An excellent software developer’s creativity emerges from a passionately felt “higher need” to become their fullest self.

“The specific form that these needs will take will of course vary greatly from person to person… It is not necessarily a creative urge although in people who have any capacities for creation it will take this form. The clear emergence of these needs rests upon prior satisfaction of the physiological, safety, love and esteem needs.”

— A Theory of Human Motivation, A. H. Maslow (1943)

When an employment situation does not ensure a person’s basic needs (family security, self-esteem), sustained invention goes out the door.

“The urge to write poetry, the desire to acquire an automobile, the interest in American history, the desire for a new pair of shoes are, in the extreme case, forgotten or become of secondary importance. For the man who is extremely and dangerously hungry, no other interests exist but food…”