I did some more thinking today about shyness. (Ok, so i spent most of today at a wedding reception for my friends Ron and Nancy, where i both confronted full-on my own shy nature, and consumed a fair bit of the ethanol-based beverages provided. Thinking, i tell you - i was thinking!)

My main musing was that being shy and charsimatic are not mutually exclusive characteristics in humans. Perhaps it is the element of charisma that keeps folks from believing it when shy folks feel, well, shy. For example, our old roomate James is almost the definition of 'shy, but charismatic'. My brother caught most of my family's charisma quota, but maybe mine only surfaces when i'm talking to people i already know, or folks in the food industry? Hard to say.

(Clearly, you can also be charismatic but not at all shy - my CEO is an exemplary case therin.)