
How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy - behoove
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/30/books/review/jenny-odell-how-to-do-nothing.html
======
agentultra
Doing nothing is how I often stayed productive. I used to be able to stay and
think about something for hours. If I encountered something difficult I would
go for a walk or take a nap. Now that I've been forced, at work, to use Slack
day in and out -- I feel like I can't spend 5 minutes without flipping to
another window, checking this, checking that. It's counter productive and
feels like torture.

I get a hangover from the weekend... because I do nothing. I go for walks,
read a book, ask my kids whether they think there are more cats than
animals... I work on old recreational maths puzzles. I wander over to my
friend's house for tea to catch up on how he's doing. We check for
caterpillars in his garden on the way out. I plant wildflowers in my own.

The hardest part of doing nothing is learning to live with all the people who
can't.

~~~
superkuh
> The hardest part of doing nothing is learning to live with all the people
> who can't.

Very true. Network effect doesn't only have effects online. I've missed out on
quite a bit of real life socialization (friends, community, and business)
because I never signed up for Facebook and refuse to carry a cell phone.

At least in the last few years people are coming around on Facebook but I
still get weird responses to not carrying a cell phone.

~~~
threwawasy1228
I think the more annoying part is being out in public, there is a vast decline
in basic human interaction in places that are meant specifically for that
purpose even. It is much harder to meet new people at a bar for example than
it was even 5 years ago. The difference is dramatic.

How are you supposed to meet strangers and have interesting conversation when
they won't look up long enough to see that you are attempting to make eye
contact with them?

~~~
sizzle
Quite frankly, I wouldn't want to meet those people. I'm looking for the ones
that do the opposite, greet you with a smile and can hold a conversation about
anything effortlessly.

~~~
jvagner
If those people are having a moment, and not to be dismissed out of hand
because in their moment they happen to be staring at their phone, it can be a
lost opportunity.

Recently, I've observed that you're more likely to meet someone, and end up in
a long conversation, close to the point where either you, or they, show up.
So, you _could_ strike up a conversation with someone after sitting next to
them for 30 minutes, each doing your own thing... but it's been my experience
that when you show up, or when they show up, there's more of an incidental
openness that can be exploited with a "hello" (or whatever suits the
occasion).

~~~
sizzle
Absolutely and I am mindful of people not having their personal space or
privacy invaded in public. This dynamic changes in a social setting however
where the expectation is to socialize or be friendly to others.

------
sweetheart
I feel like the hardest part of learning to do nothing is getting over an
initial period where your body and mind is trying to remember how to fill an
hour of idle time without Instagram or Twitter or Facebook. I think after long
periods of relying on these services to fill pockets of time that are
otherwise hard to capitalize on, we unlearn how to simply sit and be bored.
Like any form of rehabilitation, it takes time, and after a couple weeks it’s
easy to see that life is so, so easy without the obsession of always consuming
something. And what a better way to come up with interesting ideas, too. I’d
take an hour of staring at a wall over an hour of Hacker News any day, if I
was trying specifically to drum up ideas for something to hack on.

~~~
FerretFred
> _we unlearn how to simply sit and be bored_

Yup.. personally I somehow feel it's "wrong" that I sit there and do nothing
on the rare occasion I get the opportunity.

~~~
mrhappyunhappy
There are times when I just want to sit or lay down and do nothing but my wife
wont let me. When asked about her problem with this, she says it’s lazy not to
do anything. Somehow doing nothing is wrong and everyone is conditioned to
judge you for it.

~~~
jcadam
One of my pet peeves is when someone complains to me about being bored, as if
their inability to occupy themselves is my fault and its my job to entertain
them. My wife learned this about me early on (I'm an extreme introvert and can
happily retreat into my own skull and stay there for hours at a time).

Don't come to me and simply say "I'm bored." What am I supposed to do with
that? If you have an idea of something you'd like to do that involves me, by
all means just tell me.

