Jenny Odell Quotes (Author of How to Do Nothing)
Our very idea of productivity is premised on the idea of producing something new, whereas we do not tend to see maintenance and care as productive in the same way.
Jenny Odell • How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy
We experience the externalities of the attention economy in little drips, so we tend to describe them with words of mild bemusement like “annoying” or “distracting.” But this is a grave misreading of their nature. In the short term, distractions can keep us from doing the things we want to do. In the longer term, however, they can accumulate and... See more
Jenny Odell • How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy
Presence is far more intricate and rewarding an art than productivity. Ours is a culture that measures our worth as human beings by our efficiency, our earnings, our ability to perform this or that. The cult of productivity has its place, but worshipping at its altar daily robs us of the very capacity for joy and wonder that makes life worth living... See more
Maria Popova • 13 Life-Learnings from 13 Years of Brain Pickings
am interested in a disciplined deepening of attention.
Jenny Odell • How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy
For my purposes, the attention economy is as simple as the buying and selling of attention. There’s the micro, literal version of that, which is “engagement,” a measure of how much time someone spends in an app and how much they engage with it. But I think a broader definition of the attention economy is kind of like — as I personally experience
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