Election Death Match: The Hedghog vs. the Fox
There are two men standing in front of us today. One is specialist. His life-energy is aimed at one specific target. He delves deeply in to things, but is lacking breadth and context. We’ve called him the hedgehog. (see more about the hedgehog and Isiah Berlin who dubbed him thus, in my previous blog post.)
The second man applies himself in many areas, but without the intensity and depth of the hedgehog. He is talented, but diverse. We’ve dubbed him the fox.
I propose that Hillary Clinton is a hedgehog and that the recent election pitted this Hedgehog against a fox (Donald Trump). Here is my thinking:
The hedgehog taken to its extreme is an autistic savant. He has only one skill and when applying this skill, he is a genius. When it comes to anything else, he comes across as an idiot. Hence the term idiot savant.
The extreme fox is also mostly useless. The extreme fox is a dilettante who moves from field to field without sustained focus, without putting in the energy to develop useful life skills. He might fleetingly dive into the latest diet or trend, but doesn’t put in the effort to produce meaningful results.
This the extreme hedgehog and fox are rare; archetypes rather than people you meet on the street. In fact, most of us are mixed breeds. We are a cross between the hedgehog and fox. Look at yourself for a moment:
You are a hedgehog: You have hobbies you love that you dive into with passion. You have traits and skills that you focus on. This makes you forgo developing other traits.
You are a fox: Even the most diehard specialist must develop his talents in outside areas. You’ve spent time working on your people skills and your technology skills (google, email, smartphone…). You have many abilities that you employ every day.
Since we all possess some hedgehog and fox traits, what is important is whether a person leans more towards being a specialist (hedgehog) or a fox. We can also characterize people relative to each other. We can contrast two people and say, “of this pair, who is the hedgehog and who is the fox”.
Thus the terms hedgehog and fox derive much of their explanatory power, not from a strict, absolute definition, but rather from a relative or continuum approach. When we want to classify Hillary Clinton we ask, “on the continuum is she closer to being a hedgehog or a fox”. When looking at her as a presidential nominee, we ask “compared to her opponent Donald Trump, is Hillary a hedgehog or a fox”. I invite you to consider these questions now.
Looking at Hillary Clinton, we see an assortment of valuable skills. Her varied abilities could classify her as a fox, but note that most of her skills fall within the political domain. Let’s look at some of these skills now:
Networking- Hillary brought the Democrat political class together. It’s clear that the Democrat National Committee gave her active support over her rival Bernie Sandars. She also established vital media connections. Her connections in the media even leaked to her in advance, questions that would be asked during the first debate. This was a product of incredible networking and rapport building.
Debate / Debate Prep- We can debate who won which debate, but Hillary was clearly better prepared and came across as more intelligent and knowledgeable on the issues.
Marriage- From a political standpoint, Hillary clearly married the right man. She also put up with Bill and his philandering for thirty years.
Patience- It’s clear that Hillary had been planning her run to the presidency for a very long time. During that time, she tirelessly developed the qualifications needed to be POTUS (Lawyer, Senator, Secretary of State…).
A Resolute Fighter- Hillary took Donald Trump on HEAD-ON even when things got tough. This was on display during the second debate when Trump surprised the Clintons, bringing to the debate four women who claimed that Bill and Hillary ruined their lives. During the debate, Trump paced the stage “like a silverback guerilla”. Hillary seemed taken off-guard, but she slugged it out with Trump for the entire debate.
It’s clear from Hillary Clinton’s repertoire of abilities that she has developed many more skills than most politicians. We might even classify her as a political hedgehog. However, when compared to Donald Trump, she comes across as a hedgehog, since most of her skills fall under one basic umbrellan: politics.
Donald Trump’s diverse “internships” and skills classify him as a fox. Perhaps he is even a radical fox (or an alpha fox). What’s more is that Trump’s skill set seems to have been cultivated with intent. Many of his skills complement and build upon each other, forming what Scott Adams calls a talent stack.
Trump’s talent stack was his secret tool for winning the election. We’ll look at his talent stack in the next post.
Next Post – The Trump Talent Stack
Previous Post – The Hedgehog and The Fox
