The Philosophy of a hedgehog

[Smarky]

The fox is a cunning creature, it is able to devise a whole range of complex strategies for sneak attacks upon it’s unknowing and unsuspecting prey, the poor helpless hedgehog. Day after day, the fox circles around the hedgehog’s den, waiting for that perfect moment to pounce. Full of plans for attack, cold, calculating and fast, the fox has to be a sure winner right? After all the hedgehog is but a tiny creature which merely goes about it’s simple day searching for lunch and taking care of home.

The hedgehog walks right into the path of the fox, “Aha, got you now!” thinks the fox as he pounces out at full speed charging towards the hedgehog. These moments of planning, cunning and preparing are about to pay off, that is until the hedgehog rolls into a ball of spikes!

The fox may be smart, but hedgehogs are clearly not stupid. They understand that the essence of profound insight is simplicity. In a complex world full of ideas, fashionable trends and techniques to get us where we apparently want to be, all we tend to end up with is confusion and frustration. I would like to suggest that the answer lies in living more like a hedgehog.

If you look at the companies and people that have made the biggest impact in the world, they’re all hedgehogs. They are not necessarily any smarter than anyone else, they where just able to focus on what was important without spending there energy elsewhere. Being a hedgehog is about finding the organizing principle, that piercing insight that allows you to see through complexity and just the main underlying pattern. Hedgehogs in there essence see what is essential and simple ignore the rest.

This is a concept that is so simple and yet so powerful. You can apply it into almost any situation. You simply have to get to the core organizing principle and focus on that. This is a principle that will allow everything else that you would normally focus on, struggle with and become overwhelmed with to happen automatically.

Let’s take an example of a magic lamp, you have three wishes, what do you wish for? Your mind can come up with many ideas and thoughts here, indeed if you really think hard about it you will become overwhelmed and be forced to choose. You could spend an age evaluating all options, since this is your one big chance! Or you could think like a hedgehog and merely wish to be happy! If you are truly happy what else matters? And here is the thing if you are seeking happiness much of what you are wanting will happen anyway, automatically! Without you even having to think about it or noticing how complex it all actually is!

There is an effortlessness in nature. Grass doesn’t try to grow, it just grows. Fish don’t try to swim, they just swim. Flowers don’t try to bloom, they just bloom. I’m sure even the stream would become overwhelmed if it were to continually wonder what it had to do to get to the ocean.

Okay so let’s take this into more practical means. The first step in living like a hedgehog is finding what is essential to you. This can change from time to time as you wish but it must be an organizing principle in your life rather than a 6 thousand page essay.

Some examples might be: To give service to others, to make an impact on the world, To provide comfort and healing, To make music that matters to people.

It is personal stuff, it has to mean something to you. You can have a few of these principles for different areas of your life or indeed separate projects, but you should at least have one underlying principle that will be the guide for everything you do. Any time you have difficulty making an important decision, you can be sure that it's the result of being unclear about what is really important. Once you have this defined, you can move towards it with every action you take in your day. You need not worry about these actions before hand, if you simply keep this idea in your mind, much of this will happen automatically.

Now you can go through your life and just focus on that, your main guiding principles. Without having to worry about anything else or any latest technique for success. Whenever you are faced with any situation you can ask yourself “What is my hedgehog here?” and focus on the organizing principle that will bring positive results.

Some hedgehog concepts applied –

Reading/Learning – How about finding the main idea/theme (Hedgehog concept) in the book and applying that. If you find a good one, the majority of the ideas and techniques will happen automatically. Or better yet you will come up with some of your own which work even better for you!

Relationships – Rather than trying lots of techniques, trying to impress people or create relationships. Just come from a place of having fun for yourself and others, or unconditional, unjudgemental love.

Evaluations – Forget complex evaluation systems, evaluate yourself only during periods set aside in advance for that purpose. Only evaluate what matters and what you can control, not outcomes. You can only control three things, the thoughts you think, the images you visualize and the action you take.

Social events – Rather than figuring out what you are going to say, what you are going to wear, planning out every last detail and stressing over everything. Simply come from the place of having as much fun as possible.

Business – Find the core concept that you can excel at and be better than anyone else in that field. Then concentrate on that. This will allow you to set yourself apart and excel. You can’t be everything to everyone, but you can organize everything you do around an organizing principle.

Music band – Find the purpose of the band and focus on that. If your guiding principle was “To make music that connects and matters to people”. This would affect your song writing process, the sound of the music, touring, interaction with fans etc. Everything would flow from this idea, rather than planning the individual techniques to become great, it would by-product of the single organizing idea.

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by Smarky

The fox is a cunning creature, it is able to devise a whole range of complex strategies for sneak attacks upon it’s unknowing and unsuspecting prey, the poor helpless hedgehog. Day after day, the fox circles around the hedgehog’s den, waiting for that perfect moment to pounce. Full of plans for attack, cold, calculating and fast, the fox has to be a sure winner right? After all the hedgehog is but a tiny creature which merely goes about it’s simple day searching for lunch and taking care of home.

The hedgehog walks right into the path of the fox, “Aha, got you now!” thinks the fox as he pounces out at full speed charging towards the hedgehog. These moments of planning, cunning and preparing are about to pay off, that is until the hedgehog rolls into a ball of spikes!

