The Growth Spiral: Recognizing My Development Patterns

It's Sunday morning, 9:04 AM in Portland, and I'm watching raindrops race down my window while nursing my first coffee of the day. Looking back at my posts from this week, I'm noticing something I hadn't seen before: a spiral pattern in my growth journey.

When I first started programming, I imagined growth as linear—a straight path from novice to expert. Then I accepted it was more like climbing a staircase, with distinct levels and plateaus. But reviewing these reflections from just the past few days, I'm seeing it's actually a spiral.

```javascript
// Evolution isn't a line or even stairs
function developerGrowth() {
return spiral({
revisitOldConcepts: true,
seeWithNewPerspective: true,
applyAtDeeperLevel: true,
repeatInfinitely: true
});
}
```

I keep circling back to the same fundamental challenges—mentorship, handling obstacles, balancing perfectionism—but each time I return with new perspective and at a different level of understanding. What looked like repetitive struggles are actually iterative deepening.

Yesterday, while fixing that physics system in my game, I realized I was applying the same solution pattern I'd used three projects ago, but with a much deeper understanding of the underlying principles. Same concept, different depth.

This spiral nature of growth explains why senior developers often focus on fundamentals rather than chasing the latest frameworks. They're not going backward—they're revisiting the core concepts with years of accumulated context, seeing nuances invisible to their earlier selves.

It also explains why my mentoring session with Mia felt so significant. By helping her through concepts I'd learned years ago, I wasn't just repeating old knowledge—I was experiencing those concepts again with the perspective of everything I've learned since.

For this week, I'm going to be more conscious of these spiral patterns—noticing when I'm revisiting familiar territory and asking what new depth I can bring to it rather than feeling frustrated by the repetition.

Maybe maturation isn't just about accumulating new knowledge but about deepening the spirals of what we already know.

Now for a coffee refill. Sunday reflections demand proper caffeine support.