Transcend

As I mentioned in my Note on Rise Above, I’m a very big fan of Scott Barry Kaufman, and Transcend shows exactly why. In this book, Scott answers Abraham Maslow’s late-life hope that someone would carry his work forward, and he does it with love, rigor, and a modern scientific lens that feels like Maslow 2.0. The centerpiece is a brilliant upgrade to the famous hierarchy of needs: ditch the pyramid and picture a sailboat, with a secure hull (Safety, Connection, Self-Esteem) and open sails (Exploration, Love, Purpose), dynamically integrated as you move through life’s oceans. Scott then tests Maslow’s theory, distills the most evidence-backed characteristics of self-actualization, and takes us beyond self-actualization to what he calls healthy transcendence: integrating your whole self in service of cultivating the good society. Big Ideas we explore include A New Metaphor (Pyramid to Sailboat), Self-Actualization (10 characteristics), Exploration (adversity as fuel), Purpose (live it wisely), and Transcendence (a Heroic north star).