The fox may be smart, but hedgehogs are clearly not stupid. They understand that the essence of profound insight is simplicity. In a complex world full of ideas, fashionable trends and techniques to get us where we apparently want to be, all we tend to end up with is confusion and frustration. I would like to suggest that the answer lies in living more like a hedgehog.

If you look at the companies and people that have made the biggest impact in the world, they’re all hedgehogs. They are not necessarily any smarter than anyone else, they where just able to focus on what was important without spending there energy elsewhere. Being a hedgehog is about finding the organizing principle, that piercing insight that allows you to see through complexity and just the main underlying pattern. Hedgehogs in there essence see what is essential and simple ignore the rest.

This is a concept that is so simple and yet so powerful. You can apply it into almost any situation. You simply have to get to the core organizing principle and focus on that. This is a principle that will allow everything else that you would normally focus on, struggle with and become overwhelmed with to happen automatically.

Let’s take an example of a magic lamp, you have three wishes, what do you wish for? Your mind can come up with many ideas and thoughts here, indeed if you really think hard about it you will become overwhelmed and be forced to choose. You could spend an age evaluating all options, since this is your one big chance! Or you could think like a hedgehog and merely wish to be happy! If you are truly happy what else matters? And here is the thing if you are seeking happiness much of what you are wanting will happen anyway, automatically! Without you even having to think about it or noticing how complex it all actually is!

There is an effortlessness in nature. Grass doesn’t try to grow, it just grows. Fish don’t try to swim, they just swim. Flowers don’t try to bloom, they just bloom. I’m sure even the stream would become overwhelmed if it were to continually wonder what it had to do to get to the ocean.

Okay so let’s take this into more practical means. The first step in living like a hedgehog is finding what is essential to you. This can change from time to time as you wish but it must be an organizing principle in your life rather than a 6 thousand page essay.

Some examples might be: To give service to others, to make an impact on the world, To provide comfort and healing, To make music that matters to people.

It is personal stuff, it has to mean something to you. You can have a few of these principles for different areas of your life or indeed separate projects, but you should at least have one underlying principle that will be the guide for everything you do. Any time you have difficulty making an important decision, you can be sure that it's the result of being unclear about what is really important. Once you have this defined, you can move towards it with every action you take in your day. You need not worry about these actions before hand, if you simply keep this idea in your mind, much of this will happen automatically.

Now you can go through your life and just focus on that, your main guiding principles. Without having to worry about anything else or any latest technique for success. Whenever you are faced with any situation you can ask yourself “What is my hedgehog here?” and focus on the organizing principle that will bring positive results.

Some hedgehog concepts applied –

Reading/Learning – How about finding the main idea/theme (Hedgehog concept) in the book and applying that. If you find a good one, the majority of the ideas and techniques will happen automatically. Or better yet you will come up with some of your own which work even better for you!

Relationships – Rather than trying lots of techniques, trying to impress people or create relationships. Just come from a place of having fun for yourself and others, or unconditional, unjudgemental love.

Evaluations – Forget complex evaluation systems, evaluate yourself only during periods set aside in advance for that purpose. Only evaluate what matters and what you can control, not outcomes. You can only control three things, the thoughts you think, the images you visualize and the action you take.

Social events – Rather than figuring out what you are going to say, what you are going to wear, planning out every last detail and stressing over everything. Simply come from the place of having as much fun as possible.

Business – Find the core concept that you can excel at and be better than anyone else in that field. Then concentrate on that. This will allow you to set yourself apart and excel. You can’t be everything to everyone, but you can organize everything you do around an organizing principle.

Music band – Find the purpose of the band and focus on that. If your guiding principle was “To make music that connects and matters to people”. This would affect your song writing process, the sound of the music, touring, interaction with fans etc. Everything would flow from this idea, rather than planning the individual techniques to become great, it would by-product of the single organizing idea.

Sorry, this all sounds a bit.............complex

[Angela]

When the hedgehog curls itself into a ball, the cunning fox uses his nose and paws to gently roll it to the river, and when the hedgehog uncurls to swim to shore, the fox dives under the water and eats the hedgehog's soft white underbelly.

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by Angela

When the hedgehog curls itself into a ball, the cunning fox uses his nose and paws to gently roll it to the river, and when the hedgehog uncurls to swim to shore, the fox dives under the water and eats the hedgehog's soft white underbelly.

OUCH

[freedomclub]

What if there is no river around?

[Angela]

Originally Posted by freedomclub

What if there is no river around?

Those foxes, they somehow find a way to get at your soft white underbelly

[Smarky]

So people disagree? This is a business idea from Jim collins (not mine), I was just curious to start a discussion about it.

[silicon toad2000]

Nice analogy, but the only critter who has no natural predators is humans and we're already pretty much as similar to humans as I care for.
Everything has some kind of natural defence otherwise they would be extinct but they aren't flawless otherwise we would be overrun with them.
Really if you look at it, the main things that are really successful and reach plague proportions are things that reproduce prolifically and this is mirrored in business, how successful does starbucks and wallmart seem to be.
As with any environment, things change, plagues die off, businesses crumble and empires are conquered.
There is no hard and fast analogy to look at, the answers become harder to find the closer you get to your goals.

[Rossoneri]

Originally Posted by Smarky

So people disagree? This is a business idea from Jim collins (not mine), I was just curious to start a discussion about it.

You should have written that, now you got a weird dicussion
A great book btw, and I actually liked the idea and thought it was great

[jennifer]

to be fair though, hedgehogs do get run over quite a lot...