Reviews - How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy

4.44k reviews for:

How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy

I will start off by saying that I don't think I am the target audience for this book. I found it a bit pretentious, enough so that it took me a while to get through the book. I feel like I may have picked up a few things to reflect on, but they were wrapped up in flowery language, quotes from other people, and so many bird names.

swinckler's review against another edition

3.5

informative reflective slow-paced

adrianvega's review against another edition

5.0

challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective fast-paced

I’ve found my new fixation. This book reads like the perfect manifesto for me.

susannecollins's review against another edition

2.5

I really wish this one was more instructive. It read to me like a series of academic papers. The majority of the book is spent describing various artists and philosophers (and don’t get me wrong, I love counter culture artists/musicians and performance art, but I would much rather enjoy that work as it’s meant to be enjoyed than read someone explain it beat by beat). The title is really misleading and I think sets readers up to be disappointed.
The book is meandering and dense and really didn’t hold my attention, ironic I know. I enjoy a lot of essay style nonfiction in general, but this one felt like it was a lot of spinning wheels and never got anywhere.
It is also unfortunately very outdated. Reading this in a post COVID, TikTok, more fractured world with an internet overrun by slop AI just made me sad.

bethanymyers's review against another edition

3.0

This book is not any kind of “how to” guide, despite the title. It’s actually a string of essays, with plenty of references to art and literature, that all tie back in various ways to the idea that although our attention is being leached by capitalism we have the chance to reclaim it by focusing more on IRL people and the natural world. She does acknowledge class issues throughout, but she has so much privilege in the most expensive place in America that it’s jarring at times. Anyway, this is not any kind of practical book, and almost all the actual ideas it presents are from other sources, but the prose was very good and I still liked reading it.