by Brooks Mendell | Dec 14, 2025 | Thinking/Analysis, Communication Skills, Forestry, Leading/Managing
Introduction My late friend Danny Hamsley once told me, “The web of life on Earth is complex.” Danny and I often discussed the challenges of being human and raising children, long before I married or had children of my own. Danny called this the “curse of the big...
by Brooks Mendell | Nov 28, 2025 | Leading/Managing, Communication Skills, Learning, Thinking/Analysis
Introduction I have been thinking about processes, habits, and routines after, once again, incinerating hours of my life watching videos online. Two situations account for most of why or when I get offtrack and surrender my attention. Fatigue. I’m tired and sit at the...
by Brooks Mendell | Sep 28, 2025 | Thinking/Analysis, Forestry, Learning
How important is new information? How do we know? Often, we don’t, according to a study in a September 2024 paper in the Quarterly Journal of Economics. Professors Eben Lazarus, Ned Augenblick, and Michael Thaler found evidence in sports betting, financials markets,...
by Brooks Mendell | Aug 30, 2025 | Learning, Thinking/Analysis
Did you know that the Earth is round? As a kid, I would flip through a set of Charlie Brown Encyclopedias and memorize facts about our planet. Did you know the circumference around the equator is 24,901 miles? Did you know the speed of light is 186,000 miles per...
by Brooks Mendell | Jul 31, 2025 | Thinking/Analysis, Leading/Managing, Learning, Sports
T-H-I-N-K Often, it’s not until years later, after you’ve had a chance to manage or motivate people, lead a project, start a business, or navigate a challenging series of events that you recognize the power and impact of lessons learned years before from parents,...
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,...