How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy

A week ago I found myself in a two day free-to-attend ‘festival’ hosted by the Malaysian Ministry of Finance and organized in collaboration with the Central Bank of the country – Bank Negara Malaysia. Titled LIFT, an acronym whose expansion stood for Literacy in Financial Technology and Living in Future Times, the event purported to showcase the burgeoning developments in the digital world of finance and technology. In between the short time before one speaker concluded her talk and the next one was preparing to take the podium, the emcee, with a view to eliciting participation from an otherwise reticent but polite crowd, asked as to how many people upon waking up every morning reached out for their smartphones instead of turning towards their spouse. More than 75% of the hands instinctively shot up prompting a burst of spontaneous laughter.While I am yet to share my bed with a spouse, this question by the Emcee triggered a bout of introspection. I would be lying through my teeth if I was to deny the fact that the first thing grabbing my attention every morning is a rectangular instrument that furnishes me with an unending ticker tape of likes, notifications, comments and mentions. Every other tangible object and intangible element does not stand a chance in so far as vying for attention is concerned. It is almost as if I have divided myself into fractals with each fractal being enslaved by its favourite social media outlet. This in spite of me having read, and reviewed the social recluse Jaron Lanier’s influential book, “Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now.”So how does one disentangle oneself from the addictive, if not downright pernicious grip of social media? Does one go ‘dissipati peribunt’ by deactivating every social media account and retreating to the hills, or does one adopt an outside-in approach by remaining detached in spite of putting on a veneer of attachment? Jennifer Odell, an American artist, writer and educator based in Oakland, California tackles this very question in her extremely thought provoking, timely and tantalizing work, “How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy.” Fully concurring with Jean-Baptiste le Rond d’Alembert’s assertion that “every age needs a Diogenes”, Ms. Odell emphasizes the necessity of possessing the singularly peculiar mind set of this eccentric Greek Philosopher, who once ordered Alexander The Great to move aside since the Emperor was blocking the philosopher’s sun! Odell also takes refuge in one of the most hardboiled, provocative and enduring refuseniks of all time, Mr. Bartleby, Herman Melville’s fictional character who drives his employer to the wall by just sticking to his stock phrase “I would prefer not to” and exactly adhering to it.An avid bird watcher, a la, Jonathan Franzen, Ms. Odell confesses her obsession towards watching birds in action This obsession in turn enables her to perceive in a more purposeful and aesthetic manner, nature that surrounds her. Bio-regionalism – a concept dealing with an awareness not only of the many life-forms of each place, but how they are interrelated, including with humans – first articulated by the environmentalist Peter Berg in the 1970s and the works of John Muir goad Ms. Odell on further nurturing her ornithological fascination. Borrowing from Donna Haraway and Martin Buber, Ms. Odell, exhorts us to concentrate upon where we are now, to acquaint ourselves with the world as it currently stands, and not go about imposing our will and subjectivity on it.Drawing from a plethora of empirical research, Ms. Odell strives to imprint upon us the need to look beyond the periphery of our restrained boundaries of attention. The genesis underlying the coining of the term “inattentional blindness” by Berkeley researchers Arien Mack and Irvin Rock in the 1990s while studying the drastic difference in our ability to perceive something if it lies outside our field of visual attention, finds a detailed mention in Ms. Odell’s book.Ms. Odell does not expect us to emulate Thomas Merton in escaping to the hills thereby engaging in a life of contemptus mundi, or to retreat to the woods, Thoreau-fashion thereby enjoying our own personalized Walden. “I am less interested in a mass exodus from Facebook and Twitter than I am in a mass movement of attention” she writes, “what happens when people regain control over their attention and begin to direct it again, together.” Instead, the secret is to occupy what Ms. Odell terms is the “third space” in the attention economy. This represents inculcating the requisite will power not only to withdraw attention, but to transpose it elsewhere, so that it stands enlarged, proliferated and improved in so far as its acuity is concerned. This according to Ms. Odell means introspecting across variegated timescales when “the mediascape would have us think in 24-hour (or shorter) cycles, to pause for consideration when clickbait would have us click, to risk unpopularity by searching for context when our Facebook feed is an outpouring of unchecked outrage and scapegoating, to closely study the ways that media and advertising play upon our emotions, to understand the algorithmic versions of ourselves that such forces have learned to manipulate, and to know when we are being guilted, threatened, and gas lighted into reactions that come not from will and reflection but from fear and anxiety.”Thus doing nothing is the diametric opposite of assuming the stillness of a mendicant (at least in so far as physical movement is concerned) or severing the relationship with social media cold turkey and vanishing into oblivion like a fading mist. In the opinion of Ms. Odell, the act of doing nothing is an art that has a three-point perfection:It is art of a dropping out;Developing a lateral movement outward to things and people that are around us; andMoving downward into place.My only reservation with the ideas propagated and proposed by Ms. Odell is the aspect of implementation. In a world that brooks no exception and where bucking the trend is more a fortunate – and perhaps in a few exceptional cases courageous – exception than the norm, it is more than just a gamble to dissociate oneself from the everyday hustle and bustle, thereby paying paeans or obeisance to the lives of either Diogenes or Epicurus. Also it would be far-fetched if not downright idiotic to expect society to accord either the same patience or magnanimity towards the goings on of a resurrected Diogenes. Hence, unless there exists a secure financial backing or an assured avenue for leading a life filled with fundamental essentials, let alone luxurious accompaniments, it would be next to impossible to assimilate either Berg’s bioregionalism or Muir’s naturalist wanderings, as the core of one’s existence.But having said that “How to do nothing” provides a handy channel to plan a much needed escape from the clutches of an unrelenting and remorseless form of capitalism.

