Accidental Genius: How To Think

Hmm I am not sure what to think about this.<p>It is my experience that "The art of thinking" comes in many shapes.<p>Some people are very clear in their thinking others are very messy. Some people need to speak rather than think, some people need to think rather than speak. Some people need to Doodle, some do 100 ideas in 10 minutes other do 10 ideas in 100 minutes.<p>I appreciate the purpose and the methods of the book. I am sure it's a fantastic way... for some people.<p>It's not necessarily for everyone.

This kind of stuff is really important. I've done this for about a year now, read about it somewhere, called them Morning Pages, or something like that. It's really a daily brain dump, and I use Evernote to have the entries easily searchable and taggable. I also write right before I go to sleep and for lack of a better name, called them Evening Pages.<p>Once I got into the habit of doing them, I saw three other benefits: 1) I no longer needed stupid to-do lists, 2) Because I did them right when I woke up, before I was conscious enough to be self-conscious, I was brutally honest with myself, and got rid of my obnoxious depression, and 3) The daily practice really improved my writing.<p>Journaling really is a better form of meditation. I wish I'd gotten into the habit sooner.

<a href="http://750words.com/" rel="nofollow">http://750words.com/</a> is a cute tool for the writing exercises. I'm not a writer, just checked it out for a few days and didn't read the Accidental Genius book.<p>I got bored the second day. I didn't write down anything interesting, my free writing was so boring I didn't bother to read it after. Maybe I need more guidance like this book provides. Typically I write things down when I get an idea during thinking, not to do a writing exercise.

One good habit of thought not mentioned in the article is thinking in analogies. Comparison and contrast seem to be fundamental brain operations. Smart people express themselves in analogies, especially parables/stories. Always be thinking, "What is this like?" or "What does this remind me of?"

If you are interested in FreeWriting, I highly recommend Keith Johnstone's "Impro"<p>In it he talks about doing a writing exercise while counting down from 100 simultaneously. That really preoccupies the limiting consciousness and lets stuff come out.

It would be interesting to try this strategy with Workflowy. They talk about it being a way to keep your brain online or whatever, and it certainly allows for fast dumping of ideas. The question is whether its structure will cause you to want to edit while you're writing. You could just produce a ton of discreet notes as new lines, and then rearrange them later.

I tried a bit of this just a moment ago. Came up with the answer to a problem I've been thinking about for some time now. Additionally I thought of some great ideas for weekend projects.<p>I'm suitably impressed to keep trying it out to see what else I can do with it, if not to experiment a little - it is very much like monkeys at typewriters.<p>Anyone else feel this is like "intellectual improv"?

I have not read the book mentioned in the op, but I tend to use a somewhat similar technique to declutter my mind. When focusing on a particular problem, or topic I tend to scribble (or doodle) in my notebook without any constraints.<p>Once I have a good enough start point, I try and write down my thoughts in an email to (a possibly imaginary) a colleague who may be interested in what I have to say. The very fact that I now have an audience acts like a filter and helps me get to the crux of my idea very quickly. Writing for an audience also makes you evaluate what ideas may be relevant and what irrelevant.<p>Its even better if you have somebody you can use as a soundboard to talk about your ideas. Of course, thats not always possible (and is very obnoxious!), so the email method works better for me.

The New Diary by Christine Rainer is another good book on exploring through writing. It has many of the same techniques. The freewriting technique not only gives you ideas, but sometimes a sense of peace about what worries you.

I'm going to disagree that 'how to think' should be an alternate title. 'Accidental Genius' is exactly what it is... You just pour out your thoughts like monkeys at typewriters, hoping to get something good. Now, since we're a little better at typing than monkeys, chances are that you'll happen across some nuggets. But this should never be confused with actual logic which can be used on command to get results consistently, rather than randomly.<p>For a fiction writer, the difference may be negligible. For a rocket scientist, it's a matter of life and death. Literally.

Similar techniques have worked in the past for me, but I always wind up with a bunch of paper or computer text that I have no idea where to put. How do you organize all the data without interfering in its creation? Ideally, I'd like a solution that also incorporates all the little inspiration bits I get at various times, and other thoughts I'd like to keep.

I may have missed something, but this doesn't feel like a review, it feels like he's rehashed and summarized every point in the book without adding any original content, beyond how he's been using the techniques. A nice glowing review with some choice summaries would have been plenty to get me to dig deeper and purchase the original book. After reading this though, I feel I've pretty much gotten everything I could have from the book and have no desire to actually purchase it, beyond supporting the original author. I enjoyed the material, and I think it's going to be really useful going forward, but maybe a Spoiler Alert warning would have been appropriate.

Speaking for myself, I solve hard math and computer science problems best by explaining my thinking aloud slowly and carefully to someone I want to impress but I know won't be judgmental if I screw up.

This is my favorite read all week. Thank you! As an "idea writer" with plenty of notebooks around at all times to capture thought fairies, this is a freakin beautiful way to extend that practice and take it to many levels I hadn't even thought about. I will buy this book as thanks to the author and poster- Cheers-