Otherwise, leave me alone.

~~~
dudul
Only boring people get bored. You should try this one on your wife :)

------
p2t2p
I'm tree weeks into:

git clone
[https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts.git](https://github.com/StevenBlack/hosts.git)
&& cd hosts && pip3 install --user -r requirements.txt && python3
updateHostsFile.py --auto --replace --extensions social porn gambling

and going strong.

What I figured so far is that the trick is to stay away from the browser. So
I've removed Safari on my iPhone (well, more like hidden), I've changed my rss
client to newsboat - command line one, I moved all of my youtube subscriptions
into rss, I've written a script that keeps track of videos I would like to
watch from those rss subscriptions, downloads them in bulk in background (all
hail systemd timers) and then gives me dmenu to pick a video to play in mpv.

I had Google app installed on my iPhone but I noticed that I use this thing to
surf mindlessly again, so I deleted it. Basically I can't google stuff anymore
on my phone =/. But so be it, it turned into communicator/navigator/music
player/food orderer.

I did start reading books again because... Well, taking phone into toilet is
pointless now, gotta do something, so I started reading books again. I'm
actually reading multiple at the time, there is a paper book in the toilet,
there is a book on my iphone and there is a book on my laptop, three
completely unrelated topics so whenever I feel like procrastinating I read one
of them. Well, except the one in toilet, I'm not procrastinating, I'm working
hard there ;-).

Stay away from the browser guys.

~~~
cain
I would appreciate if you could share that Youtube download script.

~~~
p2t2p
[https://gist.github.com/dikeert/ce43bfe607e46c9c04e47ab5a0e6...](https://gist.github.com/dikeert/ce43bfe607e46c9c04e47ab5a0e631b3)

~~~
pizza
Thanks for that. For a while I had been meaning to create a script that would
archive favorites/likes/etc across multiple websites (eg. soundcloud also)
using cron + youtube-dl.

Nothing sucks like saving a video, forgetting about it, seeing a [Video
removed] in your favorites and Youtube not even telling you what it was.
That's just bad UX imo..

------
wnmurphy
I'm absolutely convinced that social media is shortening our attention spans,
and I do not think that's a good thing.

At one point I realized that I hadn't thought deeply or creatively about
anything in a long time, and it was because I was constantly consuming the
mental equivalent of junk food snacks. Endlessly scrolling feeds, banal and
unchallenging content that demands nothing more from us than a
tap/click/swipe... that little red notification icon is a psychological
experiment; a Pavlovian intermittent reward. And it was specifically designed
to be so.

I firmly believe the human mind needs periods of boredom, and space free from
distraction. Without that space, the mind has no room for contemplation or
creativity.

~~~
beat
I went on a major social media purge two months ago today. I feel a _lot_
smarter - like, able to work my brain better. I'm seeing it in my political
thought. I used to debate politics incessantly online, with the usual partisan
boundaries. By withdrawing from that battlefield, I'm seeing the battle
differently.

Not to mention my book-reading rate has increased by around 200%. Was I really
wasting four books a month of time on Facebook and Twitter? Apparently.

------
tsumnia
This may be a different idea to "doing nothing", but when I teach labs, I
explicitly do not get on the computer while students are working. Instead, I
literally just stand there looking for students to ask me questions.

I've noticed that whenever I would start working on grades, or assignments, or
whatever, students would never ask for help unless it was dire. When I was at
attention, while it wasn't constant, I found myself helping students more.
Over time, I've assumed it is because they don't want to "bother" me or break
my concentration. However, when all I am doing is waiting for them to ask a
question, I seemed to get more activity.

------
ptidhomme
It's been 5 years now since I dropped my smartphone. I now rely on a Samsung
b2710, which is fine (has somehow a calendar sync and more or less gmail
access).

I still have an old iPhone though, with a complementary SIM card, that I use
for navigation or when travelling. Typically it stays in my car or in my bag.

I've never been so happy since I left social media and compulsively taking out
my phone _all the f. time_.

I now read a lot in my commute time or just "do nothing" which I find very
satisfying : I can think of work or personal life or interests and I'm always
gaining something of this free time to somehow ... piece things together.

------
georgehayduke
There's a reason we get so many of our great ideas in the shower - our
'diffuse brain' is going to work, forging new paths and making connections.

I think the biggest danger of these products is that they are optimized to co-
opt our attention, reducing the time available for this genuinely deep
thinking.

