How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy

Very different than I originally thought going into the book. Odell writes this as a work of highly intelligent social criticism and analysis of not just the “attention economy,” but also many tangential topics not limited to distraction, freedom of the individual, labor, zen and consciousness.

I admit to judging this book by its cover prior to reading, and assuming it would be a lighter and more simple prescription on how to disassociate with the pressures of social media and other addictions of the technological age. This book was a lot of things, but it certainly wasn’t that. It’s dense, at times quite academic (no surprise given the author’s background), at times dark, and nonlinear.

It is valuable, however. You certainly cannot say that Odell isn’t ideologically committed. She puts forth a withering critique not only of the driving forces, companies, and faces behind the technologically addictive, but does not hold back against some of the more popular movements fighting against them, which she still sees as perpetuating and benefitting from the consumerist mindset that she feels fuels their opponents. I don’t agree with a good deal of her viewpoints, but that doesn’t matter. Where I feel she does hit the mark, Odell does so quite saliently.