The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck Book Summary - The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck Book explained in key points
Listen to the Intro
00:00

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck summary

Mark Manson

A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life

4.3 (5060 ratings)
22 mins
Table of Contents

    The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck
    Summary of 8 key ideas

    Audio & text in the Blinkist app
    Key idea 1 of 8

    Whatever you do in life will be a struggle, so you need to find the struggle that’s right for you.

    What do you really want out of life? In other words, what’s your ultimate goal – the achievement you want written on your headstone?

    It’s not such an easy question to answer, is it? Sure, many of us will claim that we want happiness, a loving family and a job we enjoy, but these are pretty vague ambitions. And vague ambitions are problematic because they won’t push you to strive for success.

    Unfortunately, if you want to get anywhere in life, you’ll have to struggle. Achieving your goals will require hard work and plenty of perseverance; it’s guaranteed that there will be setbacks and hardships on the way.

    If you don’t have a goal you’re determined to achieve, you’ll falter in the face of this adversity. Let’s say becoming a CEO is your goal. After all, being a CEO certainly sounds cool: just think of all that power and responsibility. And yet, being a CEO is far from a walk in the park.

    CEOs regularly put in 60-hour workweeks, they have to make tough decisions and they need to be ready to fire people, time and time again. If you aren’t hell-bent on becoming a CEO, you’ll struggle with the hard work, and your chances of being a success will be slim.

    Since struggle is unavoidable, you have to find something worth struggling for. You have to identify what you really enjoy doing. Working on something that makes you happy means you’ll not only be undeterred by the constant battle; you’ll grow to love it.

    Take the author. He realized that he really enjoyed writing about dating, and so he decided to focus on writing a dating-advice blog. It was a challenge at first, but because he loved what he did, he thrived on the adversity. Eventually, the struggle paid off; the blog garnered hundreds of thousands of subscribers and it paid more than enough for the author to make it his full-time job.

    There is no point looking for an easy life, one without adversity. The only way you’ll get ahead is to find a goal that you want to struggle for. However, it’s equally important to say no to all the struggles and tasks that don’t bring you joy. Be ruthless and stop chasing the things in life that don’t make you happy. Concentrate on the few great things – and don’t give a fuck about everything else.

    Want to see all full key ideas from The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck?

    Key ideas in The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

    More knowledge in less time
    Read or listen
    Read or listen
    Get the key ideas from nonfiction bestsellers in minutes, not hours.
    Find your next read
    Find your next read
    Get book lists curated by experts and personalized recommendations.
    Shortcasts
    Shortcasts New
    We’ve teamed up with podcast creators to bring you key insights from podcasts.

    What is The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck about?

    The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck (2016) lays out how to live a better life by caring about fewer things. If you follow few simple rules, you can enjoy a happier, less stressful existence.

    Best quote from The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

    What pain do you want to sustain? The path to happiness is a path full of shitheaps and shame. You have to choose something. You cant have a pain-free life

    —Mark Manson
    example alt text

    Who should read The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck?

    • Anyone feeling stressed or overburdened with life
    • Self-improvement junkies
    • People worried about their legacy

    About the Author

    Mark Manson is an author and renowned blogger. Over the past few years, his blog, www.markmanson.net, has garnered a following of several million people. He lives and works in New York City.

    Categories with The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

    Books like The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

    People ❤️ Blinkist
    Sven O.

    It's highly addictive to get core insights on personally relevant topics without repetition or triviality. Added to that the apps ability to suggest kindred interests opens up a foundation of knowledge.

    Thi Viet Quynh N.

    Great app. Good selection of book summaries you can read or listen to while commuting. Instead of scrolling through your social media news feed, this is a much better way to spend your spare time in my opinion.

    Jonathan A.

    Life changing. The concept of being able to grasp a book's main point in such a short time truly opens multiple opportunities to grow every area of your life at a faster rate.

    Renee D.

    Great app. Addicting. Perfect for wait times, morning coffee, evening before bed. Extremely well written, thorough, easy to use.

    People also liked

    Start growing with Blinkist now
    28 Million
    Downloads on all platforms
    4.7 Stars
    Average ratings on iOS and Google Play
    91%
    Of Blinkist members create a better reading habit*
    *Based on survey data from Blinkist customers
    Powerful ideas from top nonfiction

    Try Blinkist to get the key ideas from 7,000+ bestselling nonfiction titles and podcasts. Listen or read in just 15 minutes.

    Start your free trial