How to Do Nothing
Resisting the Attention Economy
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How to Do Nothing
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Narrated by:
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Rebecca Gibel
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Written by:
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Jenny Odell
About this listen
A galvanizing critique of the forces vying for our attention - and our personal information - that redefines what we think of as productivity, reconnects us with the environment, and reveals all that 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 24/7 data productivity . . . doing nothing may be our most important form of resistance.
So argues artist and critic Jenny Odell in this field guide to doing nothing (at least as capitalism defines it). Odell sees our attention as the most precious - and overdrawn - resource we have. 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 hear 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 is a four-course meal in the age of Soylent.
©2019 Jenny Odell (P)2019 HighBridge, a division of Recorded BooksWhat listeners say about How to Do Nothing
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jeff Clayton
- 2019-12-17
narrator ruins it for me
That's all I wanted to say - the ideas are great, the narration sounds like a Hallmark movie..... ruined it.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ailsa
- 2020-02-14
amazing!
what a fascinating listen. I loved all the themes Odell threaded through the narrative: bioregionalism, public space, activism and community engagement. this will merit several more listens, as it's packed with ideas.
I'm very pleased I didn't let the negative reviews on the narrator keep me from buying this. I found her to be just fine - she has a "radio" style rather than that of a fiction narrator, but it is very much in keeping with the tone of the book. absolutely worth listening to!
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 2022-12-06
Great book
Despite the overly formal and AI-like voice, I loved everything the author wrote. Smart, creative, funny, and not preachy or self-helpy.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 2020-05-13
The book is fine. The reading? I dunno...
Couldn't listen to that reading voice any more. So I just read it without. Love the book and all it has to say.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Veronica Standish
- 2023-12-17
Fascinating content, bad performance
Such a shame the narrator's performance is so stilted and robotic, the intonation and rhythm make it hard to connect with the extremely pertinent and necessary content.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Patrick R
- 2025-02-18
Interesting discussion, narrator is difficult
I greatly enjoyed the writing and research. WARNING: the narrator's voice and inflections were so robotic and disconnected from the text I gave up listening several times. It was hard to believe it was an actual person reading. This is not an easy listen. The author should ask to have it re-narrated.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- JMS
- 2020-04-05
Not a fan of narrator; content is great
Podcast of my review available on Apply podcasts and Anchor under Audiobook reviews in 5 minutes:
Apple podcasts: https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=1500773777
Anchor: https://anchor.fm/audiobookreviews/episodes/Review-of-How-to-Do-Nothing-Resisting-the-Attention-Economy-by-Jenny-Odell-ec42po
Much of Odell’s discussion examines the opportunities and pitfalls of our obsession with productivity, and what she describes as essentialism, which broadly describes a tendency to categorize and simplify how we order and understand the world. Another powerful idea Odell discusses is context collapse; think about how you might share your travel experience details with different groups, such as family members, colleagues, or close friends, vs how you’d share those details on social media. For myself, this helped me understand why, although I’m a communications professional, I tend toward the visual and sharing images on social media like Instagram, which contain their own context in a more satisfying way (in my opinion) than text-dominant platforms like Twitter.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2024-03-24
Good book but bad narration
sounds like AI is reading this book. Very mechanical and hard to listen to. I would recommend getting a hard copy if it’s possible.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- EDaze
- 2023-10-17
Ideas overshadowed by AI narration
What a sad piece of irony that this book, with so many points about the pitfalls of progress, is almost certainly “read” by AI. Some great nuggets of info and inspiration, but practically unlistenable — I feel sorry for the author.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 2020-03-17
ROBOT VOICE narration is UNLISTENABLE!
I am 100% sure that it's not a real person reading this book. "Rebecca Gibel" is a computer algorithm. I don't know about you but I can't listen to the answering machine lady for 10 minutes, let alone 8 hours! I am flabbergasted that they are allowed to sell this. I love Jenny Odell and have watched all of her TED talks and presentations available on youtube. I'm sure this book is as wonderful as they are. I am incredibly disappointed.
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14 people found this helpful