a treatise on the attention economy - checked it out on libby and got through it over the course of a work day, a lot of really interesting social and cultural explorations about how time itself is the final frontier of hypercapitalism and what decommodification of our attention and time should look like
the book starts with a story about the oldest redwood tree in oakland and how the only reason itās still standing is bc itās unmillable, and how being uncommercializable is essential to our survival. it ends with an exploration of alt social media platforms (mostly p2p ones) and what keeping the good parts of the social internet and rejecting the bad ones should look like
all in all a super valuable read; my only nitpick with the book is that odell isnāt just charting the attention economy but also attempting to āsolveā it and relate it back to broader concepts about labor and social organizing, but her background is in the arts which leads to some really wonderful references to drive the points home while also missing some critical racial + socioeconomic analyses that one would expect (or at least really appreciate) from the book she promises to deliver in the introduction. but this does also make the book easier to read which is good because everyone should definitely engage with what she has to say
will definitely be revisiting
Related Recs
š
you know when you read good theory (or good anything really) and then you canāt help but see further examples of whatever is being explored in the book IRL?
This book is giving that to me.
From Van Gogh immersive experience yoga to Uber eats, speed and immersion dominate so much of how things are delivered to us these days- whether thatās food or art.
The intro is really compelling. How Kornbluh connects the dots between immediacy in the sense of NOW! as well as the more hidden meaning of the word as without mediation. I saw a meme recently that showed future generations watching react videos of react videos of react videos which certainly speaks to this mass cultural wasting of the practice of mediating.
The mission this summer is mediation. come at me raw universe, Iām ready to think about ya and spit out feelings or something.
Apr 29, 2024
hear me outāthis one might feel impossible, but i quit purchasing items on Amazon in 2018 and cancelled my GoodReads account shortly after.
i did some serious reflection and realized iād become super reliant upon, and frankly, quite used to the instant gratification of purchasing something and knowing iād have it within a day. thatās not normal. the labor practices, economics, and environmental impacts of getting what you want from the internet delivered quickly and right to your door are skewed. i was filling a void in myself with mindless purchases.
iām aware that they service a huge swath of the internet (Amazon Web Services), own Whole Foods and Abe Books, and will likely take over more businesses we like and rely on. weaning off and avoiding entirely is very very hard, but it can also be a measured decision. that said, i know that it is a privilege to abstain from Amazon. i am able bodied, i donāt have kids, i have access to a car, i live in an urban environment with access to a lot of stuff at my fingertips. but making the choice to break out of the Amazon loop has ultimately been better for my pocketbook and better for my relationship to these mega-tech-companies that have their fingers in everything.
in contrast, iām becoming more interested in alternate economies, like bartering and sharing. i love the idea of having commonly shared tools and items (tool libraries are very cool). we donāt need to own it all, we have each other.
interested in exploring more? the zine pictured below is a great start, and summarizes a much larger book by the same author on how to resist the leviathan that is Amazon.
Jan 22, 2025
š
this book has galvanized me to change something about my lifestyle/outlook in a way no book has in a loooong time. if youāve ever wondered what a solution to the climate crisis could look like that doesnāt rely on the state enforcing top-down solutions at the cost of individual liberties, doesnāt rely on capitalist corporations selling you technology to profit from crisis and that causes exploitation in the foreign countries where its raw materials are extracted from, doesnāt divert responsibility onto individuals by insisting itās your fault for not using metal straws, and doesnāt bank on wishful thinking that AI will provide a lifestyle of luxury for all, but that instead emphasizes reprioritizing connection to community and communal self governance, meaningful labor and a sustainable work life balance, the human right to their environment, and an economic shift towards prioritizing practical use over scarcity-based profiteering, then this book is for you. we will have to stop growing our global economy though, but itās actually going to be better that way.
May 30, 2024
Top Recs from @alaiyo
Mar 23, 2024
ā
you're telling me of seven billion people on the planet each preparing and eating a non-zero amount of meals every day that the cook who makes the best tasting food owns a restaurant or has a youtube channel? be serious. go to some remote village in india i guarantee you somebody grandma is putting gordon ramsay in a spliff and smoking him
the art form most essential to our survival has absolutely been white cis-het capitalist patriarchied and the sooner we unlearn that the better off we'll all be
Apr 2, 2024