Kind of unrelated directly to the article, but in reference to many comments - can't recommend these two books enough: The Charisma Myth and How to make friends

Kind of unrelated directly to the article, but in reference to many comments - can't recommend these two books enough: The Charisma Myth and How to make friends and influence people (I know, maybe not the best title). Those two books completely changed my life. They helped me become more confident, less socially anxious and be able to connect with people in a much deeper way than I was capable of before. The first time I tried reading the How to make friends book, I couldn't really fully make sense of it or enjoy it (in fact I was offended that someone gave to me as a gift). It took reading the Charisma book and a lot of practice (yes, just reading these books won't help you, you'll need to put in a lot of work) to get to the point where the other book was helpful.