Walden’s influence on Odell

My goal in writing this essay was to show the connection between Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden” and Jenny Odell’s “How to Do Nothing”. I showed these connections by explaining the numerous similarities that Odell and Thoreau share in their writings, such as both of them believing in deep-listening and both having an interest in the economy. I also emphasized the importance of the other authors that Odell compared to Thoreau in her book by showing that Odell wished to connect the examples of Tehching Hsieh, a Taiwanese performance artist, and Plato, a Greek philosopher, to Thoreau in order to connect foreign examples to American lifestyles. 

One quote I would like to show from my essay is when Thoreau is trying to convince an impoverished man to economize in order to help his family, “I told him, that as he worked so hard at bogging, he required thick boots and stout clothing, which yet were soon soiled and worn out… and in an hour or two, without labor, but as a recreation, I could, if I wished, catch as many fish as I should want for two days, or earn enough money to support me a week.” I used this quote in order to expose a difference between Thoreau and Odell which is that Odell tells people to resist the attention economy, while Thoreau tells people to be a part of the economy to save yourself from poverty.

https://camhay.medium.com/waldens-influence-on-odell-96416a00af8f

Second Essays: An Archive

Image by kropekk_pl from Pixabay

I’ve grouped the second essays people have posted according to the writer they’ve written about. My thinking is that if you wrote about, say, Ressler & Thompson, you might want to read and comment on (for W19) what other people had to say about them.

At the same time, though, I’d like to put in a plug for the essays listed under “Other Writers”. These are pieces written by people who pursued an angle in reading Odell that no one else did. Many of their essays are quite striking and original. You should read them!

Jason Lanier, Ten Reasons for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Now

• Lauren C, How to Escape: Adding Jaron Lanier’s Reasons to Delete Social Media
• Miranda A, Ten Reasons for Doing Nothing: Reading Jenny Odell, Reading Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now

Herman Melville, Bartleby the Scrivener

• Angel C, I’d Prefer Not to: An Ode to Jenny Odell’s Refusal
• Brandon B, Bartleby, the Scrivener : Jenny Odell’s Interpretations Against My Own
• Dale B, Economy and Mental Health: Discussing Jenny Odell’s Overview of “Bartleby”
• Gianna S, Resistance Under Different Types of Capitalism
• Nicole S, Basic Human Nature
• Soren S, I’d Prefer Not To: Being Bullied by Capitalism
• Spencer S, Creating an Environment of Negotiation
• Tyler M, Working your Own Way: Jenny Odell’s Connection to Bartleby

Cali Ressler & Jodi Thompson, Why Work Sucks

• Andrew P, Taking Advantage of Time
• Hoda Q, Robots but Humans: Reading Jenny Odell Reading Ressler & Thompson
• Stuart A, Changing the Way We Work: Reading Jenny Odell Reading Why Work Sucks

B. F. Skinner, Walden Two

• Ethan P, Behaviorism at Walden Two: Reading Odell and Skinner
• Katie O, Undercover Behaviorist: Odell’s Take on Skinner’s Theories
• Rob M, Becoming a Lambkin: How Odell and Skinner are Rebels

Rebecca Solnit, A Paradise Built in Hell

• Cheryl K, Finding Joy, Care, and Meaning: Rebecca Solnit’s Expansion of Jenny Odell’s View of Altruism in Times of Disaster
• Suneil H, Psychology and Bringing People Together After Disasters

Henry David Thoreau, Walden, and Walking

• Cameron H, Walden’s Influence on Odell
• Joshua G, Reflections on Walden Pond
• Gwyneth C, The Combination of Voices: The Overlapping Views of Jenny Odell and Henry David Thoreau In “How to Do Nothing”

Other Writers

• Andy C, Diogenes Explains How to Do Nothing
• Hannah S, Diving Deeper: The full depth of “This is Water” in Odell’s book
• Jacob W, Restructuring the Organized System
• Kale S, An Outsider’s Perspective: A deep dive of Ursla K. Le Guin’s The Dispossessed and Jenny Odell’s How to Do Nothing
• Matthew M, Inanimate Connection: Reading David Abram
• Michael R, Inside Minimum Wage: Reading Jenny Odell Reading Ehrenreich
• Nick C, Stand Apart From Being Apart: Reading Jenny Odell Reading Epicurus
• Patrick S, Living in the Present: The Connection Between Jenny Odell and Franco Berardi

