# How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy - Hardcover

by **Jenny Odell** (Author)

**\*\* A _New York Times_ Bestseller \*\***

**_NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY: Time_ - _The New Yorker_ **\-** _NPR_ - _GQ_ - _Elle_ - _Vulture_ - _Fortune_ - _Boing Boing_ - _The Irish Times_ - The New York Public Library **\- The Brooklyn Public Library****  
******  
"A complex, smart and ambitious book that at first reads like a self-help manual, then blossoms into a wide-ranging political manifesto."--Jonah Engel Bromwich, _The New York Times Book Review  
_**  
**One of President Barack Obama's "Favorite Books of 2019"******  
**Porchlight's Personal Development & Human Behavior Book of the Year**

In a world where addictive technology is designed to buy and sell our attention, and our value is determined by our 24/7 data productivity, it can seem impossible to escape. But in this inspiring field guide to dropping out of the attention economy, artist and critic Jenny Odell shows us how we can still win back our lives.

Odell sees our attention as the most precious--and overdrawn--resource we have. And we must actively and continuously choose how we use it. We might not spend it on things that capitalism has deemed important ... but 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 read 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 will change how you see your place in our world.

### Author Biography

**Jenny Odell** is an artist and writer who teaches at Stanford and has been an artist-in-residence at places like the San Francisco dump, Facebook, the Internet Archive, and the San Francisco Planning Department. Her writing has appeared in the _New York Times, New York Magazine, The Atlantic, The Believer, The Paris Review,_ and _McSweeney's_, among others. She lives in Oakland.

**Number of Pages:** 256

**Dimensions:** 1 x 8.1 x 5.7 IN

**Publication Date:** April 09, 2019

## Details

- **Price:** 29.99 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 29.99 USD | In stock |

## Images

- How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy - Hardcover

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