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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
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Accidental Genius summary
Mark Levy
Using Writing to Generate Your Best Ideas, Insight, and Content
18 mins
Brief summary
Accidental Genius by Mark Levy is a creativity guide that promotes freewriting as a tool for unleashing one's creative potential. Levy explores the benefits of writing without structure and how it can unlock new ideas and solutions.
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Accidental Genius
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Key idea 1 of 8
Freewriting is an excellent method for organizing your mind and capturing your best ideas.
You no doubt have tons of great ideas swirling around your head; you’re not alone if you struggle to articulate them.
The human mind is capable of producing fantastic thoughts and hypotheses, but sometimes directing or clarifying them can be tricky.
We all have eureka moments that come to us like lightning bolts – some are nonsensical, others can change the world. Remember the legend of the apple falling on Isaac Newton’s head? At that moment, he suddenly understood how gravity worked.
There’s no doubt that the human mind can conjure up incredible leaps of imagination.
However, sometimes we struggle to organize and refine our thoughts into understandable forms.
That’s because we're predisposed to laziness or leaving our ruminations indistinct and wooly. We start daydreaming, lose focus, and just like that the best ideas are lost.
There’s a method for combating this: freewriting. Freewriting is a way to arrange our minds, come up with ideas, or make decisions by putting our thoughts down rapidly on paper.
It’s more than just directionless and unfocused scribbling. You have to apply rules and techniques in order to reap huge rewards from your initial thinking.
Freewriting is a method that honors everything within your mind. It keeps track of it and permanently chronicles your opinions as they develop.
It’s especially useful if you have to make difficult business decisions. But it’s also excellent in situations where you have to think about your personal life or get to grips with big challenges like writing a book or a thesis.
But don’t be fooled by the name. Freewriting is relevant not just for authors, business consultants or wordy professionals – it’s for everyone.
Now that we know the theory, how does freewriting actually work? Let’s get started by looking at some basic rules.
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What is Accidental Genius about?
Accidental Genius (2010) outlines techniques, ideas and exercises that utilize freewriting. It’s a method that many people use to organize their thoughts, solve problems and access the great ideas buried in their minds. The techniques and tips detailed here can be used to achieve better concentration, bring order to disorder and free up creative capacity.
Who should read Accidental Genius?
- People interested in innovative writing techniques
- Anyone whose work involves complex problem-solving situations
- Writers or students trying to organize material and ideas for theses or books
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