• Accidental Genius

  • Using Writing to Generate Your Best Ideas, Insight and Content
  • By: Mark Levy
  • Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
  • Length: 4 hrs and 27 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (637 ratings)

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Accidental Genius  By  cover art

Accidental Genius

By: Mark Levy
Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot
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Publisher's summary

When it comes to creating ideas, we hold ourselves back. That's because inside each of us is an internal editor whose job is to forever polish our thoughts, so we sound smart and in control, and so that we fit into society. But what happens when we encounter problems for which such conventional thinking fails us? How can we get unstuck?

For Mark Levy, the answer is freewriting, a technique he's used for years to solve all types of business problems and generate ideas for books, articles, and blog posts.

Freewriting is deceptively simple: Start writing as fast as you can, for as long as you can, about a subject you care deeply about, while ignoring the standard rules of grammar and spelling. Your internal editor won't be able to keep up with your output, and will be temporarily shunted into the background. You'll now be able to think more honestly and resourcefully than before, and will generate breakthrough ideas and solutions that you couldn't have created any other way.

Levy shares six freewriting secrets designed to knock out your editor and let your genius run free. He also includes 15 problem-solving and creativity-stimulating principles you can use if you need more firepower - seven of which are new to this edition - and stories of problems he and others have solved through freewriting.

Also new to this edition: an extensive section on how to refine your freewriting into something you can share with the world. Although Levy originally taught freewriting as a private brainstorming technique, over the years he and his clients have found that, with some tweaking, it's a great way to generate content for books, articles, and other thought-leadership pieces.

©2010 Mark Andrew Levy (P)2010 Audible, Inc

Critic reviews

"I’ve been a fanboy of Accidental Genius and the genius of Mark Levy for five years now, and I couldn’t work without these ideas." (David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR)

What listeners say about Accidental Genius

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Stream of Consciousness

I guess any thought in my head that I put to paper is important enough ... to me. This seems like and ego driven exercise in self with no real purpose. I don't think I got it.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Not concise

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I like the concept and I have enjoyed the fast writing sessions, however, he could have explained everythink in an hour.

Would you be willing to try another book from Mark Levy? Why or why not?

Not likely. He tries to make an essay into a book.

Was Accidental Genius worth the listening time?

Yes, luckily it was already fairly short. He takes too long to get to a point.

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