by Brooks Mendell | Jun 16, 2025 | Leading/Managing, Books, Communication Skills, Learning, Thinking/Analysis, Writing
I can basically do one round of creative work each day. Maybe two. No more. The attention, capacity, and focus required to write, research, and develop ideas are limited to a few hours daily, especially when life includes a spouse, children, bills, bowel movements,...
by Brooks Mendell | May 31, 2025 | Leading/Managing, Books, Communication Skills, Forestry, Learning, Sports, Thinking/Analysis
As a kid, I learned that the “knee bone connected to the thigh bone” thanks to the School House Rock song “Them Not So Dry Bones.” The lyrics remind us how things “really fit” and “it’s a framework… holding you together.” This idea, that we are combinations of...
by Brooks Mendell | Jan 1, 2025 | Writing, Books
Happy New Year. Since 2017, I have submitted and tracked my fiction writing, and posted annual updates (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023). How did it go with my short stories in 2024? In 2024, I submitted versions and revisions of 24 stories 53 times to 34 different...
by Brooks Mendell | Oct 31, 2024 | Books, Learning, Thinking/Analysis
In 1935, Eleanor Roosevelt published an article in The Saturday Evening Post titled “In Defense of Curiosity.” In describing the benefits of being curious, she wrote: I think, at a child’s birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most...
by Brooks Mendell | Nov 20, 2023 | Books, Sports
In September, I was in Corpus Christi, Texas watching a tennis match and taking notes, when a smiling, clear-eyed gentleman in tennis clothes sat next to me. We chatted about the game and tennis strategies, and then introduced ourselves. “I’m Bobby Hagerman, the...
by Brooks Mendell | Oct 8, 2023 | Books, Communication Skills, Leading/Managing
My Dad taught me and my brother, “There is no premium for complexity.” He emphasized the value of keeping it simple, focusing on the most important things you can control, and getting it done. You don’t get paid more to sound like a robot or technocrat, or...
