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

the one who’s had an 80 or 85 averagein school and plenty of extracurricularactivity. We see little use for the “brilliant”introvert.’ ”This college dean grasped very wellthat the model employee of the midcentury—evenone whose job rarely involveddealing with the public, like aresearch scientist in a corporatelab—was not a deep thinker but ahearty extrovert with a salesman’s personality.“Customarily, whenever theword brilliant is used,” explains Whyte,“it either precedes the word ‘but’ (e.g.,‘We are all for brilliance, but …’) or iscoupled with such words as erratic, eccentric,introvert, screwball, etc.”“These fellows will be having contactwith other people in the organization,”said one 1950s executive about thehapless scientists in his employ, “and ithelps if they make a good impression.”93/929