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Comment by hliyan | Hacker News Reader

An 'Anti-social network', so to speak. I too, have thought of this before. The main feature, I suppose, would be that interactions revolve around smaller groups.

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Introversion has nothing to do with being anti-social. An introverted person can be as sociable as an extrovert. The main difference is that the introvert doesn't get energised by being around other people; they need time alone to recharge. An extrovert is the opposite - they're tired by spending time alone but recharge in social situations.

Susan Cains book "Quiet" is an exceptional exploration of the field, and well worth reading to breakdown some of the misconceptions about introverts.

Is there any hard science that supports that you can generalize the entire population into two categories: introverts and extroverts? I find this impossible to believe.

Introvert and extrovert are the two extremes of a well-defined spectrum which everyone places on somewhere. Those in the middle are called ambiverts.

Why would there even be a spectrum? Maybe a 2 dimensional spectrum. I'm sure someone can be both an extreme introvert and an extreme extrovert. Honestly, I think the idea is ludicrous. People aren't so different. But if there is hard science to back it up, I'd be willing to have my mind changed.

Look at the work of Harvard Professor Jerome Kagan, or the fRMI work of Carl Schwartz at MA General Hospital. People are different, and the differences are measurable, both behaviorally and in brain structure.. It's not as simple as introversion-extroversion, but its also not a useless way of thinking about it.

Anyway, somebody offered you a book to read. You chose to call the ideas in it ludicrous without reading it. Not sure why.

There are also ambiverts :)

Maximum group size: 2.

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