Very rightly put like only Elif Shafak can. We need to assimilate from everywhere with the openness of the fox and execute with focus like the hedgehog. The statement " bringing the periphery to the centre" is such a profound one.. i will remember and use it in my expressions...
I am a vegetarian so don't know about scrambled eggs..I viewed the statement by Elif Shafak in a more poignant way..not something laughable..May be my comment seemed nonsensical to you...due to my lack of articulation..
Cooking-wise, starting with making a fine cup of tea to putting together, say, a bunch (swedish) meatballs, chicken teriyaki et cetera, baking some yummy bread...should be, would be a piece of cake...and you could articulate that to share with, on the 'net...oh, what fun!!! 👍👏😀
If I can stack onto this bit: "But I don’t like it when they conflate 'information' with proper 'knowledge' and 'knowledge' with 'wisdom'." I also don't like when they conflate "content" with "literature" (or any effort at "writing," actually). And I love the idea of substituting Lamassu for Hedge/Fox, but I yearn for some Enheduanna in that mix
Thank you, Elif. A very interesting opposition. Reminds me a little of the contrast between “big picture” thinkers and people who focus on detail. Again we need, as writers and humans, to develop the flexibility to move between the two.
I think I’m a hedge-fox, though when I’m working on a new novel as I am now, I have to make sure the fox has a long nap while the hedgehog focuses on the task!
I began reading this thinking of the quote 'the main thing is not to forget the main thing' - a throwaway line by a minor character in either Tolstoy or Dostoevsky. And now I can't remember which...googling it only comes up with some other modern geyser. Can anyone help? 🙄
And definitely a fox, like another comment... that's why the novel will never get written! 😊
By curious coincidence, my partner and I cycled out to cafe for breakfast and in the random walk way of cafe conversations we got on to 'what would your spirit animal* be'. I said a fox… but she didn't say hedgehog, she said hare.
*This arose because she's been reading Dana Stabenow's books featuring Kate Shugak, an investigator living in the Alskan bush. Full of insight into indigenous culture there.
Thank you for your thoughts on this ancient piece of philosophical thinking, and in particular around writers and writing.
I link from that to thinking about the power of storytelling for us all, and in my case in working with leaders, of the power of stories to engage and to align people.
I wrote this long piece last year, I hope there are some additional nuggets of value in there from my own thoughts and those thinkers I reference around the topic
A lovely essay Elif! 👏 We need deep dive specialists and broad system integrators. The two types have different brains and rarely work together or appreciate each other. And then we need the ethicists to advise as to what we SHOULD be doing of what we CAN do. Room for many good minds in the mix!
How true. I am a mix of fox and hedgehog. But the hedgehog sometimes needs to lighten up, to let the fox burrow to rest, take care of her young and/or others and climb trees when she feels like it -- the meeting of earth and sky.
There seems to me to be a kind of hubris (or perhaps fear) in acting as though one worldview, one set of conceptual models, is useful for examining the variety of human experience. I wonder if it falls under the rubric, “If you only have a hammer, everything looks like a nail”. So, I guess I cheer for the foxes and wonder what the hedgehog knows beyond rolling into a spiky ball and hiding.
Very rightly put like only Elif Shafak can. We need to assimilate from everywhere with the openness of the fox and execute with focus like the hedgehog. The statement " bringing the periphery to the centre" is such a profound one.. i will remember and use it in my expressions...
The edge^^
Like when making delicious, awesome scrambled egg - periphery to centre - 👏🙏🏻🌌
I am a vegetarian so don't know about scrambled eggs..I viewed the statement by Elif Shafak in a more poignant way..not something laughable..May be my comment seemed nonsensical to you...due to my lack of articulation..
Do you not, anyway, cook for your family and or
friends, who may be aren't vegetarians!?
(I'm vegetarian as well)
I don't cook..i am not good at it, just like I am not good with my words or articulation...
You are fine articulating.
Cooking-wise, starting with making a fine cup of tea to putting together, say, a bunch (swedish) meatballs, chicken teriyaki et cetera, baking some yummy bread...should be, would be a piece of cake...and you could articulate that to share with, on the 'net...oh, what fun!!! 👍👏😀
You could get a Pull-it-suprise too! 🎊
Thanks for the advice.. unfortunately i can't do all that...but you seem to be having a lot of fun taking jibes at me... have fun...
Hedgefox perhaps? I appreciate your sense of universalism…things we share in common both good and awful.
thank you for your words, I have added "hedge-fox" to the essay, many thanks for this
Love the addition! An excellent ending to finding balance between the two. If only I could draw, I would create the mythical hedgefox.
Self portrait^^
Hear hear
If I can stack onto this bit: "But I don’t like it when they conflate 'information' with proper 'knowledge' and 'knowledge' with 'wisdom'." I also don't like when they conflate "content" with "literature" (or any effort at "writing," actually). And I love the idea of substituting Lamassu for Hedge/Fox, but I yearn for some Enheduanna in that mix
Hedgefox indeed. 🦊 🦔
Thank you, Elif. A very interesting opposition. Reminds me a little of the contrast between “big picture” thinkers and people who focus on detail. Again we need, as writers and humans, to develop the flexibility to move between the two.
I think I’m a hedge-fox, though when I’m working on a new novel as I am now, I have to make sure the fox has a long nap while the hedgehog focuses on the task!
I began reading this thinking of the quote 'the main thing is not to forget the main thing' - a throwaway line by a minor character in either Tolstoy or Dostoevsky. And now I can't remember which...googling it only comes up with some other modern geyser. Can anyone help? 🙄
And definitely a fox, like another comment... that's why the novel will never get written! 😊
I love the idea that all writers should be part hedgehog, part fox.
Definitely a fox which is likely why that book will never get written. Captivating and interesting piece as usual 🩵
By curious coincidence, my partner and I cycled out to cafe for breakfast and in the random walk way of cafe conversations we got on to 'what would your spirit animal* be'. I said a fox… but she didn't say hedgehog, she said hare.
*This arose because she's been reading Dana Stabenow's books featuring Kate Shugak, an investigator living in the Alskan bush. Full of insight into indigenous culture there.
Thank you for your thoughts on this ancient piece of philosophical thinking, and in particular around writers and writing.
I link from that to thinking about the power of storytelling for us all, and in my case in working with leaders, of the power of stories to engage and to align people.
I wrote this long piece last year, I hope there are some additional nuggets of value in there from my own thoughts and those thinkers I reference around the topic
https://tommccallum.com/2023/05/21/make-the-time-to-be-more-than-a-hedgehog/
A lovely essay Elif! 👏 We need deep dive specialists and broad system integrators. The two types have different brains and rarely work together or appreciate each other. And then we need the ethicists to advise as to what we SHOULD be doing of what we CAN do. Room for many good minds in the mix!
How true. I am a mix of fox and hedgehog. But the hedgehog sometimes needs to lighten up, to let the fox burrow to rest, take care of her young and/or others and climb trees when she feels like it -- the meeting of earth and sky.
I just LOVE this essay!! Amen to the hedgefox!
I adored this piece of writing and am very glad that it found me. Something I will think about for sure.
There seems to me to be a kind of hubris (or perhaps fear) in acting as though one worldview, one set of conceptual models, is useful for examining the variety of human experience. I wonder if it falls under the rubric, “If you only have a hammer, everything looks like a nail”. So, I guess I cheer for the foxes and wonder what the hedgehog knows beyond rolling into a spiky ball and hiding.