In The Hedgehog and the Fox: An Essay on Tolstoy’s View of History, Isaiah Berlin observes:

“There is a line among the fragments of the Greek poet Archilochus which says: ‘The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing’. Scholars have differed about the correct interpretation of these dark words, which may mean no more than that the fox, for all his cunning, is defeated by the hedgehog’s one defense. But, taken figuratively, the words can be made to yield a sense in which they mark one of the deepest differences which divide writers and thinkers, and, it may be, human beings in general. For there exists a great chasm between those, on one side, who relate everything to a single central vision, one system less or more coherent or articulate, in terms of which they understand, think and feel-a single, universal, organizing principle in terms of which alone all that they are and say has significance-and, on the other side, those who pursue many ends, often unrelated and even contradictory, connected, if at all, only in some de facto way, for some psychological or physiological cause, related by no moral or aesthetic principle; these last lead lives, perform acts, and entertain ideas that are centrifugal rather than centripetal, their thought is scattered or diffused, moving on many levels, seizing upon the essence of a vast variety of experiences and objects for what they are in themselves, without consciously or unconsciously, seeking to fit them into, or exclude them from, any one unchanging, all-embracing, sometimes self-contradictory and incomplete, at times fanatical, unitary inner vision. The first kind of intellectual and artistic personality belongs to the hedgehogs, the second to the foxes; and without insisting on a rigid classification, we may, without too much fear of contradiction, say that, in this sense, Dante belongs to the first category, Shakespeare to the second.”

Here’s my take:

1. Both the Fox and the Hedgehog have commendable virtues but also limitations that must be recognized.

2. Berlin seems to be suggesting that there are some situations in which it is better to be a Hedgehog, others when it is better to be a Fox.

3. He also seems to be suggesting that it is possible to develop both mindsets but, in my opinion, it is significant challenge to know which to use when.

4. Carol Dweck has much of value to say about developing a growth mindset. I highly recommend her book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Presumably it can help both hedgehogs and foxes to achieve goals, whatever they may be.

I’m going back now to re-read Berlin’s observations again and suggest you do the same.