~~~
RyJones
Agreed. See also:
[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wf2VxeIm1no](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wf2VxeIm1no)

CGP Grey talking about water proof phones invading his shower times with
podcasts

------
vinceguidry
I'm not sure how best to put this, but I'm not so sure detaching is the answer
here, at least not long term. I can detach pretty easily and start daydreaming
even while I'm on social media. If what I'm looking at isn't interesting
enough, I start skimming. While I'm skimming my attention is divided between
trying to find stimulation and whatever thing that's got my larger attention,
usually some personal thing. I might bounce back and forth between these
things many times while I'm social media'ing.

Work is the same thing. My mind switches between active problem solving, and
detachment, while my subconscious is working out a solution. Work usually
isn't maximally-stimulating, so I'm always dividing my attention there too.

For something to commandeer my full attention, it has to bear down _heavily_
on my 'main life loop'. Social media often manages to do this, with some
really smart person's Quora post incisively dissecting a topic I'm _intensely_
interested in.

My mind 'forages' through social media looking for stimulation. No distraction
can literally steal ALL my attention, I always have some left over.

I've altered all my computing environments to avoid any kind of unwanted
animation. Animations on computer screens do manage to snatch me out of my
current mental loop. If social media did this, then it wouldn't be useful for
me and I wouldn't bother with it.

~~~
nzjrs
I feel like yours is the best description of the delusion of control many of
us lived in, until we didn't.

I mean this honestly that unless you can detach in the ways people describe
here, it will get worse.

Personally, I've noticed that my depth of thinking has improved since making
time for contemplation. I was nervous initially about not having read
everything - I was surprised and proud how people said "have you seen xyz" and
I had. I'm not that person any more, but my skills as an engineer to solve
complex problems has improved.

------
eswat
An office building nearby renovated their ground floor with a new food court.
Great idea but they also added a semi-circle of TVs all tuned on CBC News that
pretty much looks over most of the seating and the food stalls. It’s hard to
avoid.

Easy enough to modify the environment on our phones and desktops but it’s more
inconvenient to avoid IRL distractions.

~~~
lotsofpulp
Gyms that have wall mounted TVs always on is a peeve of mine, especially when
it's nonsense political commentators. I actively have to avoid glancing at the
TV screens.

~~~
tvanantwerp
Whenever I got to the gym in my office, if nobody else is there, I just turn
the TVs off. So much better that way.

------
kumarvvr
Recently uninstalled Reddit on my mobile and ipad. Stopped watching netflix
before going to sleep. Stopped listening to podcasts, youtube or music while
driving. Started wearing a watch to avoid opening my phone to check the time,
like 600 times an hour.

Its been extremely difficult but doable. Now i know what withdrawal feels
like.

~~~
icebraining
Do you feel it's been a positive experience?

~~~
kumarvvr
Absolutely. Getting more work done. Less fatigued. Able to concentrate more.

------
chatmasta
Every few years my phone breaks, and I take my sweet time replacing it.
Recently I went about a month without a phone at all. It's much more relaxing,
and it's nice to spend 20 minutes on a train just looking out the window.

~~~
jfk13
Although I carry a "smart" phone (originally acquired because I needed it to
test stuff I'm working on), I have deliberately chosen not to receive email or
other notifications on it, or even to connect it to a data plan. It just makes
calls and sends texts when needed. If I'm away from my desk (which is not one
specific location, as I often move my laptop around the house), I'm
essentially away from the internet.

