Build an Oak Tree

April 24, 2024

Websites are like trees. The pages branch out from the root domain like the branches of a tree. The branches get smaller and smaller until they turn into leaves. The leaves are the content, the life, the value of the website. The leaves are the important parts of a tree. A tree with no leaves is dead. The base of the tree is the root domain, the landing page, and how long the trunk is to the leaves indicates how long it takes users to get to the value. The seeds of the tree are the people, the founders. Those who dig deep in the search for water and grew by any means necessary. They could've died by the smallest change to their environment, but eventually, they sprouted.

Palm trees have very long trunks with a small number of very big leaves. Palm trees, in my mind, are startups with a fancy landing page, a lot of promises, and a disappointing solution at the end of it all. Oak trees, on the contrary, have very short trunks and begin branching out almost immediately. Oak trees don’t grow straight up; they adjust to the environment around them. They have an abundance of branches and leaves for many users to gain value from. These trees live for some of the longest out of any kind of tree because of their deep roots. A foundation that grows along with the tree but is undoubtedly set by the founders. The largest oak trees typically don't grow in forests; they need their space for their foundation to spread.

There are billions of trees in the world, and they begin to blend in with each other at a certain point. Some people obsess, hug, and have their favorite trees. But others go through life without ever really noticing them for what they are and use them for the value they can get. All trees, though, are at different points in their life, and new ones are growing every day. The biggest tree in the world may be an infant right now. But identifying it can be extremely difficult.