Author Archive

your dreams will be reduced down to breathing, and you will be grateful

The thing about not-being-a-person is: They will say those people and the price of being a person is to nod and agree that yes, those people aren’t people at all. They will have no idea who they are talking to. You yourself will start to forget, too. They will say a million small things that sow the seeds for violence done against you, and you will smile and let them. You will do math, constantly. How much do I want to be a person today? How much do I want this project to succeed? How much honesty can I afford? How much dishonesty will kill me? What is the cost of coming out? Is there a way to delay, soften, transmute? How long can I survive as half a person? Ever since the world ended ... I don't go out as much. People that I once befriended, just don't bother to stay in touch. Things that used to seem so splendid, don't really matter today. It's just as well the world ended -- it wasn't working anyway. Your dreams will be reduced down to breathing. [Read More]

on 03/5/12 | 2 Comments | Read More

Can Extroverts Be Beaten at Their Own Game?

Not likely. Extroverts are very, very good at what they do.  Competitive social interaction is what they have a talent for, what they’re passionate about, and what they put all of their time and...[Read More]

on 06/27/11 | No Comments | Read More

Introvert vs. Extrovert: Mental Health

As an introvert I have been made to feel many times that my ways are unhealthy or that I am even borderline mentally ill.  My values and priorities are so alien to them that they naturally assume ...[Read More]

on 06/20/11 | 2 Comments | Read More

The Myth of Introvert Weakness

Weak, shy, sheltered, spineless, head in the clouds, detached from ‘reality.' These are the things extroverts tend to assume about someone who does not immediately compete for attention.  All su...[Read More]

on 06/13/11 | 3 Comments | Read More

Friction of Association and Social Selectivity

According to present tendencies: -The more people in society, the less personal it becomes. -The more mechanical it becomes, the more sophisticated formal rules and red tape required to maintain o...[Read More]

on 06/6/11 | No Comments | Read More

the Subtle sense of humor

Many who have met me have supposed that I lack a sense of humor. Indeed the usual ‘humorous’ fare tends to do little for me, but my lifelong critics have failed to reallize that I enjoy another ...[Read More]

on 05/30/11 | No Comments | Read More

How to Live With an Introvert Roommate

To comfortably share an abode with a Subtle sort of person, one must extend but one basic principle to all dealings: -Reduce social obligation and friction of association. I must begin by explai...[Read More]

on 05/23/11 | No Comments | Read More

Redundancy Cushioning

Most Westerners hold mass society as the self evident highest virtue. Yet mass society is a force of nature independent of human needs and desires. Mass society can be considered independent fro...[Read More]

on 05/16/11 | 3 Comments | Read More

The Listener Test

“At work today, I was socializing with two extroverted co-workers. I wasn’t completely comfortable, but I was able to get a few words in every once in a while. Then, a third extrovert came up, a...[Read More]

on 05/9/11 | No Comments | Read More

The Irony of Modern Individualism

Members of the modern industrialized world are typically individualists in the sense of each individual competing for maximum gain with every other and thereby raising overall standards for all. ...[Read More]

on 05/2/11 | No Comments | Read More

Social Choreography/The Mark of Cain

Quite simply, some of us never picked up basic social norms during childhood. Consider:  one can almost tell a Brit and an American apart by their age lines.  Each adheres to a different set of o...[Read More]

on 04/25/11 | No Comments | Read More

The Myth of Introvert Sociopathy

The stereotype in real life and in Hollywood is that serial killers or those who go on shooting rampages are nearly always described as being "really quiet." I have repeatedly had people jokingly ...[Read More]

on 04/18/11 | No Comments | Read More

Absolution

If the very existence of one’s proclivities and personality is deemed an illness, a blight, simply the wrong answer to what society desires: it is in a word to be Incorrect. To not commit a ...[Read More]

on 04/11/11 | 3 Comments | Read More

Introvert Hobbies

Extreme introverts are able to go through life believing they are the only one because all others, like them, are driven underground. However one can find members of a tiny minority by going to plac...[Read More]

on 04/4/11 | 1 Comment | Read More

The Introvert as an Observer

While introverts do not like to constantly interact with people they strongly gravitate towards observing others. Watching intently what people do in crowds or social situations demands no input f...[Read More]

on 03/28/11 | No Comments | Read More

The Grading Card

One might recall how multiple choice tests were graded back in school. The teacher would take a card with holes punched in the appropriate places and lay it over each test sheet. Then each test woul...[Read More]

on 03/21/11 | No Comments | Read More

Sound Familiar?

