305. Hedgehogs and Foxes

<p>According to philosopher Isaiah Berlin, people think in one of two different ways: They’re either hedgehogs, or foxes. If you think like a hedgehog, you’ll be more successful as a communicator. If you think like a fox, you’ll be more accurate.</p> <h3><!-- /wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph --> <!-- /wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:heading {"level":3} --></h3> <h3>Isaiah Berlin coined the hedgehog/fox dichotomy (via Archilochus)</h3> <h3><!-- /wp:heading --><!-- wp:paragraph --></h3> <p>In Isaiah Berlin’s 1953 essay, <a href= "https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00COJ0HLM?tag=kadavyinc-20">“The Hedgehog and the Fox,”</a> he quotes the ancient Greek poet, Archilochus:</p> <h3><!-- /wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:quote --></h3> <blockquote class="wp-block-quote"> <p>The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one thing.</p> </blockquote> <h3><!-- /wp:quote --><!-- wp:paragraph --></h3> <p>Berlin describes this as “one of the deepest differences which divide writers and thinkers, and, it may be, human beings in general.”</p> <h3><!-- /wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:heading {"level":3} --></h3> <h3>How are “hedgehogs” and “foxes” different?</h3> <h3><!-- /wp:heading --><!-- wp:paragraph --></h3> <p>According to Berlin, <strong>hedgehogs</strong> relate everything to a single central vision. <strong>Foxes</strong> pursue many ends, often unrelated or even contradictory.</p> <h3><!-- /wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph --></h3> <p><strong>If you’re a hedgehog, you explain the world through a focused belief or area of expertise.</strong> Maybe you’re a chemist, and you see everything as chemical reactions. Maybe you’re highly religious, and everything is “God’s will.”</p> <h3><!-- /wp:paragraph --><!-- wp:paragraph --></h3> <p><strong>If you’re a fox, you explain the world through a variety of lenses.</strong> You may try on conflicting beliefs for size, or use your knowledge in a wide variety of fields to understand the world. You explain things as <em>From this perspective, X. But on the other hand, Y. It’s also worth considering Z.</em></