The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck - Deepstash
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A Book About Hope

A Book About Hope

This self help guide teaches us that the key to being happier is to stop trying to be positive all the time and instead to become better at handling adversity.

FUCK POSITIVITY!

Sometimes things are fucked up and we have to accept it.

This book will correct your delusional expectations of yourself and the world. Its like a guide to suffering better, more meaningfully with compassion and humility.

I recommend it to anybody stuck in the feedback loop from hell, which is the psychological epidemic making many of us overly stressed, overly neurotic and overly self loathing.

614

5.4K reads

Life itself is a form of suffering.

The rich suffer because of their riches.

The poor suffer because of their poverty.

People without a family suffer because they have no family.

People with a family suffer because of their family.

People who pursue wordly pleasures suffer because of their worldly pleasures.

People who abstain from wordly pleasures suffer because of their abstention.

THE PRINCE - BUDDHA

688

4.68K reads

The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A Fuck

The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A Fuck

Most of us struggle through life giving way too many fucks in situations where fucks dont deserve to be given.

Your going to die some day. In the short time you have here, if you go round giving a fuck about everything and everyone, you are going to get fucked.

Learn to prioritise and pick and choose what is fuckworthy to you based on finely honed personal values.

Its part of our biology to give a fuck but when you give too many fucks you become entitled to be comfortable and happy all the time, as if everything is supposed to be exactly the fucking way you want. This is a sickness.

631

4.15K reads

Honesty is communication with no conditions, no strings attached, no ulterior motive, no sales job, no desperate attempt to be liked.

When things suck, you say so openly and without apology.

MARK MANSON

610

4.13K reads

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Being open to your insecurities paradoxically makes you more confident and charismatic around others.

613

4.04K reads

Reserve your fucks for what truly matters.

586

3.19K reads

Happiness Is A Problem

Happiness Is A Problem

Suffering is biologically useful as it is natures preferred agent for inspiring change. We are wired to become dissatisfied with whatever we have and satisfied by only what we don't have.

Problems will never fucking go away. They just get exchanged and upgraded. Life is an endless series of problems. The solution to one problem is merely the creation of the next one.

Negative emotions are a call to action. If you feel crappy, your brain is telling you there is an unresolved problem for you to address.

Happiness comes from solving these problems.

623

3.28K reads

Without conflict, there can be no trust.

Conflict exists to show us who is there for us unconditionally and who is just there for the benefits.

MARK MANSON

620

3.51K reads

The Importance Of Saying No

The Importance Of Saying No

It is the norm in Western cultures to smile and say polite things even when you don't feel like it, to tell white lies and agree with someone you don't actually agree with. People learn to pretend to be friends with people they don't actually like.

The downside of this is that you never know if you can completely trust the person you're talking to. There is a pressure in the West to be likable that people often reconfigure their entire personality depending on the person they're dealing with.

Honesty is a natural human craving. Part of living honestly is becoming comfortable with the word 'NO'.

589

2.6K reads

MARK MANSON

Decision making based on emotional intuition, without the aid of reason to keep it in line, pretty much always sucks.

You know who bases their entire lives on their emotions?

Three year old kids.

And dogs.

You know what else three year olds and dogs do?

Shit on the carpet.

MARK MANSON

598

2.82K reads

You Are Not Special

You Are Not Special

If you've got a problem, chances are millions of other people have had it in the past, have it now, and are going to in the future. This doesn't minimise your problem, it just means that you are not special.

The first step towards solving your problems is to acknowledge the realisation that your problems are actually not privileged in their severity and pain.

When we experience real traumatic shit, we believe we are uniquely special, that we are somehow unlike everyone else, that the rules are different for us.

We become entitled.

609

2.45K reads

MARK MANSON

If everyone were extraordinary, then by definition no one would be extraordinary.

MARK MANSON

573

2.66K reads

The Tyranny Of Exceptionalism

The Tyranny Of Exceptionalism

The majority of life is unextraordinary, indeed quite average.

Having the Internet, social media sites and hundred plus TV channels is amazing. But this flood of extreme information has conditioned us to believe that exceptionalism is the new normal.

Technology and mass marketing is screwing up alot of peoples expectations.

