“Mark’s ability to dig deep and offer amazing, yet counter-intuitive, insight into the challenges of life makes him one of my favorite writers, and this book is his best work yet.”

NO MAJOR SPOILERS

I’m not one for the self help genre,but the catchy book title,best selling hype and the curious reader in me ended up in picking this one.

Manson Mark is definitely talking seriously about some sort of self improