An extrovert trying to understand my people. Challenge Level: Impossible

I enjoy spending time by myself more than I enjoy spending time with other people. Social situations are draining and I avoid them when I can. If I make plans with someone and they have to cancel, it's usually a relief for me. If that doesn't make me an introvert I don't know what else to tell you.

I think you're conflagrating what introvertion/extrovertion are in and of themselves with how they are described and used in the Myers-Briggs personality scale. Myers-Briggs is pop psychology. Being introverted or extroverted are just 1 aspect of behavior (do you lose or gain energy when socializing) and isn't used as a measure of other personality traits someone might have anywhere other than that test.

Bullshit.

One bit of research discovered that introverts prefer quiet, so as to concentrate on work, whereas extraverts preferred music, to distract them from the work they were doing.

As Nick Yee, if I remember his name right, pointed out in one of his talks on yt, look up Gamer Motivations GDC ( I think it was GDC ), but he did research into gamer motivations, and in one of his talks he shows us the difference between the fake Myers-Briggs 2-bell-curves ( 1 bell-curve for introverts, another for extraverts ), then he explains that all the research has shown there's really only 1 bell-curve, so "ambivert" is an artifact of the fake science of the false-dichotomy that Myers-Briggs pushes.

I'm hard-line introvert: I'd rather be executed honestly, than have to endure what extraverts want.

Jung was right, in that it's significant, but it isn't what Myers-Briggs pretends it is.

It is a fundamental thing, where introverts are damaged by social-interaction amounts that feed extraverts.

I can't remember who it was who explained that you can take a stuffed-animal with a bell on it, or something, & jiggle it above a baby, & some babies will, after awhile, become agitated/crying/freaking-out/etc...

Those are statistically-likely to be introverts: you crossed their threshold.

The ones who like the endless-stimulation? extraverts.

Finding ANY predictor which works from babies to entire-lives, & has statistical-significance, is important evidence.

That may have been in Nick Yee's video, too, or some other, I've no idea ( been studying mind for decades: it's all a mishmosh in my memory, now )

Anyways, cheers, eh?

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It's really not about enjoying or not enjoying social interactions. It's about your default state. So when I finish work I think "finally some time to spend by myself: learning, reading, gaming, whatever". When my extrovert friend finishes work they think "finally I can meet with my friends". I love my friends and I enjoy spending time with them but I do it like once a week and I would be exhausted if I had to spend every evening with them. My extrovert friend rarely spends evening without any company and if they do they will often call someone because not interacting with anyone is just weird to them.

I think the absolute best way I've heard it described is simply: Extroverts get charged up around people, while introverts lose energy around people and need some time by themselves to recharge their batteries before socializing again.

And some will say “social interactions give energy to extro and take it from intro” but what the hell does ‘energy’ mean in that context anyway?

Energy ,in this context, would be defined of a mix of ideas:

• enjoyment
• engagement
• interest
• patience

Granted, its a small sample, but you describe two different social interactions and from that, I can tell you're an extrovert.

If I go to a small party with close friends all talking about sci-fi I’ll enjoy myself all night and feel refreshed, but I’d be exhausted after 30 minutes at a rave and need a week to recover.

...and...

In my 20’s I felt compelled to meet and experience new people all the time but now in my mid-40’s I don’t really care and tend to stick to the people I know.

In both examples you are comparing two different types of interact with different groups of people. What you're not comparing is an interaction with people on one hand vs being alone by yourself on the other.

Let me ask you about how you like to spend your time alone. How would you feel if you went two weeks without every interacting with another human being besides perhaps anonymous non-personal point-of-sale transactions where you buy groceries? No phone calls with family, no meals or drinks with friends. When you think about this does it fill you with a fear of isolation, or a comfort of ease? My guess for you is the former.

This doesn't mean that all introverts want to be alone, but rather they ration how much interaction with other humans they have to the capacity they can do so without negatively affecting their sense of self or mood.

If you aren't a practiticing psychology researcher, this whole post is pop psychology nonsense. Might as well ask random strangers about dark matter, it's just as valuable an opinion.

classification is needed for any discussion about anything. sure. we are all individuals and no two are exactly alike. There are reasons though we have clicks and clubs and groups and conventions. extrovert/introvert is just a classification. if you really want to get annoyed go look at disc which is basically introvert/extrovert combined with alpha/beta :)

I don't think they're meant to describe someone's "everywhere all the time" personality. I've met and know several people that fit into one or the other.

One friend is completely "alive" at D&D, but quiet and reserved at any other social function, whereas another loves going to concerts, parties, and other social events, but falls asleep trying to play board games.

I don't think it's meant to be an end-all, be-all. Just one way to generally categorize personality.

As far as people being complex? Above a certain level, yeah, definitely. But we also have a lot of very low level behavior that's relatively easy to categorize.

... when used in a medical oriented conversation. Completely legit when describing character, which was the case before everybody started self-labelling like items in a retail shop

I find it more funny to read on tinder ahit like: i'm an inteovert/extrovert. Ah cool, i'm an alcoholic but don't drink alcohol

I know we had a run-in the other day, over on my stupid-ass Olympics post...but I agree with this post SO FUCKING MUCH.

I mean, not for nothing, but I actually think ALL psychology is nonsense, pop or otherwise.

During the same time that physics (ya know, an actually real branch of science) extended its grasp of nature to prove the existence of atomic, sub-atomic, and quantum particles, as well as the theory of relativity and the Big Bang, what did psychology do?

During that exact same time period, psychology went from Freud's perverted bullshit, through to the "awareness doesn't actually exist, lol" behaviorist era, through to a bunch of other debunked, unhelpful, failure-ass theories. And then there was that time when dipshits stuck metal rods into non-consenting patients' faces and carved up parts of their brains.

Annnnnd, throughout the whole time, LGBTQ people were defined as mentally ill. In case anyone doesn't know, homosexuality was still classified as a mental illness, up until 1973, according to the DSM manual.

And where are we now? Still nowhere. There still isn't a really good, unified theory of human psychology to show for all that effort. And all those actual victims.

At the end of the day, I don't even think this should be surprising, because we're asking human minds to derive a theory of human minds. I'm pretty sure you can use math to prove that any given system can only analyze other systems that are LESS COMPLEX than itself. Our minds are literally too complex for us to meaningfully study. We should literally, actually stop trying to do it. All we're doing is producing an endless parade of half-baked, harmful procedures, based on completely incorrect guesses.

If we want an answer to the question of "how do human minds work," we need to finish developing artificial intelligence. If we produce a system more complex than the human mind, then it WILL be able to analyze the human mind, and deliver meaningful conclusions.

Of course, we probably won't be able to understand those conclusions, and also the AI might want to destroy us. But at this point, I think we deserve it, as a species. The best thing we could do is bring about a better being and then give up the whole being-a-species game, once and for all.

Man(and Woman) see their world with labels. Cant make sense of it without them. Some might try but even subconciously they label what they see

It was an early theory to describe humans. Most psychology is just pop sci. There is some truth to it. I work in sales which is dominated by extroverts. I am an introvert. I can party with the best of them for a few hours then I need me time. My hobbies are going to CrossFit where I don’t have to interact with anyone, doing research and learning new things. I fit the mold of an introvert. The sales people, the more people and chaos the better. Their hobbies are typically social things.

Does everyone fit the mold exactly? No but it’s a basic theory. One of the mays it’s described. How do you recharge and what drains you? I recharge doing solo things and get drained having to deal with the average person.