------
wewake
The global economy will collapse the day people get a hold on their senses to
the fact that time spent on social media is time wasted poorly. Ofcourse, it
is hypothetical... saw a video of a chimp using Instagram the other day on
Twitter, so yeah global economy is not collapsing anytime soon.

~~~
JasonFruit
I'm not convinced the global economy is that bound to social media use. Why do
you say?

~~~
addicted
And I’d bet if that did happen, which I think is extremely unlikely, the
global economy would benefit greatly by people finding new uses for their time
(not all of which would be productive), as opposed to funneling data and ad
money towards Facebook.

------
jfk13
Shouldn't we rather call it the Distraction Economy?

~~~
basetop
Which is what paperbacks, newspapers, radio, tv, movies, etc were/are called
at one time or another. I bet in 20 years, smartphone and social media
companies and everyone else will be ranting about VR being a distraction.

~~~
addicted
I think this dismissal really ignores a very crucial difference. Unlike
magazines or even TV for that matter, the new social media has personalized
and detailed information on individuals and can tailor their content and
design to target every person individually.

IMO, that is a substantial and qualitative difference that makes the new
“distraction” mediums far more effective and dangerous.

~~~
suprfnk
One other problem is, magazines end. They have X articles, of which you find Y
interesting enough to read, and then that's that. You read it. It's done. You
go do something else.

Digital feeds never end. There's always something new, always something
interesting. There's always something. You can keep staring at the screen
endlessly. And if one app doesn't give new stuff anymore, there's 10 other
apps within a tap away to give you more.

------
paxys
It's an interesting dichotomy — the author paints doing nothing as "detaching
from life online" and instead "engaging in an activity without considering
whether it’s productive".

Personally, a lot of my "doing nothing" happens online as well. Whether that's
good or bad I can't say, but my goal is definitely not to be productive when
I'm randomly browsing the internet.

As the review points out, it works for the author and her artistic lifestyle,
but probably wouldn't for me.

------
beat
I've cut most social media and cell phone use out of my life (I still allow
myself HN and a particular musician's forum).

Something that drives me nuts now is people staring at their phones while
ostensibly hanging out with me and being social. I have a couple of friends
who are hardcore Pokemon Go players, and I can't go anywhere with them without
them constantly hunting for Pokemon on their phones (or checking FB, or
whatever).

------
tw1010
Just make your default activity reading (and put zero pressure on what, as
long as its on paper) or exersize. That worked for me.

~~~
trevyn
Also great if you have a partner: Reading aloud to each other.

------
shoo
Jenny Odell has an earlier iteration of "how to do nothing" as a 2017 blog
post: [https://medium.com/@the_jennitaur/how-to-do-
nothing-57e100f5...](https://medium.com/@the_jennitaur/how-to-do-
nothing-57e100f59bbb)

------
strictnein
Buy a nice watch. One that you enjoy the look of and will wear daily.

It'll cut the number of times you grab your phone in half.

Or buy an Apple Watch (or Android equiv). You'll see your messages on there
and realize a whole lot of them require little or no input. Quick glance at
the wrist and then you're back to reality.

------
EGreg
For me, it’s work that caused a constant sense of anxiety for the last decade.
When I’m not doing anything, I start thinking about work or doing work. There
is just so much to do, as an entrepreneur.

