Maslow’s pyramid doesn’t work in today’s world. For two reasons. First, in developed societies, basic needs are satisfied. Secondly, Maslow was wrong from the beginning because he did not take into account the factors of brain development after birth.

In a primitive format, Maslow’s pyramid looks like this: physiology, security, society, recognition, self-actualization.

Maslow argues that before a person has satisfied physiological needs, he or she will not engage in self-actualization. This is a fundamentally flawed approach, that can helps us to use it in our affiliate marketing in 2024.

Instead, we can take a person’s thoughts, break them down into blocks and prioritize them. For example, let’s look at the thoughts of a resident of a large city. Let’s take all of his thoughts over the course of a year as 100% and break them down into large blocks.

If Maslow was right, the thoughts would be divided in percentages as follows:

40% – Physiology

30% – Safety

15% – Society

10% – Recognition

5% – Self-realization.

So 40% of the time, over the course of a year, a person should be thinking about sleeping and eating. But they don’t.

Just follow yourself, what do you think about during the day? Are you really thinking 70% of the time about eating, sleeping and being safe?

Absolutely. There are life situations where it’s exactly like that. There are horrible conditions where people only think about food and safety. What can I say, in animals, physiological and safety needs take up 90% of their attention.

But as it happens, we are far removed from the ape that seeks sustenance in the forest. Humans have socialized and greatly improved the quality of life. Needs that used to be at the forefront are no longer BASIC.

If we look into our thoughts, we find that the distribution there is roughly as follows:

60% – Dominance

30% – Safety

10% – Entertainment

Where is food and sleep? Sleep is on a schedule. And eating now relates more to entertainment than meeting physiological needs.

There’s also a hidden need for socialization. Thanks to technology, everyone has someone to socialize with. And we now additionally seek contact with people more for entertainment.

The need for security is understandable and important. But thanks to the modern world, the physiological need for safety has been satisfied, we are more focused on social safety.

And it’s on a pedestal. The need to dominate – to perform actions that make people more sensitive to your influence.

What is Dominance and why does it take up so much space? Oh, that’s the most interesting part. And the answer lies in how a person spends the first few years of life.

A giraffe 30 minutes after birth can forage for food. And it can survive if the parents disappear at once. Humans have no such free will. A human needs adults to survive at least the first ten years. TEN YEARS instead of 30 minutes.

Both giraffe and human brains learn how to find food and fulfill other physiological needs immediately after birth. Only for the giraffe, finding food is finding and recognizing edible tree leaves. But for a human…

And for humans, to find food and fulfill physiological needs, they need to control adults. Control their behavior. To do things that make adults more sensitive to the child’s influence.

If you don’t dominate effectively, you’ll lie there hungry and pissed like a fool.

The child’s brain is an extremely effective survival tool. A child’s brain learns very quickly how to control adults to survive. At a year old, a child can’t walk or talk yet, but it can dominate and control adults quite well.

Now imagine the neural network of the brain as a space where we record new information.

It doesn’t work like a hard disk on a computer. There’s no empty space that can be filled with new data. The brain is always full, the neural net is always built.

When you load new data into the brain, it is fixed by rebuilding the neural network that already exists. What this means in effect is that all new data is affected by data that was loaded into the brain before.

Information that entered the brain earlier affects behavior more strongly than information that was downloaded later. Yes, it is possible to suppress old impulses. Yes, with tremendous effort, we can rewire the neural network so that primary information has less influence. Yes, we can learn a lot of new things in life. And that will adjust behavior. But it doesn’t change the logic of how the brain works.

That is why, if you go to a psychotherapist, he will first of all dig into what happened in childhood. Because the events of that period affect your life more than what is happening now.

Now let’s get back to dominance.

The primary input that goes into a child’s brain is the skill of influencing others for personal gain. That is what dominance is. The need to dominate is at the foundation of our thinking. And is mixed in with all the data we receive throughout our lives.

We all want to dominate. It is a basic need that has been shaped by a feature of the early years of a child’s life. But the word “Dominate” doesn’t pop into your head six times a day, does it? That’s right. This need is hidden under other words and images:

– How do I dress today so others will think I’m beautiful?

– How do I make more money?

– How do I grow in my career?

– How can I be successful?

– How do I appear to be the smartest?

– I’m gonna post a picture of the food I’m about to eat.

– I gotta get my gold medal already!

– I’ll spend a couple hours replaying last year’s conversation in my head to find something to say that will make the person I’m talking to understand their place.

– How do I get the best seat in the office?

– I’ll go to the gym so I look pumped up.

– I’ll buy a cool car.

– How do I make a joke that will make everyone laugh?

– I’ll build a house so everyone will be jealous.

– I’ll only post on social media about my successes.

– Here’s how I’m having a great vacation in the Maldives.

– I have the richest pedigree.

– How to change the world?

– How do I bring more value to the world so that I am appreciated?

– My dad is the strongest.

And the list goes on and on. These are the kind of thoughts that occupy our heads most of the time. This is the BASIC need of modern man, not physiology and security.

Everyone is climbing their own pyramid of dominance. And does not even realize that the roots of this need lie in childhood.

Our desire to be better than everyone else is a good thing. Thanks to this desire, mankind has achieved the miracle of modern civilization. All the good things around you came into existence because someone wanted to be better than others.

Anyway, that’s the pyramid:

about -repeat-

/\ Entertainment

/\ Security

/ / Domination

Naturally, the priority of needs can change.

If the need to dominate is satisfied, then you begin to seek safety. And if that need is met, you start to have fun. Did you have enough fun? Now the cycle repeats itself and the need to dominate will come first again.

It works the same way in reverse. If you can’t have fun, you seek safety. No safety, seek dominance. If you can’t dominate, go for fun. And so it goes in circles.

Down and up, like an elevator. You fulfill a need, you move up. If you don’t fulfill it, you go down.

The less safe you feel, the more you want to dominate. Because as a child it was a direct correlation. The less fun you have in life, the more you will focus on safety. The worse you get at dominating, the more you will retreat into simple dopamine entertainment.

And there will be no peace anywhere. Both when moving up and when moving down. Until one begins to fulfill all needs comprehensively. So that the elevator stands on all three floors at once.

An ideal day is a day when all needs are filled. In the right proportion, which no one understands better than you. Then the constant stress of rushing up and down will be gone.