by Brooks Mendell | Jan 15, 2025 | Thinking/Analysis, Learning
I am passionate about learning and logical, rational thinking. If something does not make sense or fails to explain how things work, then it doesn’t make sense or explain. At a minimum, it is incomplete. Perhaps it answers a different question. Or, simply, it is...
by Brooks Mendell | Dec 22, 2024 | Learning, Sports
Beaverball, my book about a season with the MIT baseball team, includes stories about how we sometimes shared a word or fact “of the day” while stretching at the start of practice. At my high school in California, when the baseball and football teams warmed-up, we...
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 | Sep 11, 2024 | Learning
My Dad is the dream dental patient. He role models superb oral hygiene. I remember, as a kid, our dentist saying, “Your Dad is the best patient we’ve had. He’s a poster child, an all-star for orthodontal self-care.” Growing up, I watched him floss, brush, and then...
by Brooks Mendell | Jul 30, 2024 | Learning, Thinking/Analysis
In college, my friend and mentor Mark Lundstrom taught me that “earning good grades gives you more freedom.” I had struggled as a freshman, and Mark, an actual rocket scientist, talked to me about how getting straight on study habits and academic performance...
by Brooks Mendell | Apr 14, 2024 | Learning, Thinking/Analysis
Classic lessons and finance fundamentals inform my approach to investing. Start saving and investing early to crank the flywheel of compounding interest. Minimize costs to keep more of what you earn. Diversify to mitigate risk. Commit to regular and systematic...
