There is at least one redeeming quality about Play Airlines, the low-cost carrier I’m flying from Reykjavik to Boston. The planes are equipped with cameras that cast a live birds eye view onto screens in the cabin as they fly. Apparently some PJs have this too… I wouldn’t know.
I’m flying over northern Nova Scotia and it occurs to me that the dimples, craters, and striations of the earth’s surface resemble the skin of a living creature. For this particularly ancient and unbothered patch of earth, the dermis resembles that of an elephant.
As someone who embraces the earth’s existence as a living breathing organism, this realisation is both interesting and confirmatory.
Thinking of mother earth as a mortal being reframed the role of humans on the planet. In this context we are no longer the centre of the universe, but a colony of minuscule, microbial, organisms. Bacteria, or fungus.
What kind of fungus do you want to be? Penicillium the root of Penicillin, a compound that helps its host fight off deathly disease? Psilocybin, which provides its host with a more enlightened and cooperative community? Or black mold, slowly and quietly rotting its host away from the inside?
Up to you.
In the meantime, let’s try to be in symbiosis with this old elephant of a planet, shall we?
James Hamilton is an entrepreneur and technologist focused on building businesses and brands that thrive and endure. He is the co-founder of oakpool, a founder and employee-owned digital marketing firm that builds teams, systems, and software to help brands achieve sustainable growth. oakpool works globally, with team members and clients across the United States, Canada, Latin America, and Europe. Past and present clients include GORE-TEX, Goslings Rum, Caesars Entertainment, and Zum.
At oakpool, James leads new product and service development, including oakpool.ai, which focuses on Generative Engine Optimization (GEO or AI Search Optimization) — helping brands become legible, referenced, and surfaced inside modern AI search engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude.
Along with his work at oakpool, James has spent nearly a decade in early-stage venture capital and company formation, working as an investor and Entrepreneur-in-Residence at firms in Boston, London, and the Bay Area. He earned his MBA at Imperial College London and his BA at the College of Charleston.
James comes from a family of artists, curators, gallerists, and writers, and approaches entrepreneurship as a creative act. Beyond his work, James is passionate about travel, skiing, fly fishing, the arts, and our planet.
