The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A Fuck is a self-help guide focussed on resetting delusional always positive expectations and replacing them with a real life focus on our values and the finite amount of fucks we have to give in life before we die.
The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A Fuck Summary
The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A Fuck is the debut self help book by lifestyle blogger Mark Manson
Written in a trademark blunt and forceful style, the book combines gut punch insights, vivid narrative and practical advice for life. It’s entertaining, refreshing and ultimately a very timely guidebook to mental health in modern times.
Below are some of the key insights from the book.
Key Insights
- Charles Bukoski died with the epitaph ‘Don’t Try’ to advise against simply imitating the lives of the successful and expecting great results.
- You only have limited fucks to give before you die, so choose your values wisely and stand by them.
- Happiness is a problem because its not permanent. The Buddha talks about this at length and his story is a perfect example of how expectations dent happiness.
- Simplistic proxies like emotions, pleasure, material goods or validation are simply part of the mixture not anything worth centering your life around.
- As all life is a struggle, it’s important to choose your struggles rather than aim for a life without struggle.
- As per Marcus Aurelius Meditations – we are truly not special in the universe and should construct our lives with this lucid insight in mind.
- Peeling the self awareness onion helps us to learn which values are life affirming and which values lead us down the wrong path in life.
- We typically avoid that which challenges our self identity the most – good or bad.
- In life we are always making choices, even if our choice is not to choose.
- We are always wrong about everything. Aiming to be right is rubbish, we can only be less wrong then the past.
- Failure isn’t something to be avoided, in actual fact it always leads to better decisions and bolder life choices.
- It’s important to live life to the fullest because we never know when we will die.
- All religions, self-help gurus and folk wisdom typically agrees that happiness comes from finding purpose in something beyond yourself.