The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life

Brett M. Nelson - Tuesday, March 21, 2017

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson is a little misleading in the title as Mark says it's not about not caring about everything but choosing to care about specific things.

Something to consider. As you may have guessed by the title The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life contains profanity and adult topics. If you would like books with similar methods perhaps The Obstacle Is the Way or Ego Is the Enemy both by Ryan Holiday.

First Thing

This book is not about not caring. It's about choosing to care about important things. Focusing on the things that are not important causes unnecessary stress and unhappiness. After all if you are always thinking about that sports car you want you are constantly reminding yourself that you have not succeeded at getting the sports car.

Greater Happiness Through Caring Less

One of the greater messages of the book is focusing less about things that don't align with your values and more on things that do. This means if you value family, spending your time thinking that you will be happy once you can buy a sports car isn't going to lead you to happiness. By this same example spending time with your spouse and kid(s) would.

Choose to Care (or Not)

Choosing to care about what aligns with your values will lead to happiness but, since it will probably lead you to being different from those around you, you will need do be comfortable with being different. Others will see it as you not caring and it will probably lead to adversity.

Overall

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck is a good read but I think perhaps some other books may be better before reading it. As I mentioned in the not above both The Obstacle Is the Way or Ego Is the Enemy would probably be suitable reads as they cover similar topics but do not have the sometimes distraction of swear words.

What do You Think?

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life covers some serious topics with a some crude bathroom humor. Is there a book you think others should read? Let me know by leaving a comment below or emailing brett@wipdeveloper.com.