“In my experience, the theory hits practice pretty quickly.”

(thanks to Bob Roach and Rick Strong for these quotable truisms—from the GDC’s Listserv earlier today)

Brooklyn, New York

Abraham Harold Maslow was an American psychologist noted for his conceptualization of a “hierarchy of human needs”—today he is considered the founder of humanistic psychology. Born into an uneducated family of Jewish immigrants from Russia, Maslow was raised in Brooklyn as the eldest of seven children. Reportedly he was slow and tidy as a youth, spending his time in libraries and among books, and largely without friends.

Maslow was encouraged to actively pursue an education: after initially studying law at the City College of New York, he transferred to Cornell University in 1927, and then on to graduate school at the University of Wisconsin where he entered the field of psychology (pursuing an original line of research in the investigation of primate dominance behavior and sexuality). He went on to further research at Columbia University, where he was mentored by Alfred Adler, one of Sigmund Freud’s early followers. From 1937 to 1951 Maslow served on the faculty of Brooklyn College, where he blossomed under the mentorship of anthropologist Ruth Benedict and Gestalt psychologist Max Wertheimer—these two were so accomplished and such “wonderful human beings,” that Maslow began taking notes about them and their behavior (most psychology before Maslow had been concerned with the abnormal and the ill—he turned the tables and concentrated on observing the healthy). This inspired shift in focus became the basis of his lifelong research and thinking about mental health and human potential, which he wrote about extensively.

Simply put, Maslow saw the needs of human beings arranged like a ladder (ergo, his pyramidal Hierarchy of Needs). The most basic needs, at the bottom, were physical. Then came safety needs, followed by psychological or social needs, then esteem needs, and at the top, the self-actualizing needs of self-fulfillment—“to become all that one is capable of becoming.” Maslow felt that unfulfilled needs lower on the ladder would actually inhibit a person from climbing to the next step (proof of concept: someone dying of thirst quickly forgets their thirst when they have no oxygen).

We celebrate Maslow today for his surprisingly original thinking, and for changing the way that modern-day physiologists understand the world. Without his creative mind and critical circumspection, humanistic psychology would certainly not have become what it is today. You rock, Abraham!

Here are some of my favorite “quotables” by Maslow:

+  +  +

Every really new idea looks crazy at first.

All the evidence that we have indicates that it is reasonable to assume in practically every human being, and certainly in almost every newborn baby, that there is an active will toward health, an impulse towards growth, or towards self actualization.

A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he (or she) is to be ultimately at peace with himself (or herself).

If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.

We are not in a position in which we have nothing to work with. We already have capacities, talents, direction, missions, callings.

One’s only rival is one’s own potentialities. One’s only failure is failing to live up to one’s own possibilities. In this sense, every man can be a king, and must therefore be treated like a king.

Dispassionate objectivity is itself a passion, for the real and for the truth.

He that is good with a hammer tends to think everything is a nail.

A first-rate soup is more creative than a second-rate painting.

I was awfully curious to find out why I didn’t go insane.

I can feel guilty about the past, apprehensive about the future, but only in the present can I act. The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness.

The fact is that people are good. Give people affection and security, and they will give affection and be secure in their feelings and their behavior.

It seems that the necessary thing to do is not to fear mistakes, to plunge in, to do the best that one can, hoping to learn enough from blunders to correct them eventually.

The sacred is in the ordinary, in one’s daily life, in one’s neighbors, friends, and family, in one’s backyard.

We fear to know the fearsome and unsavory aspects of ourselves, but we fear even more to know the godlike in ourselves.

You will either step forward into growth or you will step back into safety.

This is the third International Day of Non-Violence (as designated by the United Nations in 2007), also celebrated as the national holiday Gandhi Jayanti in India, marking the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi—140 years ago on this day.

Here are a few (mostly well-known) quotables by that great little man…

When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it—always.

I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.

Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary.

Freedom is not worth having if it does not include
the freedom to make mistakes.

Happiness is when what you think, what you say,
and what you do are in harmony.

It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.

Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress.

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.

You must be the change you want to see in the world.

