The self is not a state, it's a limit. You never arrive, but with enough signal the system can get meaningfully closer.
To move in that direction, identity can't be declared upfront. It has to emerge from what you repeatedly do, choose, return to and abandon.
That only works if the data coheres. Accumulation alone just adds noise; structure and context are what let meaning compound and eventually the system reflects something back that feels accurate.
Eventually, your Shelf actually becomes a mirror.