The introvert's view

I am by nature an introvert. Groups of people emotionally and mentally drain me.

I'm OK with very large groups, such as I might encounter in a shopping mall (although I dislike malls for other reasons). But groups of ten to fourteen people, where I'm expected to simultaneously follow two or three conversations and contribute to each, overload me to the extent that I often find myself falling asleep as my mind tries to protect itself.

And this may be evidence of some fundamental arrogance and elitism, but I often find myself listening to conversations and thinking, "How can you even waste time and energy talking about that? You'd be better off saying nothing at all - and so would we." Even when I was a fairly heavy drinker in my twenties, I don't think I considered being drunk to be such a grand adventure that I had to talk about it as if it were a trip abroad.

I suspect the early Taoist masters were introverts. The frequent advice to remove oneself from political and social intrigues, to stay close to nature and to speak infrequently reflect the introvert's basic nature.

I'd be happy to find a small community of like-minded individuals. But I guess it's our basic nature to not form communities.