This book's most unusual and significant message is that repair and nurture (traditional purview of women) are needed far more than innovation and productivity (traditional male values) - for the planet to survive. To repair and restore, we have to pay attention to the world around us, not the constant demands of media and social media.In exploring this suggestion, the author grounds many of her examples in the Bay Area, and East-Bay in particular: Oakland's oldest tree, the Oakland Rose Garden, etc. If you, like I, live in the East Bay, this makes the book particularly interesting. Another very unique chapter looks back at Utopian communities from the Greeks to the l960s communes - and concludes that withdrawal from the world around us does not lead to well-being any better than full-tilt focus on the world's problems , as found in media and social media.This book has a lot of points to make, but a thread that runs throughout is to find balance, and to be careful what we spend our attention on. We should take our gaze away from the constant lure of media and social media, but also refrain from withdrawal to focus on self. Find BALANCE that involves helping build community, knowing neighbors, and attending to the natural world around us.I have one rather minor criticism of the book which is otherwise absolutely five stars: verbosity. This is a writer who loves words , and sometimes she uses modern lingo in a way I found off-putting. When I read the book aloud for a while to my spouse, he complained about this very feature.But the content is very very important and urgent and well explained. So I urge those of you who might also find it wordy, to plug along. The book sings often enough to keep you going, and you will be happy you did.

The title is a provocation. There's a lot to think about and do regarding this "nothing." Just like silence is not just the absence of sound, the "do nothing" of the title is a practice, an attitude, and a deliberate act of refusal and resistance to the neoliberal capitalist notions of worth and productivity. The marketplace should not establish the value of our lives. "How to Do Nothing" is an invitation to a quiet and definitive revolt.

I first learned about this book when I took a technology and mindfulness course at the University of Washington. I finally got a chance to finish the book this past December and loved it. I like how Jenny Odell explains the importance of training our attention (Be more mindful) when we are overwhelmed by the mass amount of information we are exposed to on different tools and platforms. She also expands on the implications of resisting the attention economy on a both personal and societal level. If you are interested in mindfulness or are concerned about how divided our society is today, I highly recommend giving Jenny's book a try. Happy Reading

Book arrived in two pieces :(

Arrived fast! I read this book quickly. It had many interesting thoughts that I will refer to later. The references made the book resourceful. Found inspiration while reading which I greatly needed.

If you are starting to feel heavy under the weight of current politics, the rapid churn of social media, mental health, trolling, fake news and just the general sense that everything is somehow getting more intense, read this book.It's not about how to shut yourself off from society and live as a hermit. It's not a bunch of shallow hand-wringing about social media and "kids these days." It's not even a detox or retreat guide. How To Do Nothing is a careful, well-researched look at how we choose to engage with our world and with each other, so that we can find ways to restore nuance, context and a sense of belonging. To do this, Odell investigates everything from history and politics to literature, art, sociology, even bird watching.Though this book is written in a slightly academic style and the reader may benefit from some knowledge of critical methods or modern philosophy, it's so honest that I believe it would resonate strongly with anyone. I have personally taken a lot from this book and have been thinking about it for weeks since I read it.

Full of stimulating ideas. I’ve passed it on to a friend who’s an executive coach.I think one can relate more to the book (and some of the examples) if one is familiar with California.The work was a little contradictory at times about our relationship with our ‘app-driven devices’. And, I found a mention of the author ‘killing time’ simply bizarre given the underlying emphasis on what might be seen as ‘mindfulness’.Perhaps this was just a figure of speech? That said, I did find the author’s prose style rather clumsy at times. Is this because she writes in American English and I’m a British English writer? Or it might be generational?I’ve got a background in computing going back to the late 1960s, and was involved with AI work in the mid 1980s. Even then, some of the problematic aspects of technology were evident - if only in embryo.Jenny Odell offers lots of suggestions for resisting but I see little evidence that her impassioned pleas will have much impact on most of those trapped in the ‘Attention Economy’. If one does want to resist (perhaps even ‘drop out’ to some degree) opportunities to do so seem very dependant on how much personal autonomy one enjoys. This is, to be fair, something she recognises.The one, overwhelming depressing aspect of the book is the assertion that there’s ‘hundreds of designers and engineers predict(ing) and plan(planing) for our every move on these platforms’. In other words, getting us to ‘click’ for reasons that are essentially about generating income for these corporations.In a world facing a myriad of problems from climate change to a global refugee crisis, it’s more than a pity that these talented people can’t find something more constructive to do with their time and energy.

