On how to grow an idea
In How to Do Nothing (Jenny Odell) made the case for retreat or refusal as an act of resistance to capitalist productivity and commodified attention. She laid out a plan for “hold[ing] open a contemplative space against the pressures of habit, familiarity, and distraction that constantly threaten to close it.”
Shannon Mattern • How to Map Nothing
Keely Adler added
Do-nothing farming recognized that there was a natural intelligence at work in the land, and therefore the most intelligent thing for the farmer to do was to interfere as little as possible.
Jenny Odell • How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy
Somewhere between over-engineering and abandonment, Fukuoka found the sweet spot by patiently listening and observing.
Jenny Odell • How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy
I think that “doing nothing”—in the sense of refusing productivity and stopping to listen—entails an active process of listening that seeks out the effects of racial, environmental, and economic injustice and brings about real change.
Jenny Odell • How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy
Lael Johnson and added
The first half of “doing nothing” is about disengaging from the attention economy; the other half is about reengaging with something else. That “something else” is nothing less than time and space, a possibility only once we meet each other there on the level of attention. Ultimately, against the placelessness of an optimized life spent online, I w
... See moreJenny Odell • How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy
Danielle Vermeer and added
