A removal period can redirect rather than end productive work

Evidence

And so at the end of this stretch of open time, my dad looked around for another job and realized that the one he’d had was actually pretty good. Luckily for him, they welcomed him back without hesitation open arms. But also, because he’d discovered what was necessary for his own creativity, things weren’t exactly the same the second time around. With renewed energy and a different perspective on his job, he went from technician to engineer, and has filed around twelve patents so far. To this day, he insists that he comes up with all of his best ideas on the top of a hill after a long bike ride. — Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing, 72

Categorization

• SEED: Odell’s father is a concrete counterexample to the withdrawal misreading: doing nothing led back to the same job, transformed, and to twelve patents. Useful for an essay arguing that refusal can be a return route.