Foxes and Hedgehogs
As I finished the book, “Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World” by David Epstein, I learned about hedgehogs and foxes.
For students of literature and philosophy, this will not be new. But I somehow missed this gem in my student days. (As a self-realized fox, are our student days ever really finished?) There was an essay published in 1953 by Isaiah Berlin called “The Hedgehog and the Fox”. It’s a treatise on Tolstoy’s view of history. But the hook of this particular essay is this:
There are two kinds of people in this world (okay the cliche is all mine), foxes and hedgehogs. Foxes are interested in many things. Hedgehogs focus on a single system.
I am hooked.
Berlin is a philosopher. There are a lot of words in this essay that most modern readers would prefer not to bushwhack their way through.
One of Berlin’s conclusions is that Tolstoy is a Fox who believes in being a hedgehog (I state this in an irreverently simple way).
In this respect, I relate to Tolstoy on a spiritual level.
Hedgehogs are interested in the many amazing things this universe has to offer us. There is something beautiful about this.
There is something rightly practical and efficient about living within a system.
A hedgehog living in a foxes’ brain can be infuriating.
And sometimes a gift.
This essay is making me work hard to sort it all out.
