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A review by littlecitycorner
How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell
challenging
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
What a good read to kick off the year!
While this book turned out to be very different from what I was expecting, I wasn't disappointed in the topics it explored. I expected Odell to be much more preachy about how to live by removing social media, multitasking less, and diverting our attention to the "important things". She did do some of the latter without overtly creating a binary morality on what to pay attention to. I was captivated by the way she wrote her anxieties in the story (relaying a lot on her positionality and her hometown of Oakland, CA) and managed to connect them to things as complex as cults, nature, and art. By describing some aspects of the Anthropocene she shows how attention works and how "doing nothing" or completely removing ourselves from the community doesn't lead to inner peace. She is realistic in her portrayal of capitalistic society and conveys how to live more fully within it.
I will be coming back to this book again since its reflections can be thought of multiple times and the writing was excellent.
While this book turned out to be very different from what I was expecting, I wasn't disappointed in the topics it explored. I expected Odell to be much more preachy about how to live by removing social media, multitasking less, and diverting our attention to the "important things". She did do some of the latter without overtly creating a binary morality on what to pay attention to. I was captivated by the way she wrote her anxieties in the story (relaying a lot on her positionality and her hometown of Oakland, CA) and managed to connect them to things as complex as cults, nature, and art. By describing some aspects of the Anthropocene she shows how attention works and how "doing nothing" or completely removing ourselves from the community doesn't lead to inner peace. She is realistic in her portrayal of capitalistic society and conveys how to live more fully within it.
I will be coming back to this book again since its reflections can be thought of multiple times and the writing was excellent.