#how to do nothing

[emgoesmed]

4/13/2024

Hung out at a local Serbian cafe and the coffee and food were delightful.

I’m chipping away bit by bit at residency onboarding requirements.

I’m currently reading How To Do Nothing by Jenny Odell which is excellent, so far I really recommend it!

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Poor people pay higher time tax

Doubtless you’ve heard that “we all get the same 24 hours in the day.” Of course it’s not true: rich people and poor people experience very different demands on their time. The richer you are, the more your time is your own — not only are many systems arranged with your convenience in mind, but you also command the social power to do something about systems that abuse your time.

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/10/my-time/#like-water-down-the-drain

For example: if you live in most American cities, public transit is slow, infrequent and overcrowded. Without a car, you lose hours every day to a commute spent standing on a lurching bus. And while a private car can substantially shorted that commute, people who can afford taxis or Ubers get even more time every day.

There’s a thick anthropological literature on the ways that cash-poverty translates into #TimePoverty. In David Graeber’s must-read essay “The Utopia of Rules,” he nails the way that capitalist societies generate Soviet-style bureaucracies, especially for poor people. Means-testing for benefits means that poor people spend endless hours filling in forms, waiting on hold, and lining up to see caseworkers to prove that they are among the “deserving poor” — not “mooches” who are defrauding the system:

https://memex.craphound.com/2015/02/02/david-graebers-the-utopia-of-rules-on-technology-stupidity-and-the-secret-joys-of-bureaucracy/

The social privilege gradient is also a time gradient: if you can afford a plane ticket, you can travel quickly across the country rather than losing days to the Greyhound or a road-trip. But if you’re even richer, you can pay for TSA Precheck and cut your airport security time from an hour to minutes. Go further up the privilege gradient and you’ll acquire airline status, shaving another hour off the check-in process.

This qualitative account of time poverty is well-developed, but it’s lacked a good, detailed quantitative counterpart, and our society often discounts qualitative work as mere anecdote and insists on having every story converted to numbers before it is taken seriously.

In “Examining inequality in the time cost of waiting,” published this month in Nature Human Behavior, public affairs researchers Steve Holt (SUNY) and Katie Vinopal (Ohio State) analyze data from the American Time Use Survey (AUTS) to produce a detailed, vibrant quantitative backstop to the qualitative narrative about time poverty:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-023-01524-w

(The paper is paywalled, but the authors made a mostly final preprint available)

https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/jbk3x/download

The AUTS “collects retrospective time diary data from a nationally representative subsample drawn from respondents to the Census Bureau’s Community Population Survey (CPS) each year.” These time-diary entries are sliced up in 15-minute chunks.

Here’s what they found: first, there are categories of basic services where high-income people avoid waiting altogether, and where low-income people experience substantial waits. A person from a low-income household “an hour more waiting for the same set of services than people from high-income household.” That’s 73 hours/year.

Some of that gap (5%) is attributable to proximity. Richer people don’t have to go as far to access the same services as poorer people. Travel itself accounts for 2% more — poorer people wait longer for buses and have otherwise worse travel options.

A larger determinant of the gap (25%) is working flexibility. Poor people work jobs where they have less freedom to take time off to receive services, so they are forced to take appointments during peak hours.

Specific categories show more stark difference. If a poor person and a wealthy person go to the doctor’s on the same day, the poor person waits 46.28m to receive care, while the wealthy person waits 28.75m. The underlying dynamic here isn’t hard to understand. Medical practices that serve rich people have more staff.

The same dynamic plays out in grocery stores: poor people wait an average of 24m waiting every time they go shopping. For rich people, it’s 15m. Poor people don’t just wait in longer lines — they also have to wait for understaffed stores to unlock the cases that basic necessities are locked behind (poor people also travel longer to get to the grocery store — and they travel by slower means).

A member of a poor household with a chronic condition that requires two clinic visits per month loses an additional five hours/year to waiting rooms when compared to a wealthy person. As the authors point out, this also translates to delayed care, missed appointments, and exacerbated health conditions. Time poverty leads to health poverty.

All of this is worse for people of color: “Low-income White and Black Americans are both more likely to wait when seeking services than their wealthier same-race peer” but “wealthier White people face an average wait time of 28 minutes while wealthier Black people face a 54 minute average wait time…wealthier Black people do not receive the same time-saving attention from service providers that wealthier non-Black people receive” (there’s a smaller gap for Latino people, and no observed gap for Asian Americans.)

The gender gap is more complicated: “Low-income women are 3 percentage points more likely than low-income men and high-income women are 6 percentage points more likely than high-income men to use common services” — it gets even worse for low-income mothers, who take on the time-burdens associated with their kids’ need to access services.

Surprisingly, men actually end up waiting longer than women to access services: “low-income men spend about 6 more minutes than low-income women waiting for service…high-income men spend about 12 more minutes waiting for services than high-income women.”

