Build It Up, Buttercup

There's always a lot of argument between nature and nurture, what
makes us. What makes us up.
It's about personal invention and the summit of individual fabrication.
It's iteration.
What builds a business or computer process is iterative change –
change by instalments, by increments, by gradual progression into
something else.
It's how humanity and every other species develops. So surely it must
be the way we develop as individuals? It must be.

But is it?
When you put the question this way, is it really true?
Because when your basic growth is done, you may evaluate the many
things you tried at school to see if you have a taste for, the
extracurricular activities you may have developed a fondness or hatred
for. Hobbies, ambitions, games played.
When your templates are installed, you have some parts that are
largely automatic. Your patterns and character are laid for adulthood.
You have operating system.
YOU have been uploaded.

Then, as you progress through life, its challenges and changes, are
you building up who you are?
Or are you actually digging you out?