growth metaphor

A living thing with parts that came from other parts. Tree, seed, roots, branches, vine. You pour a hierarchy or an accumulation into it, usually with the foundational material below and the visible output above. It handles depth and time in the same picture, which a plain tree diagram cannot. What it adds for free is one-way growth and a fixed order. Roots came before branches. Drafts, skills, and plans routinely run the other way and get rebuilt from the top.

A living thing with parts that came from other parts. Tree, seed, roots, branches, vine. You pour a hierarchy or an accumulation into it, usually with the foundational material below and the visible output above. It handles depth and time in the same picture, which a plain tree diagram cannot. What it adds for free is one-way growth and a fixed order. Roots came before branches. Drafts, skills, and plans routinely run the other way and get rebuilt from the top.

Example

Best when the content is a hierarchy whose lower levels genuinely came first and still feed the upper ones.