Given the important role that scheduling flexibility plays in the time gap, the authors propose that interventions like subsidized day-care and afterschool programming could help parents access services at off-peak hours. They also echo Graeber’s call for reduced paperwork burdens for receiving benefits and accessing public services.

They recommend changes to labor law to protect the right of low-waged workers to receive services during off-peak hours, in the manner of their high-earning peers (they reference research that shows that this also improves worker productivity and is thus a benefit to employers as well as workers).

Finally, they come to the obvious point: making people less cash-poor will alleviate their time-poverty. Higher minimum wages, larger earned income tax credits, investments in low-income neighborhoods and better public transit will all give poor people more time and more money with which to command better services.

This week (Feb 13–17), I’ll be in Australia, touring my book Chokepoint Capitalism with my co-author, Rebecca Giblin. We’re doing a remote event for NZ on Feb 13. Next are Melbourne (Feb 14), Sydney (Feb 15) and Canberra (Feb 16/17). More tickets just released for Sydney!

[Image ID: A waiting room, draped with cobwebs. A skeleton sits in one of the chairs. A digital display board reads 'Now serving 53332.' An ogrish, top-hatted figure standing at a podium, yanking a dollar-sign shaped lever looms into the frame from the right. He holds a clock aloft disdainfully, pinched between the thumb and fingers of one white-gloved hand.]

[trek-tracks]

It is useless to attempt to instruct a true master of the form.

[oshen26]

“In the face of the increasingly materialist and pragmatic orientation of our age … it would not be eccentric in future to contemplate a society in which those who live for the pleasures of the mind will no longer have the right to demand their place in the sun. The writer, the thinker, the dreamer, the poet, the metaphysician, the observer … he who tries to solve a riddle or to pass judgement will become an anachronistic figure, destined to disappear from the face of the earth like the ichthyosaur and the mammoth.”

giorgio de chirico 

[purlturtle]

Found this really, really helpful. My mind is always so active; it's hard to just let it come to a resting point.

[lovesongofjrrtolkien]

Literally 2 Cents: How to Do Nothing, Vol. 2

Information overload is a type of sensorship -- a new episode from Literally 2 Cents! #podcast #content #literally2cents

We put up our most recent episode this weekend, the second part to our series exploring “How to Do Nothing” by Jenny Odell. This week, we talked about context collapse… you know, how you’ll be scrolling Twitter and see several disparate events that have nothing to do with each other — or with you? Social media and other online content has taken a lot of the context out of how we interact with…

[softfolks]

“In After the Future, the Marxist theorist Franco “Bifo” Berardi ties the defeat of labor movements in the eighties to rise of the idea that we should all be entrepreneurs. In the past, he notes, economic risk was the business of the capitalist, the investor. Today, though, “‘we are all capitalists’…and therefore, we all have to take risks…The essential idea is that we should all consider life as an economic venture, as a race where there are winners and losers." ... "In the global digital network, labor is transformed into small parcels of nervous energy picked up by the recombining machine…The workers are deprived of every individual consistency. Strictly speaking, the workers no longer exist. Their time exists, their time is there, permanently available to connect, to produce in exchange for a temporary salary. (emphasis mine)"

How to Do Nothing (Jenny Odell, 2019)

[bettygemma]

"But also we can read such books with another aim, not to throw light on literature, not to become familiar with famous people, but to refresh and exercise our own creative powers. Is there not an open window on the right hand of the bookcase? How delightful to stop reading and look out! How stimulating the scene is, in it's unconsciousness, it's irrelevance, it's perpetual movement - the colts galloping around the field, the woman filling her pail at the well, the donkey throwing back his head and emitting his long, acrid moan. The greater part of any library is nothing but the record of such fleeting moments in the lives of men, women, and donkeys."

- 'How should one read a book?' Virginia Woolf

[baristabomb]

...weird amount of dunmeshi fans have been saying being a caretaker in a relationship is the worst thing ever..marcille must want to killl everyone soo bad because doing things for people suuuucks sooo muchh

it's an act of love, not just a job i promise. we all want someone who's willing to take care of us in some way, just like how senshi shows care for others by cooking for them :'|

[fujoreads]

Weekly Update (1/9/2024)

Hello hello! I'm late to this update yet again, but it is what it is. I had a nice week, though :)

I started reading again! I read 30% of How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy... and then just skimmed through it—it wasn't what I was looking for. Same thing happened with Digital Minimalism in Everyday Life, a book more about the practical side of digital minimalism. However, I was expecting an approach other than "you don't need to ditch modern tech, just use it in moderation!! productivity!!1!!11!", especially after reading How to Do Nothing. I am tired of looking at screens and doing so much every single day, and would love to find a read on people like me, who are embracing older tech (or just ditching modern alternatives altogether); I'm aware it's not practical, but for folks who don't work with tech for a living, you don't really need to be online 24/7, be it in your digital life or in real life.

