"A complex, smart and ambitious book that first reads like a self-help handbook, then blossoms into a comprehensive political manifesto." - Jonah Engel Bromwich, The New York Times Book Review
President Barack Obama's "Favorite Books of 2019"
One of the best books of the year: Time • New Yorker • NPR • GQ • Allele • Vulture • Fortune • Boeing Boeing • Irish Times • New York Public Library • Brook Public Library
Porchlight's Personal Development and Human Behavior Book of the Year
Nothing is harder these days than doing nothing. But in a world where our value is determined by our 24/7 data productivity. . . Doing nothing can be the most important form of our resistance.
So argues the artist and criticizes Jenny Odell, the guide of the field for doing nothing (at least as capitalism defines it). Odell sees our attention as the most precious - and over-resourceful - we have. Once we can start paying a new type of attention, she writes, we can access political action in the environment, folder forms of the role of the remagine mankind, and a more meaningful understanding of happiness and progress.
Far from simple anti-technology, or the back-to-nature meditation we often read, How to Do Nothing is an action plan to think outside the capitalist narratives of efficiency and techno-determinism. Provocative, timely and utterly inspiring, this book is a four-tiered meal at the age of Soylent.
President Barack Obama's "Favorite Books of 2019"
One of the best books of the year: Time • New Yorker • NPR • GQ • Allele • Vulture • Fortune • Boeing Boeing • Irish Times • New York Public Library • Brook Public Library
Porchlight's Personal Development and Human Behavior Book of the Year
Nothing is harder these days than doing nothing. But in a world where our value is determined by our 24/7 data productivity. . . Doing nothing can be the most important form of our resistance.
So argues the artist and criticizes Jenny Odell, the guide of the field for doing nothing (at least as capitalism defines it). Odell sees our attention as the most precious - and over-resourceful - we have. Once we can start paying a new type of attention, she writes, we can access political action in the environment, folder forms of the role of the remagine mankind, and a more meaningful understanding of happiness and progress.
Far from simple anti-technology, or the back-to-nature meditation we often read, How to Do Nothing is an action plan to think outside the capitalist narratives of efficiency and techno-determinism. Provocative, timely and utterly inspiring, this book is a four-tiered meal at the age of Soylent.