Customer Reviews

Accidental Genius: Revolutionize Your Thinking Through Private Writing

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
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This is a great book. It's short, easy to read, and entertaining. But it's also a very powerful book that will change the way you approach creativity and learning.

It's not just about "private writing", it's about how to generate creative ideas and increase your learning and retention of what you read. It's also about how to clarify your thinking. The book has more than enough ideas to improve your life than what you would expect in his 141 page book.

I give it an A+ in my rating scale. This is a MUST READ for those who want to increase their learning, creativity and retention.

John Dunbar
Sugar Land, TX

Accidental Genius: Revolutionize Your Thinking Through Private Writing )
by Mark Levy

I have had this book for quite a while & I have also reread it several times. I have been attracted to the book in the first place by what the author writes in the Introduction:

- Every recognized innovation has, in some way, been a product of human thought. It stands to reason, then, that the thoughts appearing in your mind have an enormous, potential value to you & the world;

- Sometimes your best thoughts must be coaxed out, & played with, before they reach their fullest potential;

- The world's most progressive companies have sophisticated infrastructures just to develop, and protect, the kinds of thoughts that you've already had or are capable of having;

What does this book do, in a nut shell: it teaches you how to get at what you're thinking on paper, so you can convert the raw material of your thoughts into something useable, using an energising body of techniques called 'private writing'. It entails examining all kinds of work/life situations & creating solutions for them through personal reflection and free-form writing.

The chapter on 'Extracting Gold from a Business Book' is my personal favourite.

For me, I have often used the author's writing techniques as a catalyst to guide my own best thinking on paper. I use what I often like to term as my 'scratch pad', foolscape-size, spiral-bound, 100 pages per pad, 100 gms weight, similar to the type artists use, in conjuction with a multi-colour/multi-utility pen from Rotring. At one point in time, (for about 3 years) I used the Bienfang spiral-bound note/sketch pads until the only local supplier went out of business unexpectedly.

On many occasions, I have astonished myself by being able to wrestle with the valuable business & life insights from my own seemingly disparate 'private writing' pages. I have translated many of my valuable insights into pragmatic projects. One of the sideline projects is writing reviews on amazon website.

I have noted that one of the most outstanding results of 'private writing' is honing my own critical & creative thinking processes.

Because of my personal interests in visual thinking, I often incorporate the 'rapid visualisation' & 'deliberate doodling' techniques I have picked up from Kurt Hanks as well as Joy Sikorski into my 'private writing' processes. As most readers may know, Kurt crafted the classic book, Rapid Viz, among many others. Joy crafted the following three marvellous doodling books, which I also own:

- How to Draw a Cup of Coffee & Other Fun Ideas;
- How to Draw a Radish & Other Fun Things to do at Work;
- How to Draw a Clam: A Wonderful Vacation Planner;

I have drawn phenomenal power from my purposeful integration of 'private writing' with 'rapid visualisation' & 'delberate doodling'. That's why I always use a multi-colour/multi-utlity Rotring pen in my work. My scratch pad is always a visual smorgasbord of relatively heavy text, mystical doodles & logical illustrations (thanks & no thanks to my engineering training!).

To conclude my review, Accidental Genius, is a real, rare gem. I strongly recommend this book to any reader who wants to explore powerful insight generation, &/or to apply some structure & purpose to - & at the end, extract some value from - all those notes you've been writing to yourself.

