I learned of Mark Manson through his blog, especially this post, 7 Strange Questions That Help You Find Your Purpose. Since then I have been on and off following his blog. He usually has a lot of good advice, so finally I decided to get his book. It makes it easier to have all the information in one place.
I had no idea what The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck was about. It was an impulse purchase, perhaps to support his blog. It turned out to be a really good book. As a semi-regular reader of his blog, I sort of knew what his philosophies were. Still, it was good to read everything in one place.
He is not encouraging us to not care about anything, but to care about the things that matter. It is human nature to care. But a lot of us start to worry about things that don’t matter. Sometimes, it is because we have nothing to care about. For example, an elderly lady in a retirement home who has all her needs met would get really pissed if her coupon is not accepted at the supermarket, because that is all she has.
Sometimes, we care about useless issues because real issues are too hard to deal with. For example, an unemployed person may go back to school for their 3rd degree just because they are unable to get a job.
The basic idea is that everyone cares about something, but is it the right thing? His philosophy is very similar to Stoicism or even Buddhist philosophy.
The book is written well and easy to read. If anything negative, I would say he is a bit verbose. Some of the stories in it dragged on a bit too long. For example, when he was in his principal’s office, it was clear what was going to happen, but he dragged that scene on a bit too much.