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  • How to Do Nothing

  • Resisting the Attention Economy
  • Written by: Jenny Odell
  • Narrated by: Rebecca Gibel
  • Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (79 ratings)

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How to Do Nothing cover art

How to Do Nothing

Written by: Jenny Odell
Narrated by: Rebecca Gibel
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Publisher's Summary

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 Books

What listeners say about How to Do Nothing

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

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

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars

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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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 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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    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

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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    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

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

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

unlistenable narrator

ughhhhh - the material is fascinating but I'm just gonna go out and buy the book to read because the robot narrator is awful. this audiobook is impossible to follow because it's like listening to a computer and I just keep tuning out :(

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

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

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

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

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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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

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

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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