In the ACCIDENTAL GENIUS, Mark Levy does not want to become your judgmental English professor, intimidating you into writing that perfect essay. Those experiences likely lead you to view writing as an unpleasant undertaking, not soon to be repeated. Yet how many of us still hanker to be writers? If you've taken the time to search this book out this probably applies to you. Instead of the critical teacher, Mr. Levy wants to become your personal psychologist guiding you towards getting past the damage that may have been done and allowing you to once again tap into that inner creativity that I'm told is part of our birthright.
There are many techniques presented in this book to get past the "internal censor" that keep many of us from taking the steps necessary to getting things out of our heads unto paper. Eventually we may actually convert these ideas into something that may actually benefit others and ourselves.
The point is to write often and quickly, literally against a timer set for about ˝ hour. This, with repeated practice, will short-circuit the internal censor that tends to want to judge creative ideas as unworthy of being born in this world. Will everything that comes out of our heads be worthy of Einstein? Of course not...not everything that came out of his head was worthy of him. Like sifting for gold, one has to go through a lot of dirt(and BS) and eventually there will be a nugget. The big point is to go for quantity over quality; the refinement process is the next step before public consumption. Still a little sensitive to how good or bad your writing may be? Simply keep it private! The author shares these and other techniques and approaches. He covers everything from writing a book to solving a business problem.
After several weeks of practicing with his suggestions, I found that writing became more automatic and easier. I also noticed that the internal sensor was playing less of a role in the production of my output. I was asked to help write a major proposal for my company, a task that I normally would have agonized and plotted through. Instead, much to my surprise, it was.... dare I use the words.... somewhat effortless and even pleasurable.
This is a great book for getting started on harvesting ideas. For the next step, which is the refinement of raw ideas, I suggest the Gregg Guide. It deals with the rules of grammar, punctuation and other formalities.
P.S. Please be kind when reviewing this entry. I did it to give interested parties a glimpse of what I thought this book was about and also to practice writing. I sincerely hope that I have achieved this. I did not write it as a class assignment or to please the grammar police.

I thoroughly enjoyed "listening" to Mark Levy as I read his book. I felt as though I was attending a personal seminar on private writing. Mark says you can "lead a better life through writing" and then he shows you how to do it. His style is breezy and engaging. His examples are contemporary and interesting - I even laughed out loud a few times. I didn't realize how much I learned until after I put the book away and found myself writing to think and thinking about writing. Try it - you'll be surprised by your own "genius moments".

Serendipity - and amazon's powerful search engine - led me to this excellent effort by Mark Levy. I'm a big fan of Blue Man Group, and they quote a "Mark Levy" in their promotional material. That book - "Technicians of Ecstasy : Shamanism and the Modern Artist" (1993) - is quite probably written by a different Mark Levy.

But amazon's search engine popped 'Accidental Genius' to the top of the list. I was intrigued, especially due to the more-frenetic-than-usual ravings of Tom Peters. I bought it, and was not disappointed. I suffer from many of the problems Levy describes. Foremost, these seemingly great ideas in my head tend to get self-edited and written in an odd, foreign voice by the time they make it down onto paper.

Levy's 'private writing' technique is a usuable, practible method that can be employed straightaway. Its power is to allow your voice on paper become the same as the voice you have in your head. It's disarmingly simple, but powerful stuff.

Chockful of examples and exercises, you can start using Levy's techniques for immediate results.

As a teacher of graduate students, I believe that the book will be an extremely useful tool for the people taking my classes. The book teaches "private writing," which is a technique that's helped me, in the short time that I've been employing it, examine ideas in a comprehensive, unique manner. I am itching to advise my students to buy the book and use the methods therein. I firmly believe that it will help them understand new material in a very personal way that will be advantageous to their studies of science methods. The book is written in an entertaining and accessible manner that makes it a pleasurable read.

I've made my living soley by writing for 50 years. Every decade or so, I've accidentally written something I was pleased with, something that came out on the paper the way I wanted it to. Now, thanks to Mark Levy's book, I've learned how to be accidental on purpose. Had Mr. Levy written this little gem 50 years ago, I might today be rich beyond the dreams of avarice and famous beyond all imaginings. And, more important, a lot less frustrated. This book is a triumph.

Indeed, it's even inspired me to write a poem‹

Attack the problem digitally With pen and paper and ink. A link exists 'tween the fingertips And the mind's desire to think.

