Welcome

So, you’re shy. What does the world think about you and your shyness? Well, it thinks that shyness is a simple matter, another word for a predisposition to social anxiety; that shyness is an illness that should be cured; and that shy people are inferior to those possessed of a more gregarious disposition.

Well, on this site I’ll take a contrarian view, and argue that what is labelled as shyness is often far from simple; that shyness is a complex collection of personality traits that need to be carefully managed so as to achieve happiness; and that shy people are superior, in at least some respects, to those for whom “the loud laugh speaks the vacant mind”.

I suppose I should first set out the approach that I’m going to take when presenting the material on this website. As someone who can readily strike up a conversation with a complete stranger I have one foot firmly in the extrovert camp; but as someone who can spend a considerable period of time alone without feeling any discomfort I can also claim to have some direct understanding of the introvert mind and its workings. So I might have decided to present the material in the balanced manner of an academic paper, a manner that eschews polemic and treats its subject matter impartially. However, as you, the readers of this site, will be presumed to be shy and my main motivation is to help improve your sense of self-worth, I’ll make the occasional excursion from the “neutral zone”. As you are so often victimized, usually inadvertently, by those who are more extroverted, and you lack an effective means of redress, I shall endeavour to make the occasional verbal side-swipe at your tormentors in the hope that it will make you feel at least a little better on occasion. Of course, this polemic will not always be entirely fair to the “movers and shakers” of this world. But then again, as you will have noted, when were those same “movers and shakers” ever entirely fair to you?

Directory of Shy in The Firelight

For a complete list of links to all the pages on this site see: