The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*ck by Mark Manson

This is one of those popular help yourself books that seems to overflow these days. However, it defies all the good advices we have been given during the last years, that is; stay positive. Manson says: "Let's be honest; sometimes things are fucked up and we have to live with it." Right! That is life after all.

"One day, in retrospect, the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful."

Sigmund Freud 

With this quote in mind Manson argues that values such as "pleasure, material success, always being right, staying positive", are poor guidelines for a persons life. After all, some of the greatest moments in our lives are "not pleasant, not successful, not known, and not positive". Which leads him to the belief, and I am bound to agree with him, that it is the individual who is responsible for everything in his/her life. We just have to act due to external circumstances. We are not always in control of all aspects of our life.

"We don't always control what happens to us. But we always control how we interpret what happens to us, as well as how we respond."

Manson has established his own Law of Avoidance: "The more something threatens your identity, the more you will avoid it." He relates this to the comfort we feel in our own world and life. We know what we have, but we don't know what is out there. Even if we have a "goal" in life which takes us far from the life we have today, it takes a lot of effort to actually make something to fulfil it. It is the same with dreams we have of what we want to be, or what we always wanted to be, but did not have the effort to pursue.

"Aristotle wrote, "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it." Being able to look at and evaluate different values without necessarily adopting them is perhaps the central skill required in changing one's own life in a meaningful way." 

"That's simply reality: if it feels like it's you versus the world, chances are it's really just you versus yourself."

Sometimes we just try too hard and one of Manson's advice is "Don't try." I agree with him here. Sometimes we just try too hard to achieve something and then we fail. When one does not really care, or just care a little bit, but put it to faith, things seem to fall into place.


Manson provides us with a lot of examples of how people trying to change and the outcome, positive or negative. It makes for interesting reading, and it is an easy read. I agreed with him in many ways and found a few thought provoking ideas. I seem to have adopted some of his advice all ready, so I don't think the book will change my life too much, but there are a few things that I will have to consider a little bit more.

He started out as a blogger and he calls himself; Author. Thinker. Life Enthusiast. It is somewhat appealing and I will check out his blog which you find under Mark Manson. After all, it is always good to be inspired!