It's kinda baffling my family (and even past friends) saw me not wanting to be on whatsapp or social media, or even going as far as ditching my smartphone, and thought "he doesn't want to talk to us". It's not like I'm the most sociable person to begin with, but if you want to talk to me, you can talk, call, or even message me directly through the phone, instead of relying on an app.

Anyway, I'm also reading Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window and it's sooo lovely! I miss being a kid and being in the countryside. I never visited Japan, but I only want to visit its countryside, if I'm being honest. There's something about the calm of it all—not exclusive to Japan, fortunately.

Unfortunately I have no VN readings to comment on since my job has been so tiring that I can't look at screens for very long. My sleep schedule is a mess and I can't wait to get back to my early schedule.

I'm still playing Needy Streamer Overload—only 2 endings left!—and I'm enjoying it a lot :) I can't wait for Yunyun Syndrome!? Rhythm Psychosis uuuugh

Still watching Serial Experiments Lain and really enjoying it!! I didn't make much progress this week due to work, but I am determined to finish it this week, and today is my final day of work :)

I finally started the famous Avatar: The Last Airbender and I'm enjoying it a lot!! I'm on episode 3 (Part 1) and I had forgotten how fun these types of series are. Last time I remember being this invested and entertained with a cartoon is with 2016's Voltron: Legendary Defender. In a way, Sokka reminds me of Lance and the internet tells me I wasn't the only one thinking that.

So, I watched Carol! I'm noticing I'm going through a lot of queer movies these past days, and they are all so depressing and bittersweet. It's like a guilty pleasure: it upsets me and I love it at the same time. That is to say, I'll give this a 3/5—it wasn't a bad movie by any means, but it didn't stand out to me.

On that note, I also watched Ammonite! This was a more interesting movie to me, although I wish they could have maybe developed it more. It felt to me like their relationship was somewhat rushed, although the ending was pretty good food for thought: 3.5/5 stars.

And that is it for the week! Tell me what you've been doing these days in the comments~

[makingcontact]

Jenny Odell and Discovering Life Beyond the Clock (Encore)

Excerpt from the book cover, reading “Saving Time: Discovering a Life Beyond the Clock” superimposed on top of orange and pink geological features. Credit: Penguin Random House Have you ever really considered how we view time as a society? From work to leisure to appointments, we schedule every minute of our days, but how often do we think about why we treat time the way we do, our relationship…

[thepantyreckless]

not just loving people who can't work, but also people who also choose not to work. good for you. great anti-work praxis.

choosing not to work reinforces the systems that exist to support people who cannot work. using those resources strengthens their cause to ask for more budget. it makes you aware when those resources change or are taken away. It also makes you sexy and more interesting (1 of 10 things employers don't want you to know about unemployment!)

we should be allowed to not have to work all the fucking time

P.S. ALWAYS fucking apply for unemployment. Even if you were fired. Even if you were forced to quit. You may still qualify AND might increase your employer's UI tax rate.

since ive regularly needed these reminders over the past month or so since i quit: not working is completely morally neutral. everyone deserves respect and dignity regardless of employment status. ones ability to work should not determine their worth etc etc. i love my unemployed baddies

[chloesimaginationthings]

The true meaning behind FNAF princess quest

[lovesongofjrrtolkien]

Literally 2 Cents: Doing Something

The podcast has been on a bit of a hiatus, but we're back in force! This week, we talked about Jenny Odell's "How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy." Don't forget to subscribe! @earcwelder #podcast #2cents #literally2c

The podcast has been on a bit of a hiatus, but we’re back in force! This week, we talked about Jenny Odell’s “How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy.” It ended up being a really long, interesting conversation, so we’ve only released the first part so far. Doing Something About Jenny Odell's "How to do Nothing," Part 1! – This Too Too Solid Flesh Listen now (45 min) | What does it…

[astraystayyh]

They have since left four premature babies to decompose on their beds. They have since kidnapped, stripped, tortured civilians and tried to frame them as Hamas fighters for their propaganda. They have since shot people at refugee camps execution style. They have since targeted academics and poets and directors. They have since killed 86 journalists. Still no ceasefire.

psa: i know that many of us did NOT doubt this for a second, neither did i. this is targeted at the people who educated themselves for the first time about this genocide and discovered the absolute horrific things that Israel is capable of doing to Palestinians, with the unwavering support of its allies.

[pangur-and-grim]

every time I say “starting nooooow I won’t have any major expenses” something HAPPENS! there’s raw sewage backing up from my drains, and apparently the plumbers will need to break the floor and the wall to get to the pipes and fix it.

if the cat stuff hadn’t wiped out my bank account, this would be annoying but manageable. as it is…..I’m going to try to get everything up in the store for Friday.