How to Do Nothing

Six Books That Changed How We Think About Performance

excellence, actually, 25 June 2026. The book comes up at 39 min 28 sec in.

Clay Skipper's bonus pick, written in 2019. The book addresses both the attention economy and the productivity epidemic, arguing for doing things for non-instrumental reasons—"dropping out of the stream of productive time." Clay uses it as a personal reminder not to reduce every activity to metrics and race goals. He praises O'Dell for practicing what she preaches: she promoted the book for three months and then retreated from public life entirely.

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