"The Hungry Spirit"
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"To learn anything other than the stuff you find in books, you need to be able to experiment, to make mistakes, to accept feedback, and to try again. It doesn't matter whether you are learning to ride a bike or starting a new career, the cycle of experiment, feedback, and new experiment is always there. But you won't risk mistakes if you think you will be punished. You have to be sure of forgiveness if it is a genuine mistake. You won't accept criticism or negative feedback either, unless you are sure it comes from someone you respect, someone that you know has your interests at heart."

— Charles Handy

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets ""To learn anything other than the stuff you find in books, you need to be able to experiment, to make mistakes, to accept feedback, and to try again. It doesn't matter whether you are learning to ride a bike or starting a new career, the cycle of experiment, feedback, and new experiment is always there. But you won't risk mistakes if you think you will be punished. You have to be sure of forgiveness if it is a genuine mistake. You won't accept criticism or negative feedback either, unless you are sure it comes from someone you respect, someone that you know has your interests at heart."" in the context of ""The Hungry Spirit"" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Charles Handy" (Quotes) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Charles Handy

About Charles Handy

Charles Handy (25 July 1932 – 13 December 2024) was an Irish author/philosopher specialising in organisational behaviour and management. Among the ideas he advanced are the "portfolio worker" and the "Shamrock Organization" (in which professional core workers, freelance workers and part-time/temporary routine workers each form one leaf of the "Shamrock").