Join Jenny Odell, a Stanford lecturer and author of *How to Do Nothing*, as she champions the art of embracing stillness in our hectic, productivity-driven lives. She delves into the joy of observing the world without an agenda, suggesting that true idleness can be a form of rebellion. Odell highlights the significance of engaging with nature and discusses how letting go of constant busyness can lead to deeper understanding and connection. Her insights reveal that moments of existential despair might actually pave the way for profound personal growth.
59:13
forum Ask episode
web_stories AI Snips
view_agenda Chapters
menu_book Books
auto_awesome Transcript
info_circle Episode notes
insights INSIGHT
Difficulty of Doing Nothing
Doing nothing is hard because of habit and a mindset of needing to be productive.
We often lean forward towards a desired outcome, making it hard to sit in the present moment.
insights INSIGHT
Origins of Busyness Culture
The pressure to be constantly busy starts early, influenced by school, parents, and societal expectations.
This culture of busyness makes it difficult to deviate, even if we want to.
insights INSIGHT
Capitalism and Productivity
Capitalism promotes a specific view of productivity: visible, tangible, and commodified value.
This contrasts with a broader view that includes maintenance, care, and meaning-making.
Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode
In this book, Stephen Batchelor argues that the Buddha's teachings are not something to believe in but something to practice. He suggests that Buddhism should be stripped of its metaphysical and religious elements, such as reincarnation and karma, to reveal a more existential, therapeutic, and liberating agnosticism. Batchelor emphasizes that the Buddha's teachings are about understanding the nature of anguish, letting go of its origins, and creating a way of life that is available to everyone, regardless of their background or beliefs. The book includes simple meditation exercises and encourages readers to engage with Buddhist principles in a practical and meaningful way[1][2][4].
Still
The Art of Noticing
Mary Jo Hoffman
How to Do Nothing
Jenny O'Dell
The Burnout Society
Byung-Chul Han
Byung-Chul Han interprets the widespread malaise in modern society as an inability to manage negative experiences in an age characterized by excessive positivity and the universal availability of people and goods. He argues that the shift from a disciplinary society to an achievement society, where individuals are driven by self-monitoring and the desire to achieve, leads to auto-exploitation and burnout. Han draws on literature, philosophy, and the social and natural sciences to explore the consequences of sacrificing intermittent intellectual reflection for constant neural connection and the impact of hyperattention and multitasking on mental health and culture.
Freedom from the known
Freedom from the known
Jiddu Krishnamurti
For an audience of meditators (or aspiring meditators), the idea of doing nothing shouldn’t be foreign. But, speaking from personal experience, it is very possible, especially for Type A people, to approach meditation with an agenda. In which case, sitting on the cushion can be very far from truly doing nothing. Enter Jenny Odell, who makes a very compelling case for truly… doing… nothing. In her work, she is challenging what for many of us, myself included, is a deep-seated and sometimes subconscious reflex: to constantly optimize and constantly be “productive.” She is a Lecturer in the Stanford Department of Art and Art History and author of the bestseller How to Do Nothing, which just came out in paperback. She comes to the subject of time from a very different perspective than our guest on Monday, Ashley Whillans. (If you haven’t listened to that episode, go do it; these two make a fascinating pairing.) In this conversation, Jenny and I talk about: letting go of our constant demand for productivity and learning to simply look around; the thrilling phenomenon of observing something so deeply that you actually cease to understand it; why moments of disgust, or even existential despair, can actually be quite instructive; and how to divest from what she calls “the attention economy”–and where to reinvest instead. Take a few minutes to help us out by answering a survey about your experience with this podcast! The team here is always looking for ways to improve, and we’d love to hear from all of you, but we’d particularly like to hear from those of you who listen to the podcast and do not use our companion app. Please visit http://www.tenpercent.com/survey to take the survey. Thank you. Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/jenny-odell-319
10% Happier with Dan Harris 
