Internationally acclaimed scholar Dr. Brian Little is a personality researcher and psychologist. He’s a Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus at Carleton University and is a former professor at McGill, Oxford, and at my alma mater Harvard, where his course on personality won him the Favorite Professor award continuous years in a row. Known for his boisterous presentations and his widely popular Ted Talk, ‘Confessions of a Passionate Introvert’ and his newest Ted Talk, ‘Who Are You Really? The Puzzle of Personality,’ Dr. Little is also the author of Me, Myself, and Us: The Science of Personality and the Art of Well-Being and I’m happy to have him here with me today.

BRIAN LITTLE

“Social interaction is all about subtlety.”

“I’m a big fan of technology and the audacious things we’re doing right now.”

“There’s a bit of a danger with robotics, the closer you get to simulating real people, it’s more off-putting.”

“The more we can explore the limits of technology, the better off we are.”

“In 1966, I spent 10 months in library of Oxford to see if there was any evidence of if plastic surgery has changed the personality of a person. I didn’t find any.”

“The British accent is known for enhancing your IQ, until you do something stupid.

“I was torn between humanities and the sciences. Psychology was a wonderful way of looking at neurons and narratives in the same semester.”

“I decided to study psychology because it was such an intoxicated study of how people see themselves.”

“I began to realize I was introverted in adolescence. I knew I was conflict adverse. I was over-stimulated by too much social contact.”

“As a professor, and as a dad, you’re called to act out of character.”

“Our main job is to profess, to convey with passion what you feel to be true. It’s an extroverted performance.”

“Many leaders in business are introverted. But they need to find the capacity to rise to occasions to sell their company.”

“After my lectures, at the break I was so over-stimulated that I needed to get away. Then the students realized that I was off in the men’s room.”

“Just as introverts need to recharge after over-stimulation, extroverts who are asked to adopt a free trait that asks them to act of character, also need a restorative niche.”

“We need to be attune to the various subtleties of our chemistries that make us complex creatures.”

“Enlightened companies are providing niches that will satisfy all aspects of personalities.”

“As we become more and more virtual, the more we are seen to replicate face-to-face communication. We don’t know the effect of this yet.”

“Being godsmacked by the beauty of life is something that occurs that when you turn the corner of street you’ve never been to.”

“We often act of character because of the projects that matter to us in our lives.”

“Men often take it upon themselves to look out for their moms. This is a core project where one can act of character.”

“How do we know what our core projects are? Most people do when they see the possibility of the projects disappearing.”

“Most people have up to 15 core projects in their lives. Kids, work, losing 10 pounds. Some are trivial pursuits, others are magnificent.”

“My own personal hint toward people’s first nature is a vocal tone.”

“Introverts speak quietly. Extroverts speak loudly. The tone and syntax differs.”

“Highly creative people are open to experience, moody, they can be a pain in the neck. They succeed and become transformers.”

“The quiet background people are the ones that make the creative project succeed.”

“In any successful start-up you need to have both dimensions of personality.”

“Meyers Briggs is one of the most popular personality test. My concern is that it might pigeon-hole people.”

“If you see yourself in only constrictive traits then you may follow those traits.”

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