There seems to be a misconception in talking about extrovert and introvert. The distinction usually means something like being outward oriented vs inward, socially engaged vs withdrawn and secluded. Sometimes it is even said that the distinction covers where people "get their energy" from, e.g., from the interaction with people vs the interaction with one's ideas. But that characterization passes over an important, though barely visible phenomenon that gets lost when thinking about extrovert and introvert in the aforementioned way. The interesting phenomenon is that some people tend to live with people that are present, whereas others tend to live with people that are absent. That is, some people focus on the interaction with people that are present in their outer lifes, in their spatial vicinity, whereas others focus on the interaction with people that are absent in their outer life but very present in their inner life. Both ways can be painted as people living on different banks of the river Hades, some "here", "in the present", while others "there", in some "other world" or "underworld". The interesting thing is that this phenomenon is independent from but is often mixed up in the talk of "extrovert" and "introvert" (the "absent people" being equated with "ideas"). It ignores that one can be very extrovert and still live with the absent people, as one can be very introvert and live with a whole bunch of people in the near vicinity. Or put differently: The direction one "looks" in doesn't determine what one is looking at. Different chatters arise where one dwells, and they have little to do with how one is looking.

#talkingtomyselflettingyoulisten