Dendromeda

Weird things happen sometimes. I had expected to get out into the woodland this Christmas and catch up on jobs, but the weather was against me and I needed the sleep. I stayed in & something happened.

I’ve gotten so used to writing “after a twenty plus year career in technology I retrained in forestry and arboriculture” that it’s almost as good as a passphrase in how accurate I can type it out on demand. But if you say something (or type it) long enough it becomes a part of who you are. The thing about that sentence is that it is a story and stories are what make up our lives. They frame who we are and who want to be, they are powerful. But the thing about stories is the endings – rarely is it a fairy tale and more often than not it is a plot twist.

Years Ago

From about 2008 until 2015 I routinely used to get up at 5:00 am and write code until 7:30. Mrs Treedom was always asleep and didn’t wake up until 7:30 at which point the morning routine started. At some point in 2015 I decided that 5am was too early and that I needed sleep. We all need sleep and I find that the easiest way for me to start packing on the pounds of adipose tissue is to not get enough sleep. So I changed the story. I was no longer a person that got up at 5am.

Instead, I always had a period of 20 - 60 minutes before bed where I sat and wrote code. I did this because I found the act of writing code extremely fulfilling when it deployed and you could interact with it. I remember the first time I authored code (perl if you’re wondering) and deployed it back in 1998 – I thought it was magical. It remained magical even when I knew exactly what it was doing. Code is magical and I loved writing it, that was the story.

Sometime around 2019 I started to feel less enthusiastic about writing code. I wasn’t like other programmers / developers. I didn’t enjoy learning new languages (more story). There was something else though, I couldn’t name it at the time so I recognised it as a yearning to escape the technology industry. So I wrote less code and by 2023 after all contractual obligations to write code had been fulfilled, I wrote no code.

A Break

The first few years of teaching is known to be insane. I have certainly experienced that in my first few months at treeschool. Up till 2am and back up at 6:30am on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday is pretty much the norm. I have been doing the odd tree job here and there, but even the weekends were getting absorbed by lesson preparation.

I had not been to the woodland in months, I was physically exhausted, and because I was getting no sleep, having a questionable diet and spending 2-3 hours a day driving I was packing on the beef again (and I prefer to be lean, not chunky). A lack of physical work since leaving the estate was not helping matters either. So the plan was to get into the woodland get some hard work done over the Christmas period. But the weather scuppered me on all fronts.

So I slept a lot. I actually rested. I also ate a tonne, which didn’t help the body composition, but meh whatever - it’s Christmas. But the point was that for the first time in a long time I felt utterly relaxed.

I didn’t expect this …

Being relaxed, at home all warm and rested I was at my computer doing some stuff and I had a moment of inspiration that I’d not had in a long time. I almost didn’t recognise it. My story was that I’d left a career in tech so at first I didn’t recognise the feeling. When I used to get up at 5am to write code back in the day, there was a feeling I’d get. Anyone who has a thing they do, that they enjoy, will know what I’m talking about. It’s somewhere between compulsion, addiction, thirst and enthusiasm. So there I was all nice and relaxed just fiddling with words and topics when it hit me.

I wanted to build a god damn app.

cd ~/git/
mkdir dendromeda # ok, this step took me an hour, naming things is HARD
cd de<tab>
git init .

The app is called Dendromeda. Dendron being greek for trees and the ending of “meda” making it sound like a universe. Universe of trees. Also the dotcom was available.

When two worlds collide…

I’ve been keeping my eyes open in treeworld and watching the technology space. Compared to the whizzy, sleek and well executed world I came from, you could describe treeworld tech as expensive (£5000 a year subscription fees are standard), a bit crusty in the ui (jQuery UI)or locked behind a sales cycle (definite audience decision). Some tech is very nice and very focused but for the most part everything is some kind of geographic information system (GIS) with a UI designed to allow you to place points where the trees go.

I don’t want to get into the features of what the app will do, as that’s a slow burning road with my main goals to get 1 paying customer and then 10. There’s at least three or four avenues to explore in terms to get to those customers. I won’t know that my hunch is correct until I get solid feedback and repeat billing but that’s part of the process. I know that metaphorically and scientifically that mighty oaks grow from tiny acorns. Trees produce multiple seeds because it’s a numbers game so I’m aimed at four audiences.

1. Arboriculture consultants who perform inspections and surveys for health or BS5837 surveys.

2. Arboriculture businesses who sell commercial or domestic tree services.

3. Woodland owners who need to stay on top of hazard trees on public highways.

4. Homeowners who own trees in gardens that interact with public highways.

Which broadly translates into three areas of exploration.

1. Tree Inspections and Surveys

2. Arb Job Management

3. Risk & Liability Management

With a few asterix inserted here and there, my professional arb adventures cover all of the above, so that means I get to actually use this app in anger whilst out there doing my work. Having also came from a world where an idea, some drive and team of less than three grew to a large multinational many millions in revenue, I have some nice prior experience to draw from and hopefully a few contacts!

Was I just burned out?…

Dendromeda is being worked on in my spare time and it has given me a totally new and fresh wind of enthusiasm for designing, developing and deploying tech. I’ve been sitting on these feelings of ethusiasm for a week whilst I was on holiday from treeschool. They’ve grown, which hasn’t happened since the a period from about 2013 - 2018. The last time I had this intensity of motivation was when I was in early doors at SoPost and we were building that.

If I think back to my escape from tech and into the woods I can see it more clearly as burnout. In fact it is so obvious that I don’t know how I missed it. I had declared “burnout” to my gaffer back in 2020, but I am not sure I understand it now as I did then. It’s a moot point though because whatever path I’m on feels right. To be back writing tech and to be qualified arborist and a teacher feels kind of amazing. Except the lesson planning bit – let it be known just how hard a slog it is being an FE teacher, but that’s another topic. Let us also not mention FE (and all) teachers salary, which is a novel of misery and malice rather than a topic.

However, now I find myself technologically refreshed and technically and professionally competent in a new industry. Fun times are ahead but for now, the writing of code has opened my eyes a to the future where I’m doing tech and trees. Trees and code. Who-da-thunkit.

I didn’t expect a fairytale story. They never happen and that’s why they are a fairy tale. Real life stories are typically plot twists where the authors themselves have no idea about what’s next and that’s certainly the case for this author. I guess the “left a twenty year career in tech” of the story now needs a question mark and relegation to a chapter. I now know longer no what the title of the story is, but it’s clear that I’m writing code and brushing off my programmer skills and putting them firmly back into production in treeworld.

I am super motivated in a way that I’ve not had for years. Teeming with excitement.

I appreciate your attention.

Thanks for reading.

Cheers,

Jamie.

p.s. The logo is diabolically bad but that’s by design. The logo for the app is last of things I’ll look at. It is good enough for now and if you know me, you’ll understand how much personal growth it required to do that. Secondary growth, that’s a tree thing and a me thing.