He lived engaged with the world, all the while living apart. But he wasn’t a hermit, and he wasn’t a recluse. He lived his convictions out in the open and went to great lengths to shock people out of their habitual stupor, using a form of philosophy that was almost slapstick.” Diogenes famously lived doing nothing, refusing to accept the values of others. Noting Plato’s characterization of Diogenes as “Socrates gone mad,” Odell astutely observes that whereas Socrates “famously favored conversation, Diogenes practiced something closer to performance art. Diogenes is famous for, among other things, living in a tub (or barrel) that he’d roll around Athens and walking around with a lantern, saying he was looking for an honest person. So argues artist and critic Jenny Odell in this field guide to doing nothing (at least as capitalism defines it). doing nothing may be our most important form of resistance. The author holds a bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MFA in design and technology from the San Francisco Art Institute. But in a world where our value is determined by our 24/7 data productivity. How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy is a 2019 nonfiction book by Jenny Odell. Her portrait of Diogenes is instructive in an unexpected way for understanding the art of doing nothing. Nothing is harder to do these days than nothing. This lack of clarity made her argument a struggle to follow as she weaves through a string of seemingly unrelated subtopics. Unfortunately she never explains her idea of 'do nothing' very clearly. Philosophy, which was about living simply, naturally and without shame, all while rejecting the artificial trappings of society. Odell means something very specific when she writes the words, 'do nothing,' and leisure isnt it. In one of the book’s most persuasive sections, Odellĭiscusses the Greek philosopher Diogenes, who is more commonly known through anecdotes about his way of life rather than his

Odell how to do nothing