I have this feeling like sure, I _can_ be idle for an hour or so. But it would
be incredibly boring and also why?

~~~
dspillett
_> I can be idle for an hour or so. But it would be incredibly boring and also
why?_

Because that is your recovery time, which can be pretty valuable.

If you take part in physical sports/pastimes (for instance I run) you'll know
the value of periodicity in training programs: rest days each week, and easy
weeks every 3/4/5 (this can vary a lot depending on training program).
Training actually does damage, the rest periods allow the body a bit of time
to put itself back together better and if you skip them you risk an over-
training related injury.

I consider a bit of downtime during the day to have a similar effect on my
mind. Sleep of course is the longer rest periods. In sports, it is important
to take some full time off now and then too: don't jump into training for one
event immediately after the last. For the mental wellness equivalent, this is
what proper holidays are for.

The anxiety affects us the same: we feel that by doing nothing for a while we
are letting go, wasting time, undoing some good, etc. But really we are doing
ourselves some good by not running our bodies at approaching 100% too
constantly.

------
PikachuEXE
I spend most of my "doing nothing" time to imagine/predict things. Or
analyzing & answering random questions from my own (asked at that moment or
before) It seems to be one of the good habits I have.

------
ajhurliman
I don't feel like the two statements "How to Do Nothing" and "Resisting the
Attention Economy" are congruent.

Nor are her actions for that matter: She waxes on about not creating things
and then creates a book.

------
kinglear0207
Try to avoid focus on internet by focus on another task like try jump from
fire to minefield. The internet contain ton of shit and people don't know they
need to filter it.

Books in early time also contain trash like internet nowadays. The problem
that needs to be solved that we need to find good sources of information, like
to find a good book. I like to read old books which have good reputation and
reviews. The new book still needs time to be test and refined.

------
mettamage
Oh, it's quite easy but that may just be me, it also helps to know when the
hard part arrives ;-) (which is at the beginning)

This is what I do:

1) Do nothing

2) Feel your sensations in the body as your doing nothing. In the beginning I
sometimes feel aggitated, I just keep observing the my sensations for a couple
of minutes.

3) Close your eyes.

4) Congratulations, you are now limited by your fantasy. Have fun, experiment,
make up a story, visualize something.

~~~
Bjartr
Your step two is mindfulness meditation

~~~
wool_gather
Perhaps, but step 4 is definitely not; if you're freely daydreaming you're not
developing awareness of the mind's activity.

~~~
mettamage
Which is why I explicitly did not refer to mindfulness meditation. I do step 2
in order to set the conditions to perform step 4. If I wouldn't do step 2,
then I'd have the issue of being to agitated and then I couldn't make the
switch.

------
brootstrap
Yep it feels good to be disengaged from all that stuff. Personally it's about
the hobbies, and forcing myself away from screens into nature. I enjoy sports
so i'll get outside and play. Also fishing is a great one. Peace, quiet,
nature. Plus you are focused on fishing. But also just getting outside is
amazing. It feels great hearing the birds etc.

------
code_duck
It’s quite possible to use the Internet without paying attention to popular
culture. One is not required to consume media, especially not whatever default
popular media is commonly served to people. Online, I use this site, listen to
obscure music of my choice, and upload and view pictures of desolate buildings
on Instagram.

------
cafard
Obligatory quotation from Pascal:

"When I have occasionally set myself to consider the different distractions of
men, the pains and perils to which they expose themselves at court or in war,
whence arise so many quarrels, passions, bold and often bad ventures, etc., I
have discovered that all the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact,
that they cannot stay quietly in their own chamber."

([http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18269/18269-0.txt](http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18269/18269-0.txt))

------
mikhailfranco
_" There are two kinds of people in this world:

Those that enter a room and turn the television set on, and

those that enter a room and turn the television set off."_

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

[http://www.moviequotes.com/fullquote.cgi?qnum=82397](http://www.moviequotes.com/fullquote.cgi?qnum=82397)

------
basetop
Isn't the author and the nytimes part of the attention economy? By reading the
article and commenting on it, aren't we partaking in rather than resisting the
attention economy? It's put us in a bind. In order to learn about resisting
the attention economy, we have to join it.

~~~
praptak
Using opponent's energy to win is a valid strategy. As Lenin rightly observed:
"A capitalist will sell us the rope which we will hang them with."

~~~
Nasrudith
Really it seems like one of the biggest mistake of communists is in
misidentifying their opponents and allies.

