By "something that grows", I think you mean "something that scales".
It confused me, because Brooks talks about "growing' software (as opposed to building/planning it), which is I think what you mean by "something that evolves".
FWIW, I think the standard wisdom today is to evolve (your term) software (e.g. agile ideas of YAGNI, DTSTTCPW), and only to scale/plan it if you have a very clear idea of what you're doing (e.g. frozen specs, which exist in some government/military domains; long-term standards; mathematics) - and you also know how to do it, having done it a few times before.
It confused me, because Brooks talks about "growing' software (as opposed to building/planning it), which is I think what you mean by "something that evolves".
FWIW, I think the standard wisdom today is to evolve (your term) software (e.g. agile ideas of YAGNI, DTSTTCPW), and only to scale/plan it if you have a very clear idea of what you're doing (e.g. frozen specs, which exist in some government/military domains; long-term standards; mathematics) - and you also know how to do it, having done it a few times before.