The Neo Hierarchy of Needs And Reality Architecture
How to frame your perspective to escape your condition
If you don't like the hand that fate's dealt you with, fight for a new one.” – Masashi Kishimoto
For the longest time, Batman was my favorite superhero. He had the gadgets, the muscles, the house. He even had a cool butler. But the thing that made Batman so interesting to me wasn’t just all of the techniques and toys.
It was the fact he could do all of this without superpowers.
We all have a huge amount of potential. We all have an untapped reservoir of greatness inside of us.
With that said, most of us will never reach it.
I don’t blame anyone who doesn’t either.
I get it.
There are some many different things that are competing for our attention.
How am I supposed to jet set to Bali when I have bills piling up?
How am I supposed to get in shape when all I can afford is fast food?
How am I supposed to find meaningful connections when I have to work two jobs to keep the lights on?
I get it.
Life is a series of traffic jams until you find an off ramp.
But there are people who figured it out. They were no smarter or more talented than any of us.
If they could figure a way out then so can we.
So can I.
The Neo Hierarchy Of Needs
"Every criticism, judgment, diagnosis, and expression of anger is the tragic expression of an unmet need." - Marshall B. Rosenberg
Priorities drive progress. Knowing what to focus on allows you to make headway in that direction. And in a world full of distraction, how do you determine what the focus on First?
For that, let’s refer to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Abraham Maslow first described his hierarchy of needs in the 1943 article "A Theory of Human Motivation." In his book "Motivation and Personality," published in 1954, Maslow later improved this theory. This hypothesis has remained a popular topic ever since in sociology, management development, and psychology classrooms.
We display Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs as a pyramid with five levels, or "needs." The pyramid orders in a hierarchy from the most fundamental to the most sophisticated.
Physical demands make up the base of the pyramid. These include food, drink, shelter, and sleep. They are the most basic needs for survival.
After their physical needs are met, people look for safety and security, such as physical , financial security, and protection from harm.
Next is Love and Belongingness Needs. This level entails the requirement for interpersonal relationships, love, friendship, and a feeling of inclusion to a group or family.
Once their basic needs have been met, people long for respect from others and a sense of self-worth. These needs are put in the Esteem Needs level of the pyramid.
The final level is Self-actualization. Maslow saw people realizing their full potential at this tier. Personal development is at the pinnacle of the pyramid.
While Maslow's hierarchy of needs helps us understand motivation, it’s not complete. Abraham could not predict technologies impact on motivation. It needs an update.
Why Is It Outdated?
Maslow himself knew his original theory was incomplete.
His published his model 1943 and 1954. He expanded it in 1970 to take both cognitive and aesthetic needs into account. It was then again updated to include transcendence needs.
Cognitive needs include knowledge, curiosity, exploration, and the need for meaning and predictability.
Aesthetic needs include an appreciation of and search for beauty, balance, form.
Transcendence needs are driven by values that go beyond the individual self.
These additions to the model help explain motivational factors.
But I find it interesting when the model was changed.
Just think about the drastic difference between the 1940s and the 1970.
World War II ended in the mid 40s. The development of steering, auto transmission and seat belts happened in between the 1940 and the 1950. The first successful organ transplant happened in 1954. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 changed the social climate. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon in 1969. The 1970s birthed Altair 8800 and the Apple I. Music developed from swing to rock n roll to disco.
To sum it up, a lot happened in that 30 year span. It makes sense that Maslow added in more layers as the times changed. Managing the physical needs was not as difficult as a task as it had been 20 to 30 years prior. With all of the developments and technology came the introduction of more autonomy in the average person’s life. With that freedom, more needs were exposed. I believe this is why the model was updated.
So the thought process is simple.
If more layers were added from the 40s to the 70s, why hasn’t anyone considered we need an update for the 70s through the present?
Everything from smartphones to the internet changed how we relate with each other. Advancements in medical imaging and genome mapping changed how we treat our bodies. The Paris Agreement and renewable energy sources changed how we interact with nature. Everything has changed. We have exposure. We have more access than king did centuries ago. But our motivational needs still need addressing.
So what changes would reflect the modern landscape?
The Neo Hierarchy Of Needs
"I only share when I have no unmet needs that I'm trying to fill. I firmly believe that being vulnerable with a larger audience is only a good idea if the healing is tied to the sharing, not to the expectations I might have for the response I get." ~ Brené Brown
Maslow broke down his model into two sections: Physical and Growth.
Physical needs are the basic prerequisites for a person's survival and wellbeing.
Contrarily, the psychological and self-fulfillment parts of human motivation are connected to growth demands. These requirements go beyond what is necessary to survive.
In our modern society, we take survival for granted. Growth is a prerequisite for the development of human beings. While growth is infinite, who you grow into is finite. To answer those questions, we must step beyond the growth level.
So we have the Neo hierarchy of needs.
