Let’s explore those definitions of productivity and usefulness. But I’m making the argument in the book that bird watching, and other similar activities, really only look useless from a very narrow definition of usefulness. From a traditional view of productivity it doesn’t appear to be producing anything it appears unproductive. For example, I talk about bird watching in the book, an activity that doesn’t produce any deliverables - there’s nothing that you can show for your time when you’ve just been sitting and observing. Things like listening, observing without knowing, watching and not making a judgment. Doing nothing is my shorthand for other ways of thinking and being. Ultimately, we’re asked to have something to show for our time. We’re asked to make judgments and to produce statements, opinions and knee-jerk reactions pretty frequently.
It’s really more about inhabiting a mindset that is different from the one that is pushed on us all the time. One risk of being caught up with the idea of productivity is not asking questions like, “productive of what?” and “for whom and why?” It’s bound up with this critique of ideas of progress and innovation that don’t acknowledge what is already around us and that might need to be repaired and cared for.Īnd it’s obviously not about actually doing nothing. The book is an argument about what productivity is for. Can you sketch out the thesis you explore in “How to Do Nothing”?
This led me to think about the importance of public space and similar kinds of spaces for wandering and non-goal-directed activities as being something that wasn’t just a luxury but that is actually very important for reflection and processing. It was a little bit of a crisis for me, and my reaction was to go sit in the Oakland Rose Garden and do nothing - that was the seed of it. It was a moment in which I was observing that I had kind of an abusive relationship with my media consumption. Jenny Odell: The book came out of a moment that I was having in late 2016 - there was the election and we also had the Ghost Ship fire here in Oakland. Robert Raymond: What inspired you to write this book? Shareable spoke with the author about productivity, capitalism and social media. She critically analyzes the idea of productivity that is so central to our society, and comes up with some fascinating insights.
Odell’s book is anti-capitalist and in many ways an indictment of busyness. This never-ending pressure is what inspired artist and writer Jenny Odell to pen her first book, “How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy.” In its pages, Odell takes apart our notions of productivity and explores how in this age of incessant doing, the simple act of doing nothing can be revolutionary. Instead of enjoying a few minutes of stillness, we feel constant pressure to do something. Being idle in this age of hyper-productivity can sometimes leave us feeling a sense of profound guilt.
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