Horses for courses, I suppose. "Changing the world" is just what some people want to do, even at the risk of poverty and misery.

Maslow's hierarchy was never supposed to be a prescriptive account of how we ought to live.

I do plan to change the world, actually. I'm only taking baby steps to it :-)

I don't take the hierarchy as prescriptive either, I just noticed that it matched, mostly, my baby steps to change the world.

I totally agree. I always was clear that OK, I want to TRY changing the world but also I want to make some money to support my daily needs and the team working with me. When I was visiting SV for the first time I was feeling strange talking that we're in it also for the money, kinda silly :-)

Even if you want to sustain for your family now, a start up could possibly make it better for them in the future. That's a big problem with the Maslow's hierarchy, as it doesn't account for planning into the future.

Do you mean you think that sustaining your family is mutually exclusive from doing a startup?

If so, then I don't think so. I am running a bootstrapped startup (https://www.wisecashhq.com) and sustaining my family right now (and I expect, 99.9% sure, that the startup will make a better future for them, as well).

This just requires picking a model where you can sustain your startup and your family, there's no need to dichotimize between both here.

I didn't understand what you mean with "it doesn't account for planning into the future"? I do believe that securing resources, health and property does account for planning into the future, actually.