Are you a fox or a hedgehog?

All my life, I've struggled with the idea of giving a "solid answer" to any big issue. I observe all sorts of experts on stage and tv and even here on LinkedIn telling the audience that if they do A, B + C, they will be successful:

10 Things Successful People Do Every Day, The Secret to Going Viral on LinkedIN, The 7 Immutable Laws of Selling Your Product, Reverse Engineering YouTube Algorithms, Do This and Get Rich, Growth Hacks That Guarantee Success...etc etc

But if these immutable, guaranteed secrets to success were actually immutable, guaranteed secrets to success, wouldn't everyone be wildly successful overnight because they're implementing these lessons?

Still, it's what many people really really want. The promise of shortcuts is a tempting one. If there is one universal I can agree with, it's that us human beings will pick the lazy option if it's presented to us. And so, when I read about The Hedgehog and the Fox in The Signal and the Noise by Nate Silver a few years back, I realized what was going on. As Archilochus (the originator of the tale) wrote:

The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.

Though I try very hard to sound like a hedgehog - as hedgehogs are the types that get ahead and get rewarded for their immutable guaranteed secrets to success - I am a hopeless fox. Driven crazy by curiosity and frequent new discoveries of information that throw everything I believe into question, I cannot bear to say, "This is the exact right solution" to anything. And as I grow older and learn more, it only gets worse.

In 2013, I spoke at a conference where I outlined a rough description of hedgehog versus fox thinking. Here is the slide (34) that lists the different approaches:

Now, I understand that, like any other made up dichotomies, there are few people who fit neatly into one category or the other. For instance, I am a fox, who works hard to sound like a hedgehog (and I still mix my intuition with data). And that a neat and tidy analogy like this one is, ironically, pretty hedgehog in its approach. But the story really resonated with me.

So, after you watch this week's video, I'd love for you to tell me: are you a fox or a hedgehog? A fox-leaning hedgehog? A hedgehog with foxy tendencies? Let me know in the comments.

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Truly Social is a web series that you can share with your boss or client when they're not really "getting" social. It's also the name of my company - where we work with clients on helping them develop their own content series.

I've been working on this social stuff for over 18 years and I've been a participant in the social web since 1992. My videos (usually) come out every week ...with ~5 minute "lessons" on what are truly social practices (and what are NOT).