"It's a weird book, right? Like it's, it's got a lot of stuff going on," she says. "I felt like when I was sending it in, I had no idea whether it was good or not." She writes about labor history and communes at the Stanford library.
Jenny Odell is a multidisciplinary artist and the author of How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy.
“I’ve noticed that the times I’m extra susceptible to being on social media is when I am feeling personally insecure or when I’m dealing with existential dread. That within itself is not part of the attention economy—that’s just a human being having feelings and reacting to things. For me, it’s a question of like, ‘What do I do with that?’ I can either feed it back into the attention economy and actually get more of it back—more anxiety or more existential dread—or I can go in this other direction and spend time alone or with people who care about the same things. Those are places where I can bring my feelings and they won’t destroy me.”
Thanks to Mailchimp, Substack, and Pitt Writers for sponsoring this week's episode.
@the_jennitaur
jennyodell.com
Jenny Odell on Longform
[00:49] How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy (Melville House • 2019)
[00:51] ”How To Do Nothing” transcript of keynote talk (Medium • 2017)
[01:10] “A Business With No End” (New York Times • 2018)
[02:30] Evan Ratliff on Cointalk
[02:42] The Mastermind: Drugs. Empire. Murder. Betrayal. (Evan Ratliff • Random House • 2019)
[03:18] “There’s No Such Thing As A Free Watch” (Museum of Capitalism • 2017)
[05:05] The Bureau of Suspended Objects
[16:55] Gordon Hempton’s “Desert Thunder”
[29:27] Radical Technologies: The Design of Everyday Life (Adam Greenfield • Verso • 2017)
[37:32] Braiding Sweetgrass (Robin Wall Kimmerer • Milkweed Editions • 2015)
[39:25] “Notes of a Bioregional Interloper” (SFMOMA • 2017)
[53:30] Mark Lombardi’s drawings
[56:40] “On How to Grow an Idea” (Creative Independent • 2018)
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