Awkward and awesome

Today was the last day of SXSW Interactive in Austin. My first session of the day was called, 'Introvert Uprising: When the Silent Strike Back.'

I knew it would be awkward. I knew if you stuck a bunch of introverts in a room, we'd all not sit by each other, look at our phones and computers the whole time, and not say a single word to each other.

That's exactly what happened. It was as awkward and awesome as I imagined it would be.

Picture this: The room is pretty large. There are about 300 chairs. There were around 50 people who attended the session, and we all sat at the end of each row of chairs.

No one sat remotely close to each other.

I had a hard time not laughing and giggling throughout the session. I covered my mouth with my hand several times to try to not laugh (I was the only one doing this, so maybe I was the weirdest introvert in the room).

Some of the tweets were pretty funny:

• "What happens when you put 50 introverts in a room together?"

• "Panel on introversion at 9:30 a.m. = no one in the room talking to anybody else."

I had a huge smile on my face that whole hour. Jesus, the world would be a boring place if it was full of people like me.

Part of me was hoping there would be extroverted co-workers and managers in that session, wanting to learn about how to work with and care for introverts. Of course, that wasn't the case. The panel of introverts were really just preaching to an introverted choir...which is okay, I suppose.

I think we all just wanted an hour of quiet, away from the noise of the more than 30,000 people who attend this event. Busy! Noise! Business! People!

I just wanted some quiet time. I got that today, and I'm thankful for that.

I had a session yesterday in the same hotel, and I was brave enough to get a cab ride back to the convention center with a perfectly decent Austin man. We had a nice conversation with the driver, we joked about Kansas weather and talked about where we worked.

The introvert session was in that same hotel. The introverts did not get into a cab with each other afterward. We all walked in a single file line, quietly and without talking to each other, for the handful of blocks back to civilization.

I'm still laughing about this. I've never experienced something so awkward and awesome at the same time.

There are a few points that I liked in the talk. Among them:

It's not something that can be cured.

Yep.

We're not broken extroverts.

I've been meaning to write a blog about introversion for a while now. I'm sure within the bowels of my computer there's a post started somewhere. I'm too lazy to look for it right now.

In the meantime, there's this TED talk from Susan Cain that's all sorts of wonderful. It was mentioned in today's session. She also has a book, which I told myself I'd read soon. As the speakers said today at SXSW, Susan Cain somehow became the authority on all things related to introverts. I listen to her TED talk once a month or so.

My favorite part of it:

But introverts, you being you, you probably have the impulse to guard very carefully what’s inside your own suitcase. And that’s okay. But occasionally, just occasionally, I hope you will open up your suitcases for other people to see, because the world needs you and it needs the things you carry. 

I'm sure I have more to say on the subject, but I have a meeting to go to.

Until later!