[Book Club] How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell

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Sadness
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[Book Club] How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell

Post by Sadness »

One of our members (Snufkin/ocean-waves) shared a really interesting (and very relevant) book for discussion!

The book is called "How to Do Nothing" by Jenny Odell and can be read here.

Here's a description:
In a world where addictive technology is designed to buy and sell our attention, and our value is determined by our 24/7 data productivity, it can seem impossible to escape. But in this inspiring field guide to dropping out of the attention economy, artist and critic Jenny Odell shows us how we can still win back our lives.

Odell sees our attention as the most precious—and overdrawn—resource we have. And we must actively and continuously choose how we use it. We might not spend it on things that capitalism has deemed important … but 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 will change how you see your place in our world.
A thread to discuss this book already exists on Discord (in the #library channel) but you can also discuss here if you like!

There is also https://web.hypothes.is/ for annotating PDFs in your browser (there is an "unofficial" version for Firefox, just need to search it).

For me, personally, this is exactly the kind of book I need to read because I can't do NOTHING :cry: Very excited to check it out!

Happy reading!
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