Robots but Humans: Reading Jenny Odell Reading Ressler & Thompson

Essay link:

https://hoqas.medium.com/robots-but-humans-reading-jenny-odell-reading-ressler-thompson-e29888c2fd1e

To live in this digital world, we must be productive. Otherwise, the person would be considered to be lazy in society. Therefore, in the two books How to do Nothing Resisting the Attention Economy and Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It: The Results-Only Revolution the authors discuss the issue of productivity and offer different solutions to the issue. In Jenny Odell’s book How To Do Nothing, she references many different resources to better explain her ideas. One of these references is Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It: The Results-Only Revolution. Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It: The Results-Only Revolution by Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson is about the idea that the way we think and believe about work which is working forty hours five days a week is out of date and it does not work. Both books agree that in this capitalist society all people have to be productive. Odell discusses that in the productive digital world today makes it hard to do nothing. People are always busy doing something. similarly ,  Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson went further and demonstrated how the expectations of being productive lead people to pretend to be productive even when they are free. The two books  provide different solutions to the issue. Odell  generally suggests that people should be given the time to do nothing. On the other hand, Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson claim that in order to solve this issue the world shell uses ROWE. ROWE is a human resource management strategy that pays employees based on their work results rather than the number of hours they spend at work.

Update: Weeks 9 and 10, Mon, 10/26, to Fri, 11/06

Congratulations on completing Essay One! Now it’s time to begin Essay Two!

Your primary task over the next two weeks is to locate and read the text you’ll be writing about in Essay Two. I’ll hold individual conference at the end of next week (Wed, 11/04, through Fri, 11/06) to talk about your plans for writing, and your first full draft will due on Tues, 11/10 (two weeks from tomorrow.

Here’s a step-by-step list of upcoming work.

To Do

1. Tues, 10/27, 4:00 pm: Post comments on at least three essays posted by your classmates on Medium. Post your comments to this website. (Writing 12)
2. Thurs, 10/29, 4:00 pm: Email me bibliographic info for the text you will write your second essay about. (Writing 13)
3. Tues, 11/03: Vote!! (If you haven’t already done so by mail.)
4. Wed, 11/04, 10:00 am: Email me an update on your reading for your second essay. (Writing 14)
5. Wed, 11/04, Thurs, 11/05, Fri, 11/06: Meet on Zoom with me to talk about your plans for your second essay. (I will send out a Doodle poll later this afternoon. Please reply ASAP, and certainly by Fri, 10/30.)
6. Tues, 11/10, 4:00 pm: Post your first draft of Essay Two to your Workshop Group Folder on Google Drive.
7. Wed, 11/11, Thurs, 11/12, Fri, 11/13: Workshops of Essay Two, Draft One.

Overview, Week 7, 10/12–15

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

I enjoyed sitting in on workshops last week, and Ashley Steele tells me that the groups she coached did good work as well. You now have this week to finalize your work on Essay One. When you send me your Post-Workshop Memo, I will reply with some advice towards revision. And I will be happy to talk with you about your plans for your piece during my regular Zoom Student Hours. You should also consider making an online appointment at the University Writing Center. The tutors there are extensively trained and can offer you a useful second set of eyes and ears as you put the finishing touches on your essay.

I will discuss three topics in my Overview this week:

• Essay One (final draft),
• Posting to Medium,
• How I assign letter grades to final essays.

To try to make it easier for everyone to hear about these important issues, I will offer three Overview sessions:

• Monday, 10/12, 2:30–3:00
• Tuesday, 10/13, 2:30–3:00
• Thursday, 10/14, 11:30–12:00

My Zoom address is https://udel.zoom.us/my/joeharris.

To Do This Week (and Next)

1. Tues, 10/13, 4:00 pm (or earlier): Email me Writing 10.
2. Tues, 10/20, 4:00 pm: Post Essay One to Medium. Email me the link.
3. Thurs, 10/22, 4:00 pm: Post Writing 11, a link to and description of your piece on Medium, to this WordPress site.

Overview, Week 6, 10/05–09

This is the most important week of the course so far.

Your second draft of your first essay (Writing 8) is due Tuesday, 10/05, at 4:00 pm. This should be a version of your piece that feels pretty close to the one you plan to submit for a letter grade.

