In 1953, the philosopher Isaiah Berlin took a fragment of ancient Greek poetry and used it to divide the world into two kinds of thinkers: “The Fox knows many things, but the Hedgehog knows one big thing.” 

He described a chasm between people who see the world through a “single central vision” and those who “pursue many ends, often unrelated and even contradictory.” 

This distinction helps explain how architecture lost its influence.

Architecture is a Fox’s discipline. It sits between capital, politics, infrastructure, climate, design, engineering, art, psychology, and economics. Its task is to hold these domains together, manage complexity, and, at its best, make spaces and places in which we can live better together.

The role has been one of great influence, used by those in power to manifest their vision and values. The Fox-like architect can cross over domains, lead public debate on the most pressing issues of the day, and work with the greatest power in the land to shape the future of our cities. 

Between 1984 and 2003, psychologist Philip Tetlock, led an extensive study comparing the predictions of 284 experts, who he categorized as either Foxes or Hedgehogs. He found that a Hedgehog is “more likely to be overconfident … and slow to change their minds when they are wrong,” whereas a Fox “uses a variety of analytical tools, is more likely to be self-critical, and more likely to update their beliefs in response to new information.” 

After 20 years and 28,000 predictions, Tetlock was forced to conclude that........

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