First, an idea is born in you. It is not on the surface but somewhere deep in the ground, in the form of a seed. The seed is tiny, and no one knows what kind of tree will grow from it. But the seed is almost nothing: birds cannot nest in it, it will bear no fruit, and in the end it can hardly be used as timber.
And then you diligently water the seed of your idea. You invest your time in it, use your skills, and do everything you can to help it grow.
After a while, the first sprout breaks through the soil. That sprout is still too weak and young to be useful to anyone, but it is enough to motivate you to keep watering it.
The more time you give to that sprout, the faster it grows.
The main trunk is the foundation of your idea, the part without which it becomes meaningless, the thing that distinguishes it from everything else. It is important to make sure the trunk develops in the right direction and stays strong.
At this stage, the young tree is already strong enough to grow its first branch. It may symbolize some additional functionality or a side idea.
Over time there will be more and more branches: each performs its own function, follows its own direction, and produces new child branches. In the world of software, by analogy, each large branch might be a build and testing system, a section of a website, or a new technology.
- Want to keep the essence of a project from getting lost during development? Draw a tree where the trunk is the main idea of the project, the killer feature, and the branches are everything else. Is the branch with the build system or UI larger than the trunk? Looks like something has gone wrong.
- Develop a project iteratively and in all its main directions, otherwise the next storm will topple that crooked tree.
- Projects, like trees, need pruning if you do not like where they are growing.
- It takes years before a tree starts bearing fruit.
- If a tree is dying, turn it into furniture, heat your home with it, do not wait until it rots uselessly or falls on something you care about.
- Use the seeds to plant new trees and begin new projects.