Published on | Prototyping: From UX to Front End — Medium Katya Kovalenko

I read books, I highlight the most interesting insights and share them with you.

I just finished Quiet: the power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking and I loved it! Here are some insights from it. Every person is different and these insights may not be the most important ones from the book, but they meant something for me as an introverted designer. If you have read it too, please share your favorite quotes, what have you extracted from this book. Here we go:

The simple act of being interrupted is one of the biggest barriers to productivity.

What looks like multitasking is really switching back and forth between multiple tasks, which reduces productivity and increases mistakes by up to 50%.

“If you have talented and motivated people, they should be encouraged to work alone when creativity or efficiency is the highest priority” — Adrian Furnham

Psychologists usually offer three explanations for the failure of group brainstorming. The first is social loafing: in a group, some individuals tend to sit back and let the others do the work. The second is production blocking: only one person can talk or produce an idea at once, while the other group members are forced to sit passively. And the third is evaluation apprehension, meaning the fear of looking stupid in front of one’s peers.

Peer pressure is not only unpleasant, but can actually change your view of a problem.

… it may also help explain why they’re so bored by small talk. “If you’re thinking in more complicated ways, then talking about weather or where you went for the holidays is not quite as interesting as talking about values of morality”.

“In a gentle way, you can shake the world.” — Mahatma Gandhi

“I remember being amazed. It was a linguistics class, and that’s not even linguistics the students are talking about! I thought, ‘Oh, in the U.S., as soon as you start talking, you’re fine.’”

“Those who know do not speak.
Those who speak do not know.” — Lao Zi, The Way of Lao Zi

“The American companies think they can’t handle business because of presentation. In business, you have to put a lot of nonsense together and present it. My husband always just makes the point and that’s the end of it. When you look at big companies, almost none of the top executives are Asians. They hire someone who doesn’t know anything about business, but maybe he can make a good presentation.”

Anyone can be a great negotiator and in fact it often pays to be quiet and gracious, to listen more than talk, and to have an instinct for harmony rather than conflict. With this style, you can take aggressive positions without inflaming your counterpart’s ego. And by listening, you can learn what’s truly motivating the person you’re negotiating with and come up with creative solutions that satisfy both parties.

Introverts like people they meet in friendly contexts; extroverts prefer those they compete with.

“Our culture made a virtue of living only as extroverts. We discouraged the inner journey, the quest for a center. So we lost our center and have to find it again.” — Anaïs Nin

Solve problems, make art, think deeply.

Remember the dangers of the New Groupthink. If it’s creativity you’re after, ask your employees to solve problems alone before sharing their ideas. If you want the wisdom of the crowd, gather it electronically, or in writing, and make sure people can’t see each other’s ideas until everyone’s had a chance to contribute.

Hope you enjoyed reading this. The book is for sure a mustread, not only for introverts but for anyone in general.

“Quiet” by Susan Cain. Book highlights. was originally published in prototypr on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

“Quiet” by Susan Cain. Book highlights.

Cool stuff, every week

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