The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson

One of my Popsugar bonus prompts this year was to read a bestseller from 2016. I went online to check out some of last year's top novels and right away, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck caught my eye. One look at the cover explains why - it's definitely an attention-grabber! This self-help novel by Mark Manson claims to teach people how to improve their lives by not caring about things too much. As an inveterate worrier and constantly anxious person, I thought that this philosophy might be useful for me. I decided to give it a try.

Mark Manson, a popular blogger and entrepreneur, wrote The Subtle Art as a reaction against the typical advice offered in self-help books. He rejects what he sees as an industry-wide reliance on positive thinking and empty platitudes. Instead, he believes that people should accept that life is full of difficult and painful moments. The secret to weathering them is to embrace negatives for what they are, move on from them appropriately, and be selective about what you choose to get worked up over. By learning to let go of things that don't really matter, he argues that people can find deeper satisfaction with their lives.

Manson's process for implementing this sort of thinking involves identifying your core values, determining if they are, in fact, the things you need to be caring about, and focusing your energy towards living up to those values in your daily life. Any emotions, problems, people, or situations that don't align with your core values aren't worth worrying about. While this sounds relatively simple, Manson explains that learning to change your thinking in this way is a lifelong process. The most difficult part is determining what your personal values are and evaluating whether they are harmful to your mental well being. Doing this requires a lot of introspection and brutal honesty, but Manson claims that you can change your life for the better if you are able to analyze your thoughts and feelings properly.

As the title implies, Manson's writing style is irreverent and profanity-laced. He mixes in a lot of humor alongside his points to keep the reader engaged and keeps his language very casual. While some scientific studies and historical examples are utilized to support his arguments, most of The Subtle Art is supported by personal anecdotes from Manson's life, which gives the novel a friendly, down-to-earth feel. Much of what he asserts is common sense, but his unique way of stating his points gives readers a lot to think about. This book encourages a lot of self-reflection, which I enjoyed. For a self-help book, this was very entertaining. I can understand why it was a bestseller last year.

Despite these positives, my enthusiasm for the work overall was lukewarm. I liked it, but only found it to be of limited use for me. Many of the negative values and behaviors that Manson elaborated on, like being entitled or irresponsible, didn't really apply to me. I also found myself wishing that he had provided a bit more scientific information to support his claims. When it comes down to it, Manson has literally no qualifications to provide any psychological advice. While I think that his philosophy was sound, I would have liked more input from experts, just to lend a deeper legitimacy to the work. Some of the profanity was a bit over the top too. I wasn't offended by the language, but I did think that some of the writing was focused on how many times Manson could insert four-letter-words instead of being focused on his points.  

So while I had a good time reading The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, I didn't fall completely in love with it. I thought the advice was interesting and invited meaningful self-reflection, but it would have been improved with a bit more input from experts in psychology. Regardless, it was still an entertaining read that gave me some different ways to think about how I relate to the wider world. I know that I will use some of the ideas from it to shape my thinking as I move into the stressful beginning of the next school year. I'm glad that I chose to try this one.

Challenge Tally 

Popsugar Bonus Challenge (a bestseller from 2016): 2/12

Total Books Read in 2017: 51