Book Information
Title : How to Do Nothing
Author : Jenny Odell
Publication Date : April 9, 2019
Genres : Nonfiction, Philosophy, Arts, Environmentalism
Pages : 256
ISBN-10 : 1612197493
ISBN-13 : 978-1612197494
How I met this book
I do not remember when I encountered and bought this book. However, I remember buying this book on the bookshelf at my favorite bookstore. I can just guess why I decided to read this book.
In my personality, or not only because of my personality, in this modern world (attention economy from the author), I think I struggled with doing nothing. That means that I need to do something valuable or do not want to waste my time. So, I was always to be more productive or create the list of what I need to do or have to do be more productive. This mindset might have led me to be tired and do nothing. That is why I might wanted to know how to do nothing in this world. In the cover of this book, there is sentence, “Resisting the Attention Economy”. I believe that that inspired me to read this book because I wanted to have some rest from this rushing world. That is my guess why I picked this book.
Summary of this book
Short Summary
We live in the attention economy. Capitalism and online technology distract us. It is impossible to evacuate completely. We can be trained and disciplined to resist it, which leads us to be somewhere else to apply different frameworks. The key elements to enable us to do this are listening, physical place, time, and context. Online space does not give us any of them. The author suggests that bioregionalism helps us engage with the physical world. It is the last common place where we need to hold our attention and can refer to.
Key Points
- Time should not be consumed only for the sake of economy or productivity, but for care, maintain, and conviviality.
- Even if something is not useless based on capitalism, but it can be useful from other points of view. The author introduces Old Survivor as the example. It is a tree in Oakland with an odd shape. It is notable for its old age and mysterious location.
- We need to value and preserve sensitivity where people spend more time with each other in person. This is more important than connectivity, where they spend less time doing it in the online world, such as just liking or sharing the post on Facebook)
- Hold attention can make the world more extensible. For example, if we pay attention to the traits of birds, we notice many details that we did not realize.
Fan Facts
- Attention comes from ad+tendre in the Latin word, which means “to stretch toward”.
Favorite Quotes
“From either a social or ecological perspective, the ultimate goal of ‘doing nothing’ is to wrest our focus from the attention economy and replant it in the public, physical realm” (p.xii)
“‘Nothing’ is neither a luxury nor a waste of time, but rather a necessary part of meaningful thought and speech” (p.4)
“it takes a break to remember that a break to do nothing, to just listen, to remember in the deepest sense what, when, and where we are” (p.22)
“Silence is not the absence of something but the presence of everything” (p.23)
“What I’ll see depends on how I look, and for how long. It’s a lot like breathing. Some kind of attention will always be present, but when we take hold of it, we have the ability to consciously direct, expand, and contract it” (p.108)
“in a world where our survival is absolutely bound up with the survival of the ecologies in which we are embedded, it becomes clear that reciprocal attention is what ensures our survival as well” (p.147)
“a diverse community with a complex web of interdependencies is not only richer but more resistant to takeover” (p.153)
“forming any idea requires a combination of privacy and sharing” (p.173)
“For me, doing nothing means disengaging from one framework (the attention economy) not only to give myself to think, but to do something else in another framework” (p.179)
“personal recognition that my emotional and physical survival is bound up with these ‘strangers’ not just now, but for life” (p.183)
“the politics of technology. are stubbornly entangled with the politics of public space and of the environment” (p.199)
How I felt about this book
First of all, even if I read this book twice, there are still a lot of things that I did not understand. Also, after finishing this summary, I still do not quite grasp the point of view of the author. One of the reasons why is not only the words and the way she expresses are new to me, but the idea itself that she has is unique to me, especially bioregionalism. As I mentioned in the beginning, I unwittingly tend to have perspective from capitalism, such as trying to be efficient and productive. In other words, my attention is driven to new technology or online contents, as opposed to valuing the connection with people in person or wild nature.
After I read this book, I tried to pay attention to trees, birds, and other creatures on a daily basis as the author does. In the morning, as I walk around my house, I notice that there are many trees whose shapes are different, even if the kinds are the same. Also, somehow, listening to birds chirping mentally relieved me. I have never experienced this before. When I walked outside, I always used to think about what I should do or what I can do. I realized that I did not care about the physical place. Although it is difficult for me to fully understand and experience how the author sees the world, I believe that this experience can be the beginning of the journey to resist attention economy.
I agree that the current attention economy lowers our ability to pay attention. In other words, the technology controls and steals our attention span. As the author mentions in this book, attention is the last resource that we need to withhold. And I believe that where to pay attention to changes how we feel, experience, and think. I will try to listen and pay attention carefully and patiently to the physical world and communication with people in person. I hope that I will be able to understand more the author’s views and perspective as I do this and when I read this book again next time.
Whom I recommend to read
- Those who struggle with the attention economy
- Those who would like to have different ideas from the perspectives of capitalism