“I hate to say it but my 11 year old nephew is a real nerd.  He had NO Friends at all and really does not talk to anyone other than his teachers.  He used to be a friendly little boy but liked t...[Read More]

on 03/14/11 | 1 Comment | Read More

Thoreau the Introvert

One cannot read Walden and be in doubt that its author is a true introvert. Alone much of the time in his small, secluded cottage, Henry David Thoreau used his distance from society to engage in cont...[Read More]

on 03/7/11 | No Comments | Read More

Seldom Asked Questions

In the previous post ‘Rulers of Celephais,’ a Ms. Hanna J. has asked me some questions about this blog which I will address in post length for the benefit of all readers.  Here is her original...[Read More]

on 02/28/11 | No Comments | Read More

Introverts, Extroverts, and Exercise

As one who habitually works out, I am constantly asked. “Isn’t it boring?” “Where do you get the willpower from?” I try to explain that I enjoy it for its own sake.  But the response is ...[Read More]

on 02/7/11 | 2 Comments | Read More

Collective Checkmate

There is no formal police force of social norms because no such organization is necessary.  From mass society arises a self-enforcing slavery. One might picture a chessboard that sprawls as far as...[Read More]

on 01/31/11 | 1 Comment | Read More

Music Preference in Introverts and Extroverts

For the majority of people in the industrialized West, music is primarily a means of social identity and unity.  Millions listen to the same top 25 songs that everyone else is listening to. Of those ...[Read More]

on 01/24/11 | 2 Comments | Read More

Introverts and Travel

Since introverts carry the most important things within, they can thrive almost anywhere under any circumstances.  They are consumate wanderers. Only one who is self-defined can move unscathed from l...[Read More]

on 01/17/11 | No Comments | Read More

The Role of Reading for Introverts and Extroverts

To extroverts an activity such as sitting alone for extended periods reading books seems like torture. Certainly, plenty of extroverts read books, but it’s mainly filler for odd moments when ther...[Read More]

on 01/10/11 | No Comments | Read More

The Purpose of An Introvert Civilization

One who is perpetually immersed in society takes all of its features for granted and tends not to perceive the forest for all the trees. It takes one who is introverted to remove from the tumult an...[Read More]

on 01/3/11 | 1 Comment | Read More

The Anthropology of Nerd Societies (IV)

IV An examination of nerds and their surrounding environment is by necessity a study in anthropology. In this situation an entirely new society with different if not directly conflicting values form...[Read More]

on 12/31/10 | No Comments | Read More

The Anthropology of Nerd Societies (III)

III Nerds possess a great deal of knowledge, some of which makes them highly competitive in the workplace. However, they tend to lack people skills and have more trouble than average doing well at i...[Read More]

on 12/30/10 | No Comments | Read More

The Anthropology of Nerd Societies (II)

II Nerds are a phenomenon that results from the structure of Western industrialized civilization. It is in this society that children spend most of their time around other kids in their age group ra...[Read More]

on 12/29/10 | No Comments | Read More

The Anthropology of Nerd Societies: Formation of New Group Identities Within Industrialized Civilization (I)

I It is not uncommon that those immersed in the culture of sci fi and twenty sided dice are subjected to a high degree of skepticism and even outright disgust. It strikes many as strange and even of...[Read More]

on 12/28/10 | No Comments | Read More

Introverts: Creatures of the Night

“You’re looking tired.” “You look like you just got up.” “Why don’t you go to bed earlier.” These are frequent comments an introvert hears in the morning at work/school/whatev...[Read More]

on 12/21/10 | 2 Comments | Read More

Survival in the Void

For one who begins life beneath the surface of the Main Stream of social conventions, there is the constant problem of Human Interaction Deficiency, a chronic source of pain that makes functioning in ...[Read More]

on 12/21/10 | 1 Comment | Read More

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