Confessions of an Introvert

February 2, 2009
Introverts will find more niche marketing than useful guidance in this slapdash self-help. Weir's suggestions are bland, obvious, often irrelevant and sometimes plain juvenile; helpful exercises include filling out the chart, "What do I want out of my life?" and selecting words from the "I Am vs. I Will Be" columns. Weir's observation that we get paralyzed by our routines is viable, but the model of success she provides-breaking out of her black boot routine by buying a pair of platinum shoes-would be laughable if it weren't so unhelpful. Unfortunately, all of Weir's examples come from her own life, diminishing the authority and practicality of her work, and many of her solutions (like hiring someone to buy the groceries and organize her closet) involve throwing money at the problem, hardly a viable solution for a reader still looking for her break. If, as she says repeatedly, Weir has such a wide circle of contacts, she probably should have used them to get some perspective-or at least some better anecdotes.