This book is an expanded version of Odell’s talk/essay How to Do Nothing. It’s possible to get the gist of the book by reading the talk/essay, so start there if this concept is interesting to you. But there’s a few places in the book that Odell goes deep, and it’s worth a read.
One of my favorite threads throughout the book was the idea of active disengagement. That is, instead of running away from society and living in a mountain cabin off the grid, it is more revolutionary (and much harder) to resist in place. Doing nothing in the middle of the desert is very different than doing nothing in the middle of Times Square.