Ephemeris of the Mind (Book Review) The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life
Time to read: 2 min read
Book Cover
The key to a good life is not giving a fuck about more; it’s giving a fuck about less, giving a fuck about only what is true and immediate and important.
Review
I usually don't read self-help books (I find them to be too prescriptive), but this book came recommended by friends and I could not resist the provocative title.
The main idea in the book is to argue against the mainstream mentality of toxic positivity (to always be positive regardless of your situation) and to embrace a more stoic mentality when facing challenges and obstacles in life. This message is obviously right up my alley as I've always identified strongly with stoicism.
The book outlines different ideas and strategies through insightful and compelling anecdotes. The three key ideas which I identified with the most are:
There's too little time to be concerned about everything; prioritize your "fucks" to give and accept the rest, especially with regards to oneself. One sign of maturity is accepting even aspects of oneself which one does not like.
One is always responsible for what happens oneself, even though one may not be at fault. Do not create an identity based around unrealistic metrics and entitlement.
Do not be obsessed about being extraordinary; the path to actually becoming spectacular is through drive to constantly improve.
While I didn't gain much because I already subscribed to most of the ideas described in the book, this book was still very entertaining to read.
Conclusion
A very accessible book explaining very rational ideas.
[EDIT] Mark Manson posted a video summary of this book on Youtube.