In this model, we still have physical and growth levels. But we also have another tier.
The next level is what I call Autonomy Needs.
Autonomy needs go past our own personal desires for growth. They step into the realm of service. Autonomy needs focus on the desire to expand and create experiences that will outlast a person’s existence. Within Autonomy needs lie preference needs, legacy needs and mastery needs.
Preference needs engage the motivation to control as many aspects of existence that don’t align with your transcendence needs. This included location and financial freedom.
Legacy needs are the desire to replicate philosophies across generations. This can include having a family or sharing your thoughts with others.
Mastery needs include realizing personal purpose, identity formation, and peak performance in areas of defined greatness. This goes beyond just being good enough. This is about being one of one.
In Relation To Reality Architecture
Development requires goals.
Something must motivate you to move. Goals are the motivating factors that help us determine where we’re going.
The Neo Hierarchy of Needs helps us determine which goal to set. If you don’t have shelter, it doesn’t make sense to focus on aesthetic needs. If you don’t have food, focusing on transcendence is not the best use of your time. We use the hierarchy to assess where we are. From there, we can set goals to clear our current level.
Beyond the goal of escaping our current position is the dream of more. The Neo Hierarchy shows us what else is available to us. There are levels that weren’t available to generations prior. We can reach those levels. He have the ability to create a life we’re happy to live in. I call it “Reality Architecture”
Our world began in the minds and hearts of our ancestors. Using the resources available to them, they fashioned tools to help them rise up the hierarchy ladder. From bows to spears, each tool helped them survive the elements and the environment. In the modern era, many of our basic needs are met. However, that doesn’t mean that we don’t desire rising up the ladder.
Reality Architecture is the means of shaping your lifestyle to how you personally envisioned it. It is the process of building out a life that you are satisfied to occupy.
Humans came up with tools. These tools help us conquer the land. Their development began in our minds. From there, we brought those tools into the real world.
Like any building, having a blueprint prior to its construction is massively important. We use the blueprints of those who came before us to see how we construct a life worth living. However, we can’t copy and paste every aspect of another person’s life. We aren’t developments. All of the features of our lives can’t mirror the blueprints exactly. We are our own individuals and it’s that nuance that dictates how we build.
You need self awareness in order for this to work. Building a penthouse won’t help you when all you desire is a bungalow. You determine what sort of life you want to lead. Each day you take steps to building it.
While our foundation is still the same (eg. see physical needs), the lives built on that foundation will vary in degree. The beauty in Reality Architecture is the level of creativity that comes along with it. You can combine and edit so many different dimensions of reality that you can construct a one of one life.
Be the fire breathing counselor who loves to bake.
Be the video game playing product manager who salsa dances.
Once one’s physical needs are met, a whole world of opportunity opens up.
So how do we rise up the Neo Hierarchy?
Climbing The Hierarchy and The Gamification of Life
Life is a game board. Time is your opponent. If you procrastinate, you will lose the game. You must make a move to be victorious.- Napoleon Hill
Tests and games are the same concept with varying degrees of impact.
We frame tests as having real world impact while games are more for leisure.
However, in this lies one of the cheat codes or architecting reality.
Mark Rober's explores a concept called “The Super Mario Effect" during his TEDx talk. He tackles motivation and learning through the lens of the Super Mario video game. Rober shows us how the game's design principles can be applied to real-life challenges. Understanding the games feedback loop of failure and success help us foster motivation and persistence.
He marks the significance of framing tasks as "missions" with clear goals, obstacles to overcome, and rewards. The idea is to shift your perspective to approach your goals with a gamer's mindset.
So we can approach the hierarchy as levels in a game. Each has their own individual boss battles and skills to mine out. Each has its own specific target to reach.
Each level has metrics that optimize for success. Instead of health, magic and stats, we can look at their real world equivalents.
Instead of a health bar, you mind your macro and your caloric intake.
Instead of spells, you mind you skills.
Instead of boosting your stats, you focus on building yourself into a person capable enough to achieve your goals.
But most importantly, it changes our relationship with success.
As long as the game is constructed properly, you will eventually be able to beat it. It just might take a lot of tries to get it. Rober explains how we can die multiple times in a video game and continue to persist.
The same concept holds true in the real world.
Instead of a physical death, we suffer from ideological death. Death to ideas. Death to our plans. Even death to aspects of our identity.
But each death gives us another piece of evidence. Every failure gets us closer to finally solving that aspect of the level.
You strong enough of those deaths together, and you clear the level.
So the way to success has less to do with pure achievement.
The game is how long can you continue to play.
If you play the game long enough and learn from each death, you will win eventually.
Reflect on who you are.
Reflect on where you want to be.
Determine who you have to be to get where you want to get to.
Turn on the game.
Start beating the level.
It’s in that process that you build your life.
It’s in that building that you transcend what currently is.