> You don't become more extroverted, but you can improve your social skills.
The way I did it is: I learned to _pretend_ to be extroverted. It works!
The way I did it is: I learned to _pretend_ to be extroverted. It works!
I'm pretty good at socializing when I need to. I'll still most likely be wishing throughout that I was out eating dinner or having a beer at a brewery by myself with a good book or HN on my eInk tablet. Being by myself is extremely restorative and makes me happy.
I think this is what having an introverted personality is like.
I think it is easier for introvertes to gain extrovertion skill (clear benefits) than extroverts to gain introversion skills (benefits of being alone is not that obvious)
For some reason, and especially on HN, extroversion is seen as a simple meaningless choice at best or sociopathic and manipulative at worst. It's really about finding new ideas, updating your mental models, and making rational decisions. So many things in life depend on your surroundings. if you're not interacting with the humans in it, you are just avoiding change. If you only socialize on the internet and with groups of like-minded people you find in real life, you are being manipulated.