An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

GOD: Frank, you know all about gardens and nature. What in the world is going on down there on the planet? What happened to the dandelions, violets, milkweeds and stuff I started eons ago? I had a perfect no-maintenance garden plan. Those plants grow in any type of soil, withstand drought and multiply with abandon. The nectar from the long-lasting blossoms attracts butterflies, honey bees and flocks of songbirds. I expected to see a vast garden of colors by now. But, all I see are these green rectangles.

St. FRANCIS: It’s the tribes that settled there, Lord. The Suburbanites. They started calling your flowers ‘weeds’ and went to great lengths to kill them and replace them with grass.

GOD: Grass? But, it’s so boring. It’s not colorful. It doesn’t attract butterflies, birds and bees; only grubs and sod worms. It’s sensitive to temperatures. Do these Suburbanites really want all that grass growing there?

St. FRANCIS: Apparently so, Lord. They go to great pains to grow it and keep it green. They begin each spring by fertilizing grass and poisoning any other plant that crops up in the lawn.

GOD: The spring rains and warm weather probably make grass grow really fast. That must make the Suburbanites happy.

St. FRANCIS: Apparently not, Lord. As soon as it grows a little, they cut it — sometimes twice a week.

GOD: They cut it? Do they then bale it like hay?

St. FRANCIS: Not exactly, Lord. Most of them rake it up and put it in bags.

GOD: They bag it? Why? Is it a cash crop? Do they sell it?

St. FRANCIS: No, Sir, just the opposite. They pay to throw it away.

GOD: Now, let me get this straight. They fertilize grass so it will grow. And, when it does grow, they cut it off and pay to throw it away?

St. FRANCIS: Yes, Sir.

GOD: These Suburbanites must be relieved in the summer when we cut back on the rain and turn up the heat. That surely slows the growth and saves them a lot of work.

St. FRANCIS: You aren’t going to believe this, Lord. When the grass stops growing so fast, they drag out hoses and pay more money to water it, so they can continue to mow it and pay to get rid of it…

GOD: What nonsense. At least they kept some of the trees. That was a sheer stroke of genius, if I do say so myself. The trees grow leaves in the spring to provide beauty and shade in the summer. In the autumn, they fall to the ground and form a natural blanket to keep moisture in the soil and protect the trees and bushes. It’s a natural cycle of life.

St. FRANCIS: You’d better sit down, Lord. The Suburbanites have drawn a new circle. As soon as the leaves fall, they rake them into great piles and pay to have them hauled away.

GOD: No!? What do they do to protect the shrub and tree roots in the winter to keep the soil moist and loose?

St. FRANCIS: After throwing away the leaves, they go out and buy something which they call mulch. They haul it home and spread it around in place of the leaves.

GOD: And where do they get this mulch?

St. FRANCIS: They cut down trees and grind them up to make the mulch.

GOD: Enough! I don’t want to think about this anymore. St. Catherine, you’re in charge of the arts. What movie have you scheduled for us tonight?

ST. CATHERINE: Dumb and Dumber, Lord. It’s a story about….

GOD: Never mind, I think I just heard the whole story from St. Francis.

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

(as conveyed to me by my brother Jim: original source unknown)

Congratulations to all my Chinese designer friends and colleagues! 祝贺 !

Your nation has come a remarkable way in the past 60 years… and continues to evolve and progress with vigor. I very much look forward to my next visit to your great land (three weeks from now).

This is just a tiny detail (!) of a much larger infographic that I’d highly recommend you view in full, here.

Information is Beautiful has many other great visualizations, here.

(source)

 Silver Spring, Maryland

Born in Cork, Ireland in the 1830s, the prominent socialist and community organizer Mary Harris “Mother” Jones lost her husband and four children to a yellow fever epidemic in Tennessee in 1867, and then lost her home in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. She then spent the rest of her life fighting for worker’s rights as an activist and tireless labor organizer.

Frequently imprisoned for subversive speech and inciting “riots,” Mother Jones was hailed by her critics as the “most dangerous woman in America” and was denounced on the floor of the U.S. Senate as “the grandmother of all agitators,” a moniker she seemed to favour—the feisty matriarch also liked to refer to herself as a “hellraiser.”

Since 1976, her name has graced the masthead of the award-winning magazine Mother Jones, known for its independent stance and investigative reporting. You can listen to The Autobiography of Mother Jones on LibriVox, here.

Image: a portrait of Mother Jones by Robert Shetterly from his series Americans Who Tell The Truth.

“Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.”