3.7
Non-Fiction
A galvanizing critique of the forces vying for our attention—and our personal information—that redefines what we think of as productivity, reconnects us with the environment, and reveals all that we've been too distracted to see about ourselves and our world. Nothing is harder to do these days than nothing. But in a world where our value is determined by our 24/7 data productivity . . . doing nothing may be our most important form of resistance. So argues artist and critic Jenny Odell in this field guide to doing nothing (at least as capitalism defines it). Odell sees our attention as the most precious—and overdrawn—resource we have. 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 is a four-course meal in the age of Soylent.
© 2019 W. F. Howes Ltd (Audiobook): 9781528873888
Release date
Audiobook: 4 July 2019
3.7
Non-Fiction
A galvanizing critique of the forces vying for our attention—and our personal information—that redefines what we think of as productivity, reconnects us with the environment, and reveals all that we've been too distracted to see about ourselves and our world. Nothing is harder to do these days than nothing. But in a world where our value is determined by our 24/7 data productivity . . . doing nothing may be our most important form of resistance. So argues artist and critic Jenny Odell in this field guide to doing nothing (at least as capitalism defines it). Odell sees our attention as the most precious—and overdrawn—resource we have. 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 is a four-course meal in the age of Soylent.
© 2019 W. F. Howes Ltd (Audiobook): 9781528873888
Release date
Audiobook: 4 July 2019
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Overall rating based on 106 ratings
Thought-provoking
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2 Aug 2020
Boring, unstructured and largely a collection of random thoughts. While the premise of the book is how to lead a meaningful life that is not defined by productivity in consumerist terms, it hardly touches on the idea. Instead it goes on forever about cults that abandoned society and went to live as recluses, about the history of trade union protests and about art based on everyday sounds and images. The term 'attention economy' is often used but there is hardly any deliberation around it. There is no mention of how it came into being, or of its financial, social and mental implications. Abandonment of society, protesting against work norms, recognising the magic in everyday and being aware of ecology are implied as the ways to combat the attention economy, but there is no discourse or real insights around these, only history and author's personal experiences, which are long drawn and uninteresting.Not recommended!
English
India