Bertrand Duperrin's Library tagged introverts → View Popular, Search in Google

Apr

2012

Comfortably Alone

"As a shy person, I’ve believed for most of my life that being among new people required an elaborate social disguise, one that would allow me to feel both present and absent, noticed and unnoticed. I’d yearn for some sort of social recognition without the bother of having to be recognized, without that oppressive pressure to live up to anything that might get me attention in the first place. So I’d find myself executing oblique tactics — being stingy and stealthy with eye contact; wearing a mask of deep concentration; staring at an underappreciated object in the room, like a light fixture or molding — in hopes of discouraging people from engaging me in actual conversation while still conveying the impression that I might be interesting to talk to."

thenewinquiry.com/...comfortably-alone-2

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introverts shyness socialmedia facebook socialnetworks

The problem with polite conversation, I thought, was that it required the orderly recitation of platitudes before one can say anything interesting, let alone something as original and insightful as I wanted to believe myself to be. I couldn’t bear it. I had an irrational expectation that people should already know what I was about and come to me with suitable topics to draw me out. Rather than attempt agreeable chitchat and compromise my “authentic” identity with false congeniality, I would isolate myself, hoping that withdrawal would make me come across at a glance as mysterious and different rather than rude and feckless.
I’d rather my self-importance remain undisturbed by anyone’s curiosity about me than risk seeming ordinary to myself.
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- This gave me my basic framework about how to behave in social situations. The possibility of discovering genuine connection with other people receded to fantasy; I could only try to make it through without embarrassing mysel
- The best way to manage that risk, I thought, was to be unapproachable but legibly fascinating at a distance, to present myself as an object to be read
- Facebook is engineered to facilitate “sharing.” It frees users to build an identity in isolation, unhampered by contingencies of face-to-face interaction or real-time reciprocity
- A 2010 study, “Shyness and Online Social Networking Services,” by Marquette University psychologists Levi Baker and Debra Oswald, confirms the social network’s potential to mitigate shyness, finding “immediate benefits of Facebook use, especially for shy individuals, as it allows social interaction in a comfortable context.”
- Naturally, this removes inhibitions, as urges to share and respond aren’t disciplined or evoked organically by the particularities of any given moment.
- Thus in Baker and Oswald’s study, shy Facebook users report experiencing “increased friendship quality” and “increased social support” from their Facebook friends.
- Social media don’t merely insulate shy people from shame and suppress social risk; they routinize sharing and automate camaraderie, giving them standardized forms.
- By improving users’ levels of social capital, it offers a more stable rationalization for the shy person’s behaviors of avoidance, and by offering mechanisms to control social presence at a distance
- Rather than eradicate shyness, Facebook seems to generalize its pathology to all its users.
- But now they shy person’s apprehension of social risk seems entirely rational,

Jan

2012

Is Collaboration Overrated?

How many prospects does it take to buy a light bulb?

More than ever it seems, thanks to social networks and a plethora of great collaborative software solutions. Maybe the question should be “how many committees does it take to buy a light bulb?” At least the number will be smaller.

The benefits of ubiquitous conversations are undeniably clear, including shorter decision cycles. Thanks to collaborative technology, we have the ability to ask anyone, anywhere, any time, “Hey, got a minute?” Click to collaborate! How good is that? But every new solution creates new problems. When do business processes become engorged on 24/7 collaboration, and implode into a digital morass of bypassed Outlook meeting requests and defunct online communities?"

thecustomercollective.com/...witter&utm_campaign=autotweets

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collaboration conversations solitude teams creativity introverts innovation knowledgeworkers committee effectiveness

“solitude is out of fashion . . . most of us now work in teams, in offices without walls, for managers who prize people skills above all. Lone geniuses are out. Collaboration is in.
And the most spectacularly creative people in many fields are often introverted, according to studies by the psychologists Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Gregory Feist
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- Work alone . . . not on a committee. Not on a team.
- The point is, as knowledge workers, we’re more knowledgeable when collaborating than when we’re not. And, by extension, we’re assuming more effective, too.
- the success of any economy depends on the velocity of commerce.” And the velocity of commerce depends on the velocity of decision making

Le risque de l'idéologie du groupe

"La lecture de la semaine, il s'agit d'un article du New York Times transmis par une aimable correspondante. Il s'intitule : "La domination de la nouvelle idéologie du groupe", et on le doit à Susan Cain, auteure d'un ouvrage sur la question intitulé Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking (Silence : le pouvoir des introvertis dans un monde qui n'arrête pas de parler)."

www.internetactu.net/...risque-de-lideologie-du-groupe

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groups introverts collectiveintelligence collaboration focus brainstorming teams teamwork creativity meetings trust openspace internet solitude

La plupart d’entre nous travaillent en équipes, dans des open spaces, pour des chefs qui valorisent au-dessus de tout l’intelligence collective. Les génies solitaires sont bannis. Seul vaut le collaboratif.
Car les recherches montrent que les gens sont plus créatifs quand ils jouissent d’intimité et de tranquillité. Et, selon les travaux de deux psychologues, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Wikipédia) et Gregory Feist, les gens les plus spectaculairement créatifs, dans des champs très différents, sont souvent introvertis – juste assez extravertis pour échanger et avancer des idées,
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- L’une des explications est que les introvertis sont à l’aise dans le travail solitaire, et que la solitude est un catalyseur de l’innovation
- En fait, les meilleurs d’entre eux sont des artistes. Et les artistes travaillent mieux tout seuls. Je vais vous donner un conseil : travaillez tout seul. Pas en groupe. Pas en équipe.”
- Pour Susan Cain, une certaine dose de travail d’équipe offre un moyen drôle, stimulant et utile pour échanger des idées, pour transmettre des informations et construire de la confiance. Mais, c’est une chose d’être associé à un groupe dans lequel chaque membre travaille de manière autonome sur sa propre pièce du puzzle, c’en est une autre d’être retenu dans des réunions sans fin et parqués dans des bureaux où rien n’isole des autres.
- L’étude a montré que les gens d’une même entreprise avaient sensiblement les mêmes performances, mais qu’il y avait d’énormes différences entre les entreprises. Et ce qui distinguait les développeurs de ces entreprises n’était pas l’expérience ou le salaire. C’était l’intimité sur le lieu de travail et la tranquillité.
- Beaucoup d’études montrent aussi que les sessions de brainstorming sont le pire moyen de stimuler la créativité. Et plus le groupe est élargi, moins les performances sont bonnes. Les raisons à cela : les gens ont tendance à laisser travailler les autres, ils s’imitent instinctivement les uns les autres et oublient leurs propres opinions.
- Mais il existe une exception à cela : le brainstorming électronique, où des groupes nombreux peuvent se montrer plus performants que des individus, et où plus le groupe est nombreux, meilleure est la performance. La protection que représente l’écran atténue les problèmes posés par le travail en groupe.
- C’est un lieu où l’on peut être seul ensemble – et c’est précisément ce qui lui donne toute sa force.