I was sceptical when a friend recommended this book. As a rule, I generally avoid books in the business genre, but, my friend assured me, this one was different. Well, she was right. Mr. Levy's private writing exercises are a great way to jump-start a bogged down brain. Everyone has an internal editor that usually gets in the way of good ideas; these exercises remove those barriers and show anyone willing to try how easy it can be to have a 'genius moment.' As a professional in a creative field, coming up with unique, fresh ideas is my bread and butter. Now I have another very valuable tool in my arsenal. Thanks, Mr. Levy!

As a professional sales representative who recognizes the power of the written word, I could not wait to read Accidental Genius...especially when I learned that Tom Peters wrote the foreward and that he, himself, gave Mark Levy's new book a 5 star rating! What more credibility do you need?! That being said, once I sunk my teeth into this fascinating book, the content didn't disappoint. Mr. Levy provides the foundation to unleash the power of our own writing abilities and gives a game plan on how to more effectively write, communicate and, frankly, close business. The only negative comment I'll give about the book is that it had to end. Buy this book. Read this book. It truly is extraordinary.

How many times have you looked at a new idea or invention and said "I thought of doing that once..." How many times have you forgotten things because you didn't write them down? Answers: lots of times, lots of times.

Now ask yourself "How many good ideas have come to me pure, shining forth with no clutter around them, precisely when I needed them?" The answer is likely to be "Never."

Accidental Genius tries to capitalize on these truisms by suggesting that the mechanism of writing can liberate the mind and allow the good ideas to pour forth - amid lots of debris, even nonsense. "Write fast, as close to the speed of your thinking as you can," says Levy, and with a timer (one that doesn't tick). And be relaxed while you do it.

The private writing log, which is Levy's main tool, can contain a journal, jottings on a problem or a wish, conversations with self or imaginary interlocutors, fantastic scenarios ranging from phenomenal strokes of good luck to horrifying catastrophe.

During the time you assign yourself you pour it all into your log, which only you will see and use. Later, perhaps much later, you will look over what you've written and try to extract the gold nuggets. For the price of a pencil and a pad of paper, you have built yourself a personal brainstormer.

Thought-logging has a long tradition among writing; many writers cannot survive without a notebook. Too many character sketches, images, details, dialogue and states of mind would be lost forever. However, the stated purpose of Levy's method is not to become a great or even a publishable writer but to keep a record of your thoughts for revisiting and future profit. The book is aimed at businesspeople but, at least in theory, anyone could benefit from the Levy method.

First, the method, which seems inspired by meditation techniques -- paradoxically, it replaces mind-quieting with page-filling --, requires a relaxed state of mind before starting a thought-logging session. Thus, the practice will be much easier for experienced meditators than for people who constantly carry unacknowledged tensions, fears, or other obstacles.

Someone capable of quieting his mind and relaxing may find it disconcerting to subject himself to a fast-paced exercise in free writing. Indeed, such a person may not want to get good ideas in this seemingly crass and haphazard way. Yet, in principle, the Levy exercises are no more absurd than practicing archery or repeating mantras.

True, the tone of the book is boosterish, the author being almost too eager to tell you his secret recipe -- but as in food recipes, literary polish matters little and the results are everything. Wonderful things can be done with cabbage, raw fish and snails (ants and cockroaches, too).

Despite its rough surface, this brief book has the bones of a fine meditation manual for businesspeople and a possibly useful tool for removing mental obstructions and even promoting a degree of self-knowledge in the age of commodity and show -- Levy's tacitly assumed and accepted scenario (whether the acceptance is reluctant or not, we don't know).

Talking to yourself in writing cannot be a substitute for the lost art of civilized conversation, but it will likely be a useful exercise. At worst, the technique can work as a placebo or not work at all, in which case you have lost nothing (think homeopathy).

At best, it can inspire you to pay attention to your thoughts and to develop an eye for good ideas, as well as good work habits. And if it teaches how to be comfortable in your own company, this book will have been not just a good buy but a steal. Good bones.