Highlights & Annotations
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“If we updated our efforts in our relationships as often as we update our devices, maybe we would have a better shot at making them work. Instead, it is starting to feel like we have been programmed to continuously wonder if there might be something better out there for us. That's a pretty dangerous mentality to have if we want to sustain a long-term relationship with someone. When the ability to just swipe right is forever present, it seems that we are more likely to do so.” (11)
“The very fact that a book about doing nothing would feel necessary speaks to today's culture of always needing something to show for our time, and the way our lives are sold back to us as products to be optimized. In the book, I'm trying to imagine what a different kind of ‘productivity’ would look like – one that emphasizes care, maintenance, and other things that look like ‘nothing’ from a strictly capitalistic point of view. But doing this takes a lot of strenuous unlearning of cultural assumptions around what work and value are.” (41)
“The opposite of having agency - just reacting predictably to the stimuli placed in front of you - is arguably similar to being dead. So if there is a payoff, it's simply the sensation of being alive.” (50) Re: What do we get if we are able to develop a sense of agency and free will? What's the payoff?