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| The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck — Mark Manson |
Strip away the profanity
and Mark Manson's pitch is a familiar one, drawn loosely from Stoic and
existentialist thought: the pursuit of constant positivity is itself a source
of unhappiness, and a good life comes from choosing what to struggle for rather
than trying to avoid struggle altogether. The casual, self-deprecating voice is
the delivery mechanism, not the substance underneath it.
Once you see past the
voice, the ideas are recognizable and reasonably well argued — values should be
chosen deliberately rather than inherited by accident, discomfort is not proof
that you're on the wrong path, and certainty about oneself is often a warning
sign rather than a strength. Manson states all of this plainly enough that the
book works as a decent entry point into more rigorous thinking on the same
themes.
The tone occasionally
works against the material, particularly in the chapter about his friend's
death, where the register shift feels abrupt. As an accessible corrective to
self-help positivity, though, the book does what it sets out to do.
Get The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck from Amazon
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