Authors

Jenny Odell

Jenny Odell is an American artist, writer, and educator. She is the author of How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy (2019), which argues that disengaging from productivity-driven attention systems can be an act of political resistance.

Quotes: 3

Quotes by Jenny Odell

To do nothing is often a radical act in a culture that treats time as a resource. — Jenny Odell

The Radical Power of Doing Nothing

Jenny Odell’s line opens by naming a quiet assumption many people barely notice: modern life often treats time as a resource to be extracted, optimized, and monetized. In that view, a day is successful if it produces mea...

Created on: 3/6/2026

The point of doing nothing is to make yourself available to the world. — Jenny Odell

Doing Nothing to Rejoin the Living World

Jenny Odell’s line hinges on a reversal: “doing nothing” is not emptiness, but intention. Instead of treating inactivity as laziness or escape, she frames it as a chosen posture that clears space for what is usually crow...

Created on: 3/5/2026

In a world where our value is determined by our productivity, doing nothing is an act of political resistance. — Jenny Odell

Doing Nothing as Resistance to Productivity Culture

Jenny Odell’s line begins with a diagnosis: many modern societies treat human worth as something measurable through output—hours logged, goals hit, content produced. In that framework, rest is tolerated only if it refuel...

Created on: 3/1/2026