Introvert-Extravert exchange

Posted: 2017-08-13

Tags: conversation, introversion, extraversion

Parent: Views

Children:

I: The world would be much more friendly for me if people were more introspective! This way they would be able to, for example, reflect on how they got good at things at communicate that information to me. They could communicate to me their desires directly, instead of leaving me to guess!

E: Hey hey hey! We extraverts can ask the same thing! If you introverts were better at reading and interacting with other people, we would be able to much better interact with you! If you expect other people to learn introspection, then you had better learn some extraspection!

I: But introspection is much easier to learn. You don’t have to interact with other people using rules you don’t even understand—all you have to do is shut out outside distractions for a bit and review your own thoughts! For me to learn to be more social—I have to read all these social cues that everyone says are out there but which no one even bothers to make explicit because they claim it’s so “obvious”!

E: So is this introspective stuff! You’re biased. you claim it’s “obvious” but the mental algorithms you use to step through your thoughts are anything but.

I: So it seems like there are things for both introverts and extraverts to learn! But most people don’t realize there’s anything to be learned here, and most certainly they’re not going to teach in grade school how to introspect or extraspect.

E: That’s sad.