I learned something new and seemingly relevant to this discussion listening to a podcast on the way home from the Grand Canyon: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which as knowledgeable as you seem, you’re probably already familiar with. Anyway, I think I’ve been doing just fine on the bottom four my whole life. But here’s the fifth one:
Self-Actualization needs—realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences.
So it seems like I’m working backwards on this self-actualization list now. I’ve had tons of super cool peak experiences already. Now, for the first time, I’m kind of interested in personal growth, too. On the page I linked, it talked about characteristics of self-actualizers and behavior of self-actualizers… I think it all describes me already, except for “taking responsibility and working hard” and maybe I should just trust this psychology research and assume that if I become ambitious about something, it will actually make me even happier. What do you think? Have you learned much psychology? How relevant is this to rationality and intentionally making “winning” choices?
:) I remember reading about it for the first time in the parking lot when I was waiting for my Mom to finish up at the butcher. (I remember the place I was at when I learned a lot of things)
Psychology is very interesting to me and I know a pretty good amount about it. As far as things I’m knowledgeable about, I know a decent amount about: rationality, web development, startups, neuroscience and psychology (and basketball!). And I know a little bit about economics, science in general, philosophy, and maybe business.
Anyway, I think I’ve been doing just fine on the bottom four my whole life. But here’s the fifth one:
Interesting. I actually figured that you were good with the top one too. For now, I’ll just say that I see it as more of a multiplier than a hole to be filled up. Ie. someone with neutral self-actualization would mostly be fine—you multiply zero (neutral) by BigNumber. Contrast this with a hole-to-be-filled-up view, where you’re as fulfilled as the hole is full. (Note that I just made this up; these aren’t actual models, as far as I know). Anyway, in the multiplier view, neutral is much much better than negative, because the negative is multiplied by BigNumber. So please be careful!
Also:
I learned something new and seemingly relevant to this discussion listening to a podcast on the way home from the Grand Canyon: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which as knowledgeable as you seem, you’re probably already familiar with. Anyway, I think I’ve been doing just fine on the bottom four my whole life. But here’s the fifth one:
Self-Actualization needs—realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences.
So it seems like I’m working backwards on this self-actualization list now. I’ve had tons of super cool peak experiences already. Now, for the first time, I’m kind of interested in personal growth, too. On the page I linked, it talked about characteristics of self-actualizers and behavior of self-actualizers… I think it all describes me already, except for “taking responsibility and working hard” and maybe I should just trust this psychology research and assume that if I become ambitious about something, it will actually make me even happier. What do you think? Have you learned much psychology? How relevant is this to rationality and intentionally making “winning” choices?
:) I remember reading about it for the first time in the parking lot when I was waiting for my Mom to finish up at the butcher. (I remember the place I was at when I learned a lot of things)
Psychology is very interesting to me and I know a pretty good amount about it. As far as things I’m knowledgeable about, I know a decent amount about: rationality, web development, startups, neuroscience and psychology (and basketball!). And I know a little bit about economics, science in general, philosophy, and maybe business.
Interesting. I actually figured that you were good with the top one too. For now, I’ll just say that I see it as more of a multiplier than a hole to be filled up. Ie. someone with neutral self-actualization would mostly be fine—you multiply zero (neutral) by BigNumber. Contrast this with a hole-to-be-filled-up view, where you’re as fulfilled as the hole is full. (Note that I just made this up; these aren’t actual models, as far as I know). Anyway, in the multiplier view, neutral is much much better than negative, because the negative is multiplied by BigNumber. So please be careful!