Psychologist Abraham Maslow famously described human motivation as a hiërachy of needs, later to be simplified into a pyramid by others: first we take care of our physical needs, then safety, belonging, and status and only then do we focus on meaning, purpose, and self-actualization. For many gifted people, especially the highly and exceptionally gifted, this order does not match their lived reality. They often start at the top and seem to live by a reversed piramid.