We end up feeling like losers because a simple Google search shows us thousands of people without the same problems as us. Technology has solved old economic problems by giving us new psychological problems. The Internet has opensourced insecurity, self doubt and shame.

576

2.21K reads

Values underlie everything we are and do.

If what we value is unhelpful, if what we consider success/failure is poorly chosen, then everything based upon those values - the thoughts, emotions and day to day feelings - will be out of whack.

Everything we think and feel about a situation ultimately comes back to how valuable we percieve it to be.

MARK MANSON

563

2.13K reads

Genetics And The Hand We're Dealt

Genetics And The Hand We're Dealt

Nobody makes it through life without collecting a few scars along the way -

  • Psychiatric disorders
  • Struggling with depression or suicidal thoughts
  • Having been subjected to abuse or neglect
  • Dealt with a tragedy or death of a loved one
  • Survived a serious heath issue
  • Accidents
  • Traumatic situations

Nobody else is ever responsible for the situation you are in. Someone else may be to blame for your unhappiness, but nobody is ever responsible for your unhappiness except your self. This is because you always get to choose how you see things, how you react and how you value them.

601

1.95K reads

MARK MANSON

And because you and I and everybody else all have differing needs and personal histories and life circumstances, we will all inevitably come to differing correct answers about what our lives mean and how they should be lived.

MARK MANSON

556

2.07K reads

Dont Try

Dont Try

Todays culture is obsessed with unrealistically positive expectations.

  • Be happier
  • Be the best
  • Be smarter
  • Be richer
  • Be sexier
  • More powerful
  • More productive
  • More admired

Be perfect and amazing and shit out 12 karat gold nuggets before breakfast while kissing your selfie ready partner before flying off to work in a helicopter to your wonderfully fulfilling job, where u spend the day doing incredibly meaningful work that will save the planet.

Conventional life advice hightlights your percieved shortcomings and failures, resulting in you feeling like a failure as though you aren't successful enough.

581

2.05K reads

The more something threatens your identity, the more you will avoid it.

MANSONS LAW OF AVOIDANCE

573

2.12K reads

Failure Is The Way Forward

Failure Is The Way Forward

When any result is regarded as progress and important, we propel ourselves ahead. We feel free to fail and that failure moves us forward.

The do something principle helps us to overcome procrastination. That something can be the smallest viable action toward something else. It can be anything.

Just do something. Start simple. Thats all thats necessary to get the snowball rolling, the action needed to inspire the motivation to keep going.

587

1.82K reads

Ultimately, the only way to achieve meaning and a sense of importance in ones life is through a rejection of alternatives, a narrowing of freedom, a choice of commitment to one place, one belief or (gulp) one person.

MARK MANSON

561

1.88K reads

Boundries

Boundries

People in a healthy relationship have strong boundaries and take responsibility for their own values and problems.

People in a toxic relationship with poor or no boundaries will regularly avoid responsibility for their own problems and take responsibility for their partners problems.

Entitled people expect others to take responsibility for their problems.

'I want a nice relaxing break. You should have known and canceled your plans'.

This is avoiding accepting responsibility for their own problems, resulting in fragile fake relationships.

571

1.76K reads

The victim creates more and more problems to solve - not because additional real problems exist, but because it gets her attention and affection she craves.

The saver solves and solves - not because she actually cares about the problems, but because she believes she must fix others' problems in order to deserve attention and affection for herself.

In both cases, the intentions are selfish and conditional and therefore self-sabotaging, and genuine love is rarely experienced.

572

1.74K reads

You stand in front of the mirror repeating affirmations saying that you're beautiful because you feel as though you're not beautiful already.

548

2.11K reads

No truly happy person feels the need to stand in front of the mirror and recite that she's happy. She just is.

562

2.05K reads

Death is the only thing we can know with any certainty.

MARK MANSON

552

2.02K reads

CURATED BY

baloozbubblezzz

💚❤🧡💙💜🖤🤍 Stash and read 👆 Whenever in need 💫 Deepstash Curator 💥

CURATOR'S NOTE

In life we have a limited amount of fucks to give. Time ticks away. So choose your fucks wisely. A book worth gifting, to your self, and to those around you.

Curious about different takes? Check out our The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck Summary book page to explore multiple unique summaries written by Deepstash users.

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