Over the years I’ve done quite a few interviews and not many questions stump me anymore but this one did.
Are you an introvert or an extrovert?
It’s not very often someone asks a question about you in a interview.
I came home and talked about it and realized that I’m an introvert whose job has requirements to be an extrovert on occasion. I think, truly, that I can be an extrovert when I need to be.
My closest anythings know that if given the opportunity I’d close the door, shut the lights off, and probably work on something in the dark for weeks on end. Darkness tends to reduce distractions. In the weekends I got to spend alone in my SF apartment, I’d typically draw the shades and turn my phone off from Friday night until Sunday night. I’d spend the time reading and writing what those same anythings know as shitty code.
Most of that code has either been long replaced or never shared, like a terrifically strange journal entry that I don’t even know where I left.
With all the time in the world and a lack of responsibility I tend to use the time I can to invent and try to make something new. There’s a deep irony that in order to share whatever idea comes from that time, I need to share it if I want it to go anywhere.
Over the years writing has been a very passive way for me to engage in sharing while being able to control the frequency at which I’m required to do so.
Lately, I’ve started blocking off time to intentionally be alone. There are places that I’ve come to understand that I can go and just be. I really value those places.
I realized that I’m an introvert through the question and time talking/thinking after. The times when I need to be an extrovert, on stage or otherwise, I decide to be. It took a lot of practice and it still takes a lot of energy.
When I’m truly left to do whatever I want I tend to close off and use the time to recover and create. Recovering and creating feel like the same thing to me.