The hedgehogs dilema

 

One cold winter’s day, a number of hedgehogs huddled together quite closely in order through their mutual warmth to prevent themselves from being frozen. But they soon felt the effect of their quills on one another, which made them again move apart. Now when the need for warmth once more brought them together, the drawback of the quills was repeated so that they were tossed between two evils, until they had discovered the proper distance from which they could best tolerate one another.

Arthur Schopenhauer

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Num dia frio de inverno, alguns ouriços juntaram-se muito perto uns dos outros para, através do seu calor mútuo, evitarem ficar congelados. Mas depressa sentiram o efeito dos seus espinhos uns nos outros, o que os fez voltar a afastar-se. Quando a necessidade de calor os juntou de novo, o inconveniente dos espinhos repetiu-se, de modo que foram postos entre dois males, até terem descoberto a distância adequada a partir da qual se podiam tolerar melhor uns aos outros.