How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention EconomyJenny Odell2019

A galvanising critique of the forces vying for our attention – and our personal information – that redefines what we think of as productivity and reveals what 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 data productivity, doing nothing may be our most important form of resistance.

So argues artist and critic Jenny Odell in this field guide to slowing down. Odell sees our attention as the most precious – and overdrawn – resource we have. Once we can start paying a new kind of attention, we can undertake bolder forms of political action, reimagine humanity’s role in the environment, and arrive at a more meaningful understanding of happiness and fulfilment.

Far from a simple anti-technology screed, or a pointless back-to-nature meditation, How to Do Nothing is an action plan for thinking beyond capitalist narratives of efficiency and value. Provocative, timely and utterly persuasive, it shows us how to preserve our inner lives and bring about change in a world that needs this more than ever.