The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life is a 2016 nonfiction self-help book by American blogger and author Mark Manson. The book covers Manson’s belief that life’s struggles give it meaning and argues that typical self-help books offer meaningless positivity which is neither practical nor helpful, thus improperly approaching the problems many individuals face. It was a New York Times and Globe and Mail bestseller.
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck was published under the imprint of HarperOne, a division of HarperCollins Publishers, and was released on September 13, 2016.
As of May 2019, over 8 million copies of the book had been sold.
The book is a reaction to the self-help industry and what Manson saw as a culture of mindless positivity that is not practical or helpful for most people. Manson uses many of his own personal experiences to illustrate how life’s struggles often give it more meaning, which, he argues, is a better approach than constantly trying to be happy. Manson’s approach and writing style have been categorized by some as contrarian to the general self-help industry, using blunt honesty and profanity to illustrate his ideas.
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck argues that individuals should seek to find meaning through what they find to be important and only engage in values that they can control. Values (such as popularity) that are not under a person’s control, are, according to the book, “bad values.” Furthermore, individuals should strive to replace these uncontrollable values with things they have the capability to change, such as punctuality, honesty, or kindness. Manson further cautions against claiming certainty about knowledge that is out of one’s grasp, especially in the case of attempting to leave a legacy. Meaning can be found, Manson claims, when one seeks to create joy in the moment for one’s self and those around as opposed to being concerned with building a body of work as a legacy.