Solitude Matters. And For Some People It's

I Had Always Imagined Rosa Parks As A Stately Woman With A Bold Temperament, Someone Who Could Easily Stand Up To A Busload Of Glowering Passengers. But When She Died In 2005 At The Age Of Ninety-two, The Flood Of Obituaries Recalled Her As Soft-spoken, Sweet, And Small In Stature. They Said She Was "timid And Shy" But Had "the Courage Of A Lion." They Were Full Of Phrases Like "radical Humility" And "quiet Fortitude.

I Look Back On My Years As A Wall Street Lawyer As Time Spent In A Foreign Country.

I Worry That There Are People Who Are Put In Positions Of Authority Because They're Good Talkers, But They Don't Have Good Ideas. It's So Easy To Confuse Schmoozing Ability With Talent. Someone Seems Like A Good Presenter, Easy To Get Along With, And Those Traits Are Rewarded. Well, Why Is That? They're Valuable Traits, But We Put Too Much Of A Premium On Presenting And Not Enough On Substance And Critical Thinking.

The Pressure To Entertain, To Sell Ourselves, And Never To Be Visibly Anxious Keeps Ratcheting Up.

Remember That Introverts React Not Only To New People, But Also To New Places And Events. So Don’t Mistake A Child’s Caution In New Situations For An Inability To Relate To Others. He’s Recoiling From Novelty Or Overstimulation, Not From Human Contact. Introverts Are Just As Likely As The Next Kid To Seek Others’ Company, Though Often In Smaller Doses