Not unique to them but there are quite a few cases where "enemies" were helful
to them yet persecuted and the "allies" would have been best off strangled
when they first met them to save everyone a lot of heartache.

------
Balgair
Cal Newport has also been a very good resource on this 'ethos' so-to-speak,
and has good suggesstions and brass-tacks advice.

[http://www.calnewport.com/blog/](http://www.calnewport.com/blog/)

------
kodezen
Relevant reddit community:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/nosurf/](https://www.reddit.com/r/nosurf/)

~~~
swah
But I love the internet, and interesting experiments and awesome blog posts.
The part that bothers me is only "checking instagram/reddit/hn obsessively for
no reward"

------
makecheck
For me, I avoid most web bookmarks. Having to physically type out the site for
something makes me less likely to habitually check it and be pulled in.

------
hypertexthero
John Cleese, in his wonderful [lecture][1] on creativity:

> So, you’ve arranged to take no calls, you’ve closed your door, you’ve sat
> down somewhere comfortable, take a couple of deep breaths and if you’re
> anything like me, after you’ve pondered some problem that you want to turn
> into an opportunity for about 90 seconds, you find yourself thinking “Oh I
> forgot I’ve got to call Jim… oh, and I must tell Tina that I need the report
> on Wednesday and not Thursday which means I must move my lunch with Joe and
> Damn! I haven’t called St. Paul’s about getting Joe’s daughter an interview
> and I must pop out this afternoon to get Will’s birthday present and those
> plants need watering and none of my pencils are sharpened and Right! I’ve
> got too much to do, so I’m going to start by sorting out my paper clips and
> then I shall make 27 phone calls and I’ll do some thinking tomorrow when
> I’ve got everything out of the way.”

> Because, as we all know, it’s easier to do trivial things that are urgent
> than it is to do important things that are not urgent, like thinking.

> And it’s also easier to do little things we know we can do, than to start on
> big things that we’re not so sure about.

> So when I say create an oasis of quiet know that when you have, your mind
> will pretty soon start racing again. But you’re not going to take that very
> seriously, you just sit there (for a bit) tolerating the racing and the
> slight anxiety that comes with that, and after a time your mind will quiet
> down again.

> Now, because it takes some time for your mind to quiet down it’s absolutely
> no use arranging a “space/time oasis” lasting 30 minutes, because just as
> you’re getting quieter and getting into the open mode you have to stop and
> that is very deeply frustrating. So you must allow yourself a good chunk of
> time. I’d suggest about an hour and a half. Then after you’ve gotten to the
> open mode, you’ll have about an hour left for something to happen, if you’re
> lucky.

> But don’t put a whole morning aside. My experience is that after about an
> hour-and-a-half you need a break. So it’s far better to do an hour-and-a-
> half now and then an hour-and-a-half next Thursday and maybe an hour-and-a-
> half the week after that, than to fix one four-and-a-half hour session now.

By the way, today is the 500th anniversary of the death of one of the greatest
human beings in history at doing a lot by spending time ”doing nothing”, i.e.,
observing, drawing, and thinking: [Leonardo da vinci][2]! Have not seen a
Google Doodle, or anything on Apple’s homepage, marking the occasion, which
makes me think we need more creative people in charge in the world, to
counter-balance the business suits.

[1]: [https://youtu.be/Pb5oIIPO62g?t=977](https://youtu.be/Pb5oIIPO62g?t=977)

[2]: [https://www.simongriffee.com/notebook/leonardo-da-
vinci-500-...](https://www.simongriffee.com/notebook/leonardo-da-
vinci-500-years/)

------
RenRav
It's just a blurb about some book? That was a waste of my free articles for
the month.

------
leadhyena
Should I get this book on my Kindle? It’s available there.

~~~
chaseha
Just put it on my reading list based on the article. Now for getting around to
actually reading it ;)

