Measuring fungible time is like envisioning standardized containers that can potentially be filled with work.” The author then segues into a section on the clash between the European colonial clock hour and the understanding of time held by “task-oriented” Indigenous communities that organize their activities based on natural phenomena, such as “the flowering or fruiting of a certain plant.” Odell works assiduously to explain how our culture arrived at the commonly held belief that “time is money,” and she makes her way through an impressive array of historical documents, including the writings of Frederick Winslow Taylor, who worked on “the systematic management of other people’s time,” and ledgers recording slave labor hours in the West Indies.
Odell begins by introducing the concept of “fungible time, which “is consistent and can be endlessly subdivided. In this rigorous, wide-ranging examination of time, the author touches on the pandemic, the climate crisis, and many other pertinent topics. Provocative, timely, and utterly persuasive, this book will change how you see your place in our world.Odell’s follow-up to her 2019 hit, How To Do Nothing. Is an action plan for thinking outside of capitalist narratives of efficiency and techno-determinism. but once we can start paying a new kind of attention, she writes, we can undertake bolder forms of political action, reimagine humankind's role in the environment, and arrive at more meaningful understandings of happiness and progress.įar from the simple anti-technology screed, or the back-to-nature meditation we read so often, We might not spend it on things that capitalism has deemed important. And we must actively and continuously choose how we use it.
Odell sees our attention as the most precious-and overdrawn-resource we have. But in this inspiring field guide to dropping out of the attention economy, artist and critic Jenny Odell shows us how we can still win back our lives. In a world where addictive technology is designed to buy and sell our attention, and our value is determined by our 24/7 data productivity, it can seem impossible to escape. Porchlight's Personal Development & Human Behavior Book of the Year NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY: Time One of President Barack Obama's Favorite Books of 2019 A complex, smart and ambitious book that at first reads like a self-help manual, then blossoms into a wide-ranging political manifesto.-Jonah Engel Bromwich,
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