The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck

Another let down by Mark Manson. I bought this very hopeful. I even pre-emptively purchased one for my Dad after reading the first 50 pages.

I remember from the beginning an example he gives about the lady in line arguing about a $0.50 coupon at the grocery store. Why? Because she doesn’t have anything else to give a fuck about. I thought that part was enlightening as I always like to put myself in others’ shoes.

The hopefulness quickly wore off 🙁 and I do not recommend this book. In fact, I recommend you watch a summary video on YouTube and that’s it.

He’s speaking from an all-known, most-righteous pedestal. He’s denouncing things that he did to be successful. How can you denounce things that you did to make you a success (barring theft and truly heinous things)?

I think it’s disingenuous to say that you regret what you did to reach success. How can you be happy with your life, but regret your past? If you hadn’t had that past, you may not be where you’re at now.

However, I found some gold nuggets:

“Everything worthwhile in life is won through surmounting the associated negative.” Related: “If someone is better than you at something, then it’s likely because she has failed at it more than you have.”

And, a good reminder: “We have evolved to always live with a certain degree of dissatisfaction and insecurity because it’s the mildly dissatisfied and insecure creature that’s going to do the most work to innovate and survive. We are wired to become dissatisfied with whatever we have and satisfied by only what we do not have.”