Scholars Who Speak of Step-Like Growth
A life where one quietly writes in a diary every night, memorizes vocabulary words every morning, and walks the same route to work every day is excruciatingly continuous. The "me" of yesterday and today are not noticeably different, and the world flows at the exact same pace as yesterday. Scholars who study human growth discovered a sudden "qualitative change" that pops up out of nowhere on this tedious line of continuity, and they termed it the "discontinuity of development." They argue that just as a caterpillar becomes a chrysalis and a chrysalis becomes a butterfly, the human mind also leaps forward as if climbing a flight of stairs.
No Leap is Rootless
At this point, however, we harbor a fundamental question: Can we really abruptly chop development up and call it discontinuous? No matter how wondrous the fluttering of a butterfly’s wings as it breaks out of its hard shell may be, it is ultimately only possible because of the energy accumulated while eating away at leaves during its caterpillar days. Speaking of a "disconnection" merely because the outward appearance has changed—while omitting that intimate and natural sequence of events where cells fought a desperate battle inside the shell to alter their structure—seems somewhat hasty.
The Moment It Crosses the Critical Point to Become Water Vapor
Consider the moment water boils. The transformation of water from a liquid into water vapor, a gas, is undoubtedly a "qualitative jump" where the very nature of the matter changes. That which used to flow now takes flight, so there can be no discontinuity more dramatic than this. Yet, until it became steam, water had been relentlessly raising its temperature from 1°C to 2°C, and from 50°C to 99°C. There is a vast chasm between 99°C water and 100°C steam, but that leap can only exist based on the continuous energy silently accumulated from 0°C to 99°C. In the end, the roots of that dramatic change, which appears so discontinuous, are connected to a perfectly continuous flow.
Process and State: A Difference in Perspective
Perhaps the "discontinuity" psychologists speak of is a perspective that looks not at the process of change, but solely at the "state" after the change is complete. When climbing stairs, our feet seem to move to a higher place all at once, cutting through the air; however, the process wherein muscles tense up and the center of gravity shifts to lift that foot is profoundly continuous. No leap is rootless. Only when the experiences and time of the previous stage pile up layer upon layer to cross the critical threshold does the miracle of a completely transformed worldview finally take place.
The Most Beautiful Plot Twist Embraced by Continuity
Therefore, there is no need to divide human development into a dichotomy of continuity versus discontinuity. For development is the most discontinuous beauty, created by the gathering of the most continuous efforts. If you feel as though you are running in place today, it is not a disconnected period of stagnation, but a moment of catching your breath to cross over from 99°C to 100°C. Even at this very moment, the invisible marks on the thermometer are continuously rising—toward that dazzling moment of a leap that will, without fail, take flight.
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