Fun fact: When Maslow set out to study self-actualizing people, he wasn't interested in "high achievers" or "high performers" or those who were "crushing it". His impetus for studying self-actualizing people was to discover the characteristics of a "good human being".
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It definitely wasn't the focus back then. The humanistic psychologists were much more interested in growth, wholeness, development, meaning, and transcendence. I'm trying to bring these concepts back on a scientific foundation. I'm not sure what happened.
What I find interesting is that many of the very popular productivity gurus nowadays *do* have a wholeness/development/transcendent aspect to what they say. (e.g. Tim Ferris/Naval Ravikant/etc...) I suspect the nuance of the word "growth" is at play here.
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In terms of worshipping high achievers/producers - maybe the original roots of psychology & statistics in eugenics, i.e., IQ testing, as well as the power of capitalism, simply are too strong to be overtaken by relatively new perspectives on self-actualization & personal growth.
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There's also real pragmatism in additional to cultural momentum. A temple of enlightened monks beating off invaders with guns (or weaponized economics) only happens in movies.
End of conversation
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