RE: The biggest mistake in the FIRE movement
Sounds to me that you are attempting to follow a path that is well documented as Maslow's Hierachy of Needs:
Maslow's hierachy would teach that in order to achieve self-actualization and engage in philanthropy, one must first achieve the lower layers in the pyramid. I use this technique to gauge the macro level market for new ideas, ventures, etc.
But it also represents one's journey through life, in that you first must satisfy your physiological needs of food, shelter & clothing for you and your family in order to survive, and then after that you traverse the layers upwards, eventually reaching self-actualization where you can give back. It seems to me that you have to have achieved all layers lower first, before you can be of value to others in a meaningful way. That is, in order to teach you have to have had first had life experiences in which to teach from. This has been my biggest criticism of public education in that those that teach are only experts in teaching, but not the subject matter they are teaching. They are following a curriculum that someone else authored, and even that person or persons just parroted the content from someone else. The message gets so diluted that you wonder what the point is.
My hope is that our journey must be first of self-discovery and with that knowledge & experience, we then have something valuable to give back to others, to help them on their similar journey. We are all at different stages in our lives with this, and recognizing your stage against some form of protocol helps in what the next steps are. I'm not sure if Maslow is anything more than a 1,000 foot view of life's journey, but if we are on this planet for 80+ years, then I realize that everything is a long game and patience is the best way to progress without driving yourself insane in the process.
The value of giving is wonderful, but it comes down to what you are giving and the actual effect it has on others. If it is just free money (and unfortunately the Steem community has been infected by many that just want upvotes and money, and are not actually sharing anything of value because they haven't experienced anything personally yet to share), then the efficacy might not be that great and the end goal of positively influencing someone in a meaningful way is never maximized.
Just a few thoughts. We are all on our own journey here, and the most important thing is to have safe travels.
I am familiar with Maslow's Hierachy of needs but I don't think Self Actualization is an ultimate end goal that we can permanently remain in @beunconstrained.
Life has ups and downs, sometimes we are in a position to give, and sometimes we are not. If you take a way a self-actualized person's food, shelter, water and safety they will fall right back down to the bottom, and I believe that can and does happen.
One of the things I have that I can share is goodwill. I want everyone to be healthy and free of suffering. If my finances improve with Steem, I will be able to alleviate people's suffering as I have in the past.
Even if I am not in the realm of self-actualization, helping people with random acts of kindness increases my self-esteem. I know that from experience and it also says so in my personality profile on 16 Personalities.
Yes, I believe that Maslow's hierachy is an ongoing, moving guage. We strive to get to the top of the pyramid, but we constantly have to start at the bottom and climb up. Over and over again. It is life's journey. But when you reach the top, giving back is the ultimate reward.