Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
The pyramid: food and safety at the bottom, self-actualization at the top — you can't think about purpose if you can't pay rent.
Origin
American psychologist Abraham Maslow proposed the model in his 1943 paper 'A Theory of Human Motivation' and elaborated it in Motivation and Personality (1954). Five tiers, from physiological needs (food, shelter, sleep) up through safety, belonging, esteem, to [[self-actualization]] at the top. Maslow himself never drew it as a pyramid — that visualization was added by a management consultant in the 1960s. The hierarchy is empirically thin (people pursue meaning while starving, and starve while pursuing meaning), but as a teaching device it has been unstoppable. Almost every Intro Psych and MBA course still puts up the triangle.
Modern usage
Default reference whenever someone wants to argue that lower needs must be met first — 'this is Maslow 101.' Used in startup discussions ('we're selling self-actualization, but the user is stuck at safety'), education debates, and policy arguments about housing. The pyramid image is one of the most recognizable diagrams in 20th-century psychology.
In the wild
You can't expect creative output from a team that's worried about layoffs — Maslow.— management usage
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