Introversion and Solitude Increase Productivity

bonch writes "Author Susan Cain argues that modern society's focus on charisma and group brainstorming has harmed creativity and productivity by removing the quiet, creative process. 'Research strongly suggests that people are more creative when they enjoy privacy and freedom from interruption. And the most spectacularly creative people in many fields are often introverted, according to studies by the psychologists Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Gregory Feist. They're extroverted enough to exchange and advance ideas, but see themselves as independent and individualistic. They're not joiners by nature.'"

Comments

Not sure about this one.

[MrEricSir]

Being alone doesn't mean I'm more productive -- it could mean I'm spending all day posting on Slashdot.

Re:Not sure about this one.

[PPH]

On Slashdot, you're never alone.

Unless you get modded down below everyone's reading threshold.

Ahh, blessed solitude.

Yea I'm introverted

[arcite]

My home office is my 'Fortress of Solitude', safe from distraction of the outside world, incubator of ideas, and infused with the essence of coffee. Now if only I could stop checking Slashdot every fifteen minutes I might get some work done.

Re:Yea I'm introverted

[El_Muerte_TDS]

My home office is my 'Fortress of Solitude'

You misspelled "solitaire".

Re:Yea I'm introverted

[Samantha Wright]

That one's a keeper. :)

A related quip is that MCSE stands for "Minesweeper Champion, Solitaire Expert".

Re:Yea I'm introverted

[Anonymous Coward]

I come up with the best ideas in the toilet, but I just couldn't explain the 12 hour stay to my boss.

not around here

[Anonymous Coward]

Our agile internet startup requires communication and collaboration between coworkers. You can't get that if everyone is holed up in their office. Now if you'll excuse me I have to update Pivotal Tracker and our Wiki.

AC
--
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Re:"Work well with others" is the lie of the centu

[forkfail]

Well.... maybe because putting this on your resume doesn't look so good:

- Capable of refraining from telling co-workers that they're fucking inbred morons who would benefit from a course in remedial keyboarding, and that if they ever check in shit like that again that they'll discover that it is, in fact, possible to insert a 23 inch monitor into an arbitrary orifices.

You need to cultivate body odour

[Colin Smith]

And other socially repulsive habits. Your problems interacting with other people will go away.
 

Re:You need to cultivate body odour

[Anonymous Coward]

That is one of the many problems which comes with being an avoidant introvert. During my 4 years of college I had to sit through class, but I was able to keep personal interaction with others at a minimum because of the connectivity of the internet and the fact that I had my own dorm room.

After graduating, I lasted about a month at my first job, and I had no idea why until I asked a former co-worker for frank answers outside of work. He told me that I smelled bad, particularly in the groin area, and that they all knew that I was a chronic masturbator because I constantly moaned and grunted involuntarily, one time kneading my penis through my pants while talking to a female administrative assistant. They said that I made people uneasy because I was a mincing, squinting, shifty-eyed bum who often looked like he woke up under bridges. My former co-worker added that, whenever I would accidentally drop something, I would bend all the way over facing opposite others in the area rather than kneel down to pick it up like real men do.

The sad thing is, I just don't care. Thanks to the internet, I can now work from home while simultaneously amusing myself with at least 1 extra monitor dedicated to pornography at all times. I am so desensitized to it all, that I wallow naked and erect in my own food like the popular porn star The Minion (I'll spare you the link, you can search for him yourself).

Re:You need to cultivate body odour

[TheRaven64]

If ever a post deserved a +5 Troll moderation, it was this one. It starts off so reasonably, and then... well, hopefully you didn't read to the end.

Re:Balance.

[Anonymous Coward]

Team, team team. http://youtu.be/pGFGD5pj03M

Re:"Work well with others" is the lie of the centu

[forkfail]

And I bet you whack off to Ayn Rand and think that you're some sort of John Galt for doing it, too.