How to Do Nothing
Resisting the Attention Economy
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3.8 • 9 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
** A New York Times Bestseller **
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY: Time • The New Yorker • NPR • GQ • Elle • Vulture • Fortune • Boing Boing • The Irish Times • The New York Public Library • The Brooklyn Public Library
"A complex, smart and ambitious book that at first reads like a self-help manual, then blossoms into a wide-ranging political manifesto."—Jonah Engel Bromwich, The New York Times Book Review
One of President Barack Obama's "Favorite Books of 2019"
Porchlight's Personal Development & Human Behavior Book of the Year
In a world where addictive technology is designed to buy and sell our attention, and our value is determined by our 24/7 data productivity, it can seem impossible to escape. But in this inspiring field guide to dropping out of the attention economy, artist and critic Jenny Odell shows us how we can still win back our lives.
Odell sees our attention as the most precious—and overdrawn—resource we have. And we must actively and continuously choose how we use it. We might not spend it on things that capitalism has deemed important … but once we can start paying a new kind of attention, she writes, we can undertake bolder forms of political action, reimagine humankind’s role in the environment, and arrive at more meaningful understandings of happiness and progress.
Far from the simple anti-technology screed, or the back-to-nature meditation we read so often, How to do Nothing is an action plan for thinking outside of capitalist narratives of efficiency and techno-determinism. Provocative, timely, and utterly persuasive, this book will change how you see your place in our world.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Jenny Odell’s fascinating and wide-ranging manifesto is a breath of fresh air. The Oakland-based author and artist offers a thoughtful perspective on what’s happening to us as individuals who are neck-deep in social-media culture. Odell’s solution goes deeper than so-called digital detoxes—she calls on us to embark on something like habitat rehabilitation for our minds. She entices us to step away from our computers and phones with a collage of ideas about paying attention to the places where we live and the nature that surrounds us. She draws on the writings of John Muir and Greek philosophers and explores diverse topics like bird-watching, labor strikes, and ’60s communes. How to Do Nothing is deep and totally absorbing. We came away from reading it feeling hopeful—and excited to go outside and look up at some trees.
Customer Reviews
At times insightful, but mostly self aggrandizement and pontification
Personally, I found this book frustrating in that it’s not without potential. From researching the deep history of midwestern communes in North America to the Japanese art of ‘do nothing’ farming, Jenny has done deep research for us to learn on how connected we are to the earth and it’s people. But this book ‘How to do nothing’ constantly feels unfocused, and lacks clarity when drawing a premise and conclusion in addressing the attention economy.
Personally, I can’t stand this style of writing. My teacher from High School English once photocopied a handout thst had George Orwell’s five rules of writing. Rules like “Never use a longer word when a shorter one will do”, “Use everyday English words over academic/scientific jargon”are my personal preference when it comes to reading- I find it promotes brevity, clarity, and authority to a casual reader trying to listen to the reader. I can’t think of a more egregious example of a book breaking all of these rules. This book reads more like required reading for a sociology course than it is for bedside reading, pontificating endlessly with needless verbiage.
I also found it was unconvincing how she tied certain themes throughout the book to her central conclusion about the main topic of the book: resisting the attention economy. At times she takes us to a whimsical deep history that almost made me feel this about the biodiversity and environmental practices of different habitats, or avant garde art practices, that constantly made me ask “okay so…what are we saying here?”.
Ironically, Jenny will say this is exactly the type of thinking that’s problematic in our economy - seeing things as a means to an end (“I-It Relationship”) vs seeing things for what they are (“I-Thou”). At the end of the day it’s based on what you see in a book - is it an artifact that you can glean insight and new perspectives? Or an artistic expression that invites the reader into the journey of the author’s mind ? I feel like this book is marketed and described as the former but really exists as the latter. Without spoiling further, I also take issue about how the author refuses to provide implications at the individual level and wholly feels this is a systematic issue, while giving examples on how powerful individual agency is in past examples of civil disobedience.
Part memoir, part research, part musings, if you’re into a post modern whimsical journey, this is for you. However if you’re more into a prescriptive, clear, and focused commentary about reflections in this social media landscape with relatable takeaways at the reader’s level, I would suggest you skip this book.