Being an Introvert

I tend to be overly quiet a lot, especially when I know noise can travel.  If the walls are thin, then a pair of headphones are usually nearby.  In most apartments I've lived in, I did tend to play music through speakers, but at hopefully a low enough level that it doesn't travel too far.  I feel at times that this being overly quiet a times can perhaps make other people whom might be otherwise uncomfortable with someone whom is overly quiet to feel nervous, although this is just an assumption I hold.

With my introversion, my hobbies tend to stay closer to me.  Only when I feel comfortable in a group, might I bring up a niche hobby, or when I know that the group I am in definitely shares similar hobbies.  Take my passion for technology for example, it's a hobby of mine, or why would I be developing Zope Products and porting a Zope 2 Product over to modern Zope 6.  If you met me in person, unless you mentioned Zope, or anything about technology, you'll probably never even hear me spout the word Zope.  Depending on if I think you might like some of my content, I might share that I have a website, but not really the technology.  I feel what I believe is more relevant to that person I am interacting with in-person.  When it comes to my personal time, and even now when I write onto my website here, I am sharing more general information that I wouldn't just be sharing with anyone I met.  However, with a website such as this, it now becomes your choice to be here, and read these articles.  If you don't like these articles, then that is also your choice, and since there is no comments section, or real way to interact with these posts, those emotions stay with yourself, and I'm never made aware of them otherwise.  Although, I'm not sure how upset you can be about Zope and Plone articles, if they aren't relevant to you, then you don't need to read them.  If you have zero interest in retro Zope, or how Zope Products work, then you are in total control of those browser controls, and can effortless move to a different page, it's really that simple.  This is why I keep in-person conversations relevant to the target audience, as an in-person encounter isn't just one where one can easily just walk away without feeling a bit bad that the conversation didn't go well.  If I don't know anything about you, you'll just get a more shy version of me that will just be polite and helpful when needed.  If I walk into a technology store, or a workplace, then I'll have a lot more to share, and thus more of my personality to share in those situations.

I will also admit that my overall interests are niche and small, which does make it rather difficult to make normal social interactions easy, as I don't have much to really talk about if it's not related to technology.  I occasionally might talk about the weather, or the city I'm in, a topic I'd think that perhaps the other people living there might be-able to converse about.  I guess it doesn't help that I also don't watch a lot of super mainstream television, which also cuts off any potential things to talk about.

This is also why I really miss working in an office environment, as it becomes easier to socialize about my hobbies and passions.  I've been working from home since the pandemic, and it's made me feel so much more alone and isolated.  While I really do like my time alone to myself, it would nice to occasionally talk to someone in-person about similar interests.  It's one reason why I kept going into work, was to keep those social connections going, and to have more stuff to talk about.