Less than a year ago, Oobah Butler was living in a garden shed in London, struggling to pay rent and living on a diet of boiled eggs. It’s safe to say that he hadn't achieved much with his life. Yet just a year on, on the back of three documentaries that have been viewed over 150m times, he’s won awards, been featured on TV all over the world and has been lauded by critics, commentators and serial achievers across the globe. How did everything turn for him? With an idea.
Since he came with the Shed at Dulwich, the world’s most famous restaurant that never existed, Oobah’s life has been completely transformed. Fantastic, of course, but it made no sense. How could something he’d invested such little care and emphasis in be so impactful? Could this be the key? So he asked himself the question: How would my life work out if I approached it with as little consideration and as much enjoyment as my fake restaurant? Can one achieve more in life if they cease to be so emotionally involved in their goals? In the modern age, has detachment become an unlikely bedfellow of success? This new book by Oobah Butler is based on a philosophy built around this very stupid thing he did.
Oobah Butler is an award-winning filmmaker and writer. Over the past two years, his work has gone from quietly admired on VICE Magazine to being renowned globally, recently being interviewed in the New Yorker, profiled by Scott Simon on NPR and endorsed by individuals such as Turner Prize-winning artist Grayson Perry, WIRED Editor Nicholas Thompson and scores of other world-renowned journalists. For the most part, his work uses comedy and absurdity to comment on the modern era. After releasing his recent stunning film and article in which he made the shed he lives in TripAdvisor's top-rated restaurant in London, Oobah dominated headlines globally in the climate of ‘fake news’, being interviewed on TV all over the world. Whether it’s swindling his way as a fake jeans designer, Georgio Peviani, to the top of Paris Fashion Week or letting his Instagram followers vote on every decision he made for a day, his ambition is to explore different worlds in an interesting, contemporary way.
