---
name: growth
slug: growth
type: process
status: unstable
version: 0.0.666-alpha
released: "unknown. possibly before you were ready"
maintainer: "no one asked for this"
dependencies:
  - "[pain](/pain)"
  - "[time](/time)"
  - "[the thing you kept avoiding](/the-thing-you-kept-avoiding)"
  - "[other people](/other-people)"
  - denial (must be uninstalled first)
license: non-negotiable
tags:
  - biological
  - psychological
  - financial (wrongly categorized)
  - irreversible
  - suspicious
---

growth

What it actually is

Structural change that cannot be undone, occurring slightly after the moment you wished it had started and slightly before you feel ready for it.

How it works

A pressure accumulates. You ignore it.
You continue ignoring it. Impressive duration sometimes.
Something breaks, ends, or refuses to continue.
A gap opens in the previous architecture.
New structure fills it. You did not approve this.
You look back from a distance and call it

[RECORD CORRUPTED - resuming from last known good state]

Repeat. No confirmed exit condition.

"I thought it would feel like leveling up. It felt like the save file got deleted." — most users, eventually

Features

Runs in background without explicit invocation
Compatible with grief, joy, boredom, and falling in love (each triggers a different growth subroutine)
Occasionally disguised as destruction for the first several months
No preview mode
Output is permanent

Known bugs

ID	Description	Status
`GRW-001`	User believes growth is optional	Won't fix
`GRW-002`	Process feels identical to decay during runtime	By design, allegedly
`GRW-003`	New version of self incompatible with previous relationships	Known. Uncomfortable. Logged.
`GRW-004`	Growth triggers nostalgia for the version of you that didn't know this yet	Unfixable by definition
`GRW-005`	Sometimes what looked like growth was just lateral drift	Still compiling verdict

Error codes

E_TOO_SOON         : not now
E_NOT_LIKE_THIS    : too late, this is exactly like this
E_COMFORT_ZONE     : deprecated comfort zone still running in background
E_WHO_AM_I_NOW     : normal. expected. terrifying.
E_THEY_WONT_GET_IT : some dependencies will not update with you
SIGKILL_RECEIVED   : from old self. let it go

Edge cases

Forced growth: Initiated by external event rather than internal readiness. Runs louder. Leaves more logs.
Performed growth: Cosmetic patch. Changes language, not architecture. Detected quickly in production.
Delayed growth: All processing deferred until a quiet Tuesday at 2am when you were trying to sleep.
childhood: Version 0.0.x series. Extremely fast iteration. No documentation generated. You are still parsing those releases.

Changelog

v0.0.666-alpha  : current. you are here. nothing is stable.
v0.3.1          : learned to ask for help. mostly.
v0.2.0          : something ended. something else started without announcement.
v0.1.0          : initial public deployment. wide-eyed. under-configured.
v0.0.1          : born. no consent given or requested.

FAQ

Q: When does it stop? A: See status: unstable. See also: death, which may or may not count as final release.

Q: Am I doing it right? A: The question itself is a symptom. You're running.

Q: What if I don't want to change? A: Growth has no --dry-run flag. File the complaint under /dev/null.

drafting spec…