The pressure to entertain, to sell ourselves, and never to be visibly anxious keeps ratcheting up.

We don't need giant personalities to transform companies. We need leaders who build not their own egos but the institutions they run.

The bias against introversion leads to a colossal waste of talent, energy, and happiness.

America had shifted from what influential cultural historian Warren Susman called a culture of character to a culture of personality, and opened up a Pandora's box of personal anxieties of which we would never recover.

Another study, of 38,000 knowledge workers across different sectors, found that the simple act of being interrupted is one of the biggest barriers to productivity. Even multitasking, that prized feat of modern-day office warriors, turns out to be a myth.

You're told that you're in your head too much, a phrase that's often deployed against the quiet and cerebral. Or maybe there's another word for such people: thinkers.

Shyness is inherently uncomfortable; introversion is not. The traits do overlap, though psychologists debate to what degree.