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Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can ... - WordPress.com

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does. It requires a k<strong>in</strong>d <strong>of</strong> mental multitask<strong>in</strong>g:the ability to process a lot <strong>of</strong>short-term <strong>in</strong>formation at once withoutbe<strong>com</strong><strong>in</strong>g distracted or overly stressed.This is just the sort <strong>of</strong> bra<strong>in</strong> function<strong>in</strong>gthat extroverts tend to be well suitedfor. In other words, extroverts are sociablebecause their bra<strong>in</strong>s are good athandl<strong>in</strong>g <strong>com</strong>pet<strong>in</strong>g demands on theirattention—which is just what d<strong>in</strong>nerpartyconversation <strong>in</strong>volves. In contrast,<strong>in</strong>troverts <strong>of</strong>ten feel repelled bysocial events that force them to attendto many people at once.Consider that the simplest social <strong>in</strong>teractionbetween two people requiresperform<strong>in</strong>g an astonish<strong>in</strong>g array <strong>of</strong>tasks: <strong>in</strong>terpret<strong>in</strong>g what the other personis say<strong>in</strong>g; read<strong>in</strong>g body languageand facial expressions; smoothly tak<strong>in</strong>gturns talk<strong>in</strong>g and listen<strong>in</strong>g; respond<strong>in</strong>gto what the other person said; assess<strong>in</strong>g671/929

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