The Engineer as Fox or Hedgehog

From The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fall-but Some Don't by Nate Silver.  What a fox versus hedgehog engineer might look like.  The context is modeling and forecasting, but could apply to a larger sphere of engineering and business.

The engineer as fox - -

• Multidisciplinary - - Incorporates ideas from different disciplines and regardless of their origin.
• Adaptable - - Find a new approach - or pursue multiple approaches at the same time - if they aren't sure the original one is working.
• Self-critical - - Sometimes willing (if rarely happy) to acknowledge mistakes in their predictions and accept blame for them.
• Tolerant of complexity - - See the universe as complicated, perhaps to the point of many fundamental problems being irresolvable or inherently unpredictable.
• Cautious - - Express their predictions in probabilistic terms and qualify their opinions.
• Empirical - - Rely more on observation than theory.

The engineer as hedgehog - -

• Specialized - - Often have spent the bulk of their careers on one or two great problems.  May view the opinions of "outsiders" skeptically.
• Stalwart - - Stick to the same "all-in" approach - new data is used to refine the original model.
• Stubborn - - Mistakes are blamed on bad luck or on idiosyncratic circumstances - a good model had a bad day.
• Order-seeking - - Expect that the world will be found to abide by relatively simple governing relationships once the signal is identified through the noise.
• Confident - - Rarely hedge their predictions and are reluctant to change them.
• Ideological - - Expect that solutions to many day-to-day problems are manifestations of some grander theory or struggle.