> Related to this, I have never believed that (at least extreme) extroverts understand introverts in any deep sense.
> Introverts do understand extroverts though - we know the interactions are feeding a need in them not unlike the need for a fix of a someone addicted to an addictive, although not enormously harmful, drug.
These sound like the nihilistic words of neither an introvert or an extrovert but a misanthrope. I wonder if you recognize the irony intrinsic in stereotyping people into the categorically questionable binary separation between introvert and extrovert in a manner that favors and gets revenge on those "pesky" extroverts, as it's exactly the kind of treatment that the wrong members (who usually wear it with undue pride) of the "extrovert" apply destructively and quite regularly.
My opinion is that the impulse to accurately model the behavior of people this broadly, belies an inability to accurately model any of it at all.
I don't see where you think I'm getting revenge on "pesky extroverts." I'm trying to understand them. And it's a useful model, e.g., to explain why for my wife's closest friend, Covid lockdown and social distancing caused enormous anxiety and even pain, whereas I experienced them as a serendipitous release from social overstimulation. He experience withdrawal; I experienced a haven. That doesn't mean I don't respect him, or like him, or that I want to change him. It just means I understand that he has a genuine need that I do not.
That's not to say I might not also be a misanthrope. You're not the first to venture such a diagnosis. I most certainly am not a nihilist, however.
> Introverts do understand extroverts though - we know the interactions are feeding a need in them not unlike the need for a fix of a someone addicted to an addictive, although not enormously harmful, drug.
These sound like the nihilistic words of neither an introvert or an extrovert but a misanthrope. I wonder if you recognize the irony intrinsic in stereotyping people into the categorically questionable binary separation between introvert and extrovert in a manner that favors and gets revenge on those "pesky" extroverts, as it's exactly the kind of treatment that the wrong members (who usually wear it with undue pride) of the "extrovert" apply destructively and quite regularly.
My opinion is that the impulse to accurately model the behavior of people this broadly, belies an inability to accurately model any of it at all.