are three times more of them than there are of us. Their values are the culture’s values. Their ways are what we strive for, while the introvert’s ways are pathologized. The dictionaries define introversion negatively, extroversion positively. Introverts attempt to become more extroverted, to get out there, to take it all on, to do it all, see it all.
But I realize, now, as the ideas filter in, how many of my friends are also introverts how we have found each other in a loud pounding universe, how we quietly make our own ways, our own difference while no one is watching.
In attempting to thrive, we often deny our own truth, our own temperament, our own needs, our own rhythms or senses. I wonder what would happen if all the introverts in the world suddenly found a way to do things our way. Would there be a sudden blossoming of wisdom in the world?
Would the balance tip from a Shoot First world to a “Let’s think about this for a second” one?
We’d all get a little more time to read, that much is certain.