“Toy”, tourist”, “all gear, no idea” and my personal favourite “chameleon” are all terms that a small subset of individuals have used to describe me over the years. It’d be easy to disagree with these hypotheses, but I don’t. I have my feet in many camps, perhaps too many. But then again, I’ve never met another generalist that doesn’t.
I’m a generalist in the sense that within the domain of technology, arboriculture, forestry, woodworking and the kitchen I’m comfortable wearing most hats and getting stuff done. Maybe that’s what rubs that small subset of people up the wrong way? To be clear though, I find it easy to get on with people and most people get on with me, or at least act like they do. Either works for me.
In 2022, after 10 years in a senior leadership position in a technology scale up, I quit my tech job to take a three year sabbatical to study and teach arboriculture and woodland management. In 2025 when my cohort of students had all sat their exams and completed their year, I made my return to techworld but this time – with a fresh perspective.
mix phx.new hello_again_worldThe three year sojourn into treeworld taught me a lot about myself, my mortality, my identity, my abilities, my potential and my future.
This substack is called Tree Jamie. It’s called that because trees have lots of things to teach us. I understand that now. But Tree Jamie is an awkward name for a man approaching his fiftieth birthday, so you can call me Jamie.