The Subconscious Sets the Direction of Growth — Why Different People Take Different Paths in the Same Activity, and Why the Path Then Holds
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: Guardians expect different things of a child, and the demonstrations he receives even contradict one another — does he then grow as expected? If everyone did, the top of the world would fill and its base have emptied. It has not. Something else sets the direction: this paper concludes that the subconscious determines a person's direction of growth. Direction is narrow: in the same football match one carries it by pace, another by agility, another by passing accuracy, another by length of kick, and where he becomes good is where he spent effort. The paper argues two things. First, that such a store must exist: he cannot say why he takes his road, a child of contrary demonstrations still settles on one road, and the road holds when environment and upbringing change. Second, how the road is set: every demonstration is taken in, but only what he verified as workable is stored to guide later conduct; stored courses are weighed by how much they returned and how often; the course that balances return against risk carries the deepest imprint and becomes the primary direction, while one whose single return is high and whose risk is large carries a real imprint and becomes the secondary. Direction differs because composition differs, and composition because environments differ; a composition hardened in one generation hands its mark to the next generation's environment. The paper writes differences of path, never rank; it claims no innate fitting, sets no norm, gives no timetable.
Author: Wu, Yang
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7225588533