What has Facebook, Twitter, and even WhatsApp, done to us? This book is a reminder that the view under the sea might be fantastic, but we need to come up for air; not just from time to time, but often. Doing nothing, as Odell tells us, is not just ‘doing nothing’. Michael Caine, in one of his own books, recalls a story in which he commented to the director that his role merely required him to ‘just stand there and do nothing’. “You’re not doing not nothing’ the director said, ‘You’re watching, and listening’. That is the crux of Odell’s book. We should look up, look up, and look around from our daily routine engrossed at work and around our computers and cellphones. It is a book that nudges us to appreciate the diversity around us that we ignore because we are always in a hurry, and locked in by our routines, too pre-occupied with an ultimate objective – getting that promotion, securing a deal, inventing the product we dreamt about, and so on. Odell tells us plenty of nice stories of how life can be enjoyed, and in the process, learn not just to appreciate nature, but how we can do our part to preserve it. We learn the joy of actually noticing not just the birds in our garden or neighbourhood, but the different songs they make, and their habits. Odell has a way of spinning such stories that not only inspires ‘aha’ moments, but actually, creates lots of warm feelings about our surroundings and ourselves.The CD version is well produced and read by Rebecca Gibel over 8 hours. Very clear production, and Gibel has a warm and soothing way of reading.

I was looking for some guidance trying to escape from the constant striving, the constant want. The book is not a how to book or even anything close to self-help, and that made it all the better. It is an exploration, through the eyes of an artist, of some deep philosophical ideas, drawing inspiration from art, philosophy and the wilderness.The only parts that didn’t resonate well with me were the parts about bioregionalism, developing a closet connection to the land we inhabit. While I do agree in principle, it felt like it was sometimes fetishising native and aboriginal cultures for their connection to the land, and some other times the arguments weren’t strong enough to convey something more than “natural is better.” It even contradicts itself when talking about building an I-Thou relationship with nature by using the names and categories we created to organise the natural world to our benefit.All in all it’s an excellent book, even with those small flaws. I’m looking forward to reading it again in a few years to see how it affects me then, and I’m not someone who re-reads books.

This is a beautiful book.There has been a lot of discussion in recent times of the fragmentation of our attention, a destruction of our attention spans, by the internet and smartphones. The effect of these technologies on children and knowledge workers has been well-documented. But it is more wide-spread than that. Walk anywhere in India and you will find everyone with their faces stuck in their smartphones. I have seen shopkeepers service me without even turning to face me, while watching videos on their phone. I have been in taxies in which the driver had a smartphone on their car’s dashboard. I have witnessed carpenters do their work semi-distracted by their phones.The default response to this situation has been things like the digital detox or digital minimalism. Proponents of these ideas say that you should move away from your phone in order to do what matters: develop your careers, produce meaningful results, live a productive life. Jenny Odell, the author of “How to Do Nothing”, and an American artist, takes this a few steps farther and a few fathoms deeper. She argues, very compellingly, we should save our attention not because that would save our productivity, but because it doing so is the only way to live a good life.Odell discusses the impossibility of renouncing our smartphones, and then comes up with the refreshing idea of a “third space”. She then talks about how attentive communication brings in a spatial and temporal context to conversation. These two ideas she presents in a breathtakingly poetic language. (Read the last two paragraphs of chapter 6 to see what I mean.)My only quibble is that Odell’s rants against capitalism and the Western civilisation are unnecessary. These are often couched in typical leftist gobbledygook. It seems to me that it would have been so much nicer if Odell’s case were presented with in a spiritual language. Instead of poor, oppressed people needing to protect their attention from devious capitalists, we are all humans trying to pull our attention from a mad world and our unruly senses to our real, peaceful, inner selves. After all, attention management has been a topic of discussion in a India millennia before the arrival of capitalism (see Arjuna’s question to Krishna in Gita 6.33 and 6.34, and Krishna’s response). Odell also seems unaware of Gandhi’s experiments with slow reading. Buddha does feature in her story, but she is ignorant of other important Indian thinkers in this field. This limits her work.Still, there is much that is positive in Odell. And we are in need of thinkers like her. This book is therefore strongly recommended.