How to Do Nothing summary

If we are all capitalists, it makes sense that we spend much of our time behaving like corporations. Thanks to social media, this work never ends. Even our leisure is numerically sifted and appraised via likes on Facebook and Instagram. We monitor the performance of our personal brands as though we were analyzing shares on the stock market. This profoundly alters the way we act when we’re online.

The key message here is: Social media makes us behave like one-dimensional brands.

Today’s economy doesn’t have an off button. Every moment of every day is a financial resource to be captured, optimized, and appropriated. Snooze and you can expect to lose. But despite this obsession with creating measurable value and optimizing every facet of life, many people still recognize a different truth. This holds that meaning is often the product of accidents, chance, and serendipitous encounters – the very “off time” our 24/7 cult of productivity attempts to eliminate.

The key message here is: If we want to live more meaningful lives, we need to reappraise what is valuable.

One evening in 2015, just before sunset on a cliff overlooking the Pacific ocean, a greeter checked guests into an area of foldout chairs cordoned off with red rope. After being shown to their seats and reminded not to take photographs, they watched the sunset. As it disappeared below the horizon, they applauded and refreshments were served.

This strange scene was part of an artwork by Scott Polach entitled Applause Encouraged, and it neatly encapsulates an important aspect of doing nothing. 

Attention is like breathing. It’s always there, in the background. When you do notice it, you might be surprised to discover how shallow it is. And just as mindful breathing can train you to consciously deepen your breath, it’s possible to train yourself to be more attentive. The trick is realizing just how much your brain is already processing.

The key message here is: The brain usually only notices a tiny part of the data it processes, but silence can help widen your perspective.

Imagine you’re sitting in your car at an intersection. You’re late for work and the traffic is hell today. Then, just as the light turns green, another car suddenly dashes in front of you and cuts you off. How do you react? Chances are, you’re going to focus on your own experience – in this case, the inconvenience caused by someone else’s reckless selfishness. But say you learned that the other driver was rushing their injured child to the hospital – you’d probably look at the situation differently, right?

In most cases, it’s impossible to know what really motivates other people’s actions, but considering the possibilities can improve your experience of the world.