You need to post your E1D2 to the shared folder for your Workshop Group on Google Drive. (If you are not in a Workshop Group, you’ve got a problem; contact me.) You’ll then get written comments on your draft from the other members of your group. I’ll also ask you to write comments on their drafts. This work will count as Writing 9. You’ll then participate in a workshop on Zoom in which you’ll have the chance to talk about your work with your classmates.

I’ll then ask you to email me a Post-Workshop Memo (Writing 10), which will be due next week, on Tues, 10/12. I’ll reply in writing to that memo.

In other words, you’ll be getting a lot of responses to your writing over the next week. Take good advantage of it!

To Do This Week

• Tues, 10/06, 4:00 pm: Post the second draft of your first essay (Writing 8) to your Group Folder.
• Tues, 10/06 to Thurs, 10/08: Comment on the essays posted by the other members of your group (Writing 9). Follow the guidelines on Commenting on Drafts.
• Wed, 10/07, to Fri, 10/09: Participate in your Zoom Writing Workshop. Follow the guidelines on Holding a Writing Workshop.
• Tues, 10/12, 4:00 pm: Email me your Post-Workshop Memo (Writing 10). You’ll probably find it useful to compose this memo soon after your workshop. You can send it to me anytime before the deadline, and I’ll reply to you as soon as I can.

Overview, Week 4, 9/21-25

Photo by Luca Onniboni on Unsplash

I feel like people are getting into the swing and rhythm of the course. That makes me happy.

I’ve intended this week as a bit of a breather in a busy semester. Finish reading Jenny Odell. Post your brief review. Come to our Zoom discussion of her book. Start thinking about what you want to write for Essay One. Stop by during my Zoom Student Hours if you’d like to talk about your ideas.

Next week the most important writing (so far) of the semester is due. Contact me if you’d like to talk more about it!

To Do This Week (and Next)

1. Mon, 9/21: Finish reading How to Do Nothing.
2. Mon, 9/21, 2:30–3:00 pm: Zoom Overview session.
3. Tues, 9/22, 4:00 pm: Post Writing 6, a brief review of How to Do Nothing, to Goodreads. Remember to email me a link to your review!
4. Wed, 9/23, 10:00–11:00 am: Zoom discussion of How to Do Nothing.
5. Tues, 9/29, 4:00 pm: Email Joe your first draft of Essay One.
6. Tues, 9/29–Fri, 10/02: Conferences with Joe about your first draft.

Week 3, 9/14–18, Overview

I was pleased to see the terrific work that many of you have done in reading and writing about a complex book like Jenny Odell’s How to Do Nothing. I hope you are enjoying it!

In the coming week I’d like you to continue on with Odell. You need to read Chapters 2 and 3 (pp. 30–126) to complete Writing 4 (due this Tues, 9/15), and I will expect you to have finished How to Do Nothing by the week after. I’m also asking you to read Chapters 2 and 3 of Rewriting. The good news is, though, that that is the bulk of the reading for the course. As we move through the semester, our focus will shift more and more to your own writing.

If you did not have a conference with me this past week (9/08–10), you should be scheduled for one during this coming week (9/15–17). Check the Conferences page to make sure. If you haven’t yet scheduled a conference, you need to contact me immediately.

As always, I’ll be on Zoom from 2:30–3:00 on Monday to talk about the work for the week and to answer any questions you might have. I’ll also be holding Student Hours afterwards, from 3:00–4:00, if you’d like like to chat with me one-on-one.

I feel I need to issue an invitation and a warning at the same time.

• The invitation is this: I’m eager to work with you, and to connect with you during my Student Hours, by email, and on Twitter. The harder I see you working, the harder I will work for you.
• The warning is this: On the What to Expect page, I wrote that, “The only way you can mess up in this course, really, is to fall behind”. I am worried that a significant number of you seem to have already done just that. Missing assignments will hurt your grade. More important, it will interfere with your learning how to do this kind of writing, since the writing assignments in this course build one on the other.

To Do Next Week

1. Mon, 9/14: Read How to Do Nothing (Chapters 2 and 3, pp. 30–126) and Rewriting (Chapters 2 and 3, pp. 35–73). This reading will form the basis of Writing 4, due the next day.
2. Tues, 9/15, 4:00 pm: Post Writing 4 (Forwarding or Countering Odell) to this site.
3. Thurs, 9/10, 4:00 pm: Post Writing 5 (Comments) to this site.
4. Tues, 9/15, Wed, 9/16, Thurs, 9/17: Come talk with me on Zoom, if you’re scheduled for a conference this week! (See Conferences for some thoughts on what we might talk about.)
5. Mon, 9/21: Finish reading How to Do Nothing.
6. Tues, 9/22, 4:00 pm: Post Writing 6, a brief review of How to Do Nothing, to Goodreads.

Week 2, 9/07–11, Overview

We are now in the full swing of the semester! You need to post a response to the Intro and Chapter 1 of Jenny Odell’s How to Do Nothing by this Tuesday, 9/08 (see Writing 2). Please make sure that you’ve set up your WordPress account and accepted my invitation to contribute to this site (see Writing 1), so you can do so.

I will be on Zoom this coming Monday from 2:30–3:00 to talk about how you might try to get started writing about Odell. Please check in if you can. You can also ask me questions about Odell or the assignment on our Canvas Discussion Board, on our class Twitter feed (#e110fall2020), by messaging me on Twitter (@josephdharris), or during my Zoom Student Hours on Monday from 3:00–4:00.

I will also begin holding my first series of one-on-one conferences this week. If you haven’t scheduled a conference yet, please email me pronto to suggest some open time slots that you can make.

As a reminder, my Zoom address is https://udel.zoom.us/my/joeharris.

To Do Next Week

1. Read the course materials I’ve posted to this site. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll notice that this is exactly what I wrote last week. But I have to say I’m not convinced that some of you have done this reading yet. And, well, you just have to. I don’t know any other way to put it. You need to read through the pages posted on the menu bar at the top of this screen. They are the course. I’ll be posting updates like this one each week, but you need to read through the course materials first in order to get a good sense of what this course is about and the work you will need to do in it.
2. Keep reading How to Do Nothing (Chapters 2 and 3, pp. 30–126) and Rewriting (Chapters 2 and 3, pp. 35–73). This reading will be the basis of Writing 4, due on Tuesday, 9/15
3. Tues, 9/08, 4:00 pm: Post Writing 2 (Defining Odell’s Project) to this site.
4. Tues, 9/08, Wed, 9/09, Thurs, 9/10: Come talk with me on Zoom, if you’re scheduled for a conference this week! (See Conferences for some thoughts on what we might talk about.)
5. Thurs, 9/10, 4:00 pm: Post Writing 3 (Comments) to this site.
6. Tues, 9/15, 4:00 pm: Post Writing 4 (Forwarding or Countering Odell) to this site.

Week 1, 9/01–9/04, Overview

Photo by Pereanu Sebastian on Unsplash

Welcome! I’m excited to actually get to work!

I will post an overview of upcoming work like this one every Friday. That way you will always know what you need to do in the coming week. I will also post your next writing assignment. If you have any questions, you can always ask me them on our Canvas Discussion Board, on our class Twitter feed (#e110fall2020), or by messaging me on Twitter (@josephdharris).

I will also hold a live overview session on Zoom from 2:30–3:00 every Monday. (These sessions are optional; I won’t take attendance.) You can ask me questions then, or during my Zoom Student Hours, which are:

• Monday: 3:00–4:00
• Tuesday: 3:00–4:00
• Wednesday: 11:00–noon
• Thursday: 11:00–noon

My Zoom address is https://udel.zoom.us/my/joeharris.

To Do Next Week

1. Read the syllabus. Okay, sure, you say, but where exactly is the syllabus? It’s right here, I reply, in the pages in the pages on the top of the screen. There are a lot of them, I realize. But it is extraordinarily important that you read them all, since, in a very real sense, they are the course. You can’t count on catching up on what you need to do in class, because we won’t be meeting as a class. I’ve worked hard in these pages to tell you as much about this course as I can. I also be sending you updates like this one each week. In return, you need to read what I write, and if you have any questions, to send me them.
2. Thurs, 9/04, 4:00 pm: Reply to the Doodle Poll for your first conference with me (in either Week 2 or Week 3). Please list as many hour-long slots that you have free in either week. I will get back to you by Friday with a single 15-minute appointment slot.
3. Thurs, 9/04, 4:00 pm: Do Writing 1.
4. Start reading How to Do Nothing (Intro and Chapter 1, pp. ix–29) and Rewriting (Intro and Chapter 1, pp. 1–34). You have a writing assignment based on this reading due next week! (See Item #5.)
5. Tues, 9/08, 4:00 pm: Post Writing 2 to this site. (Which you will not be able to do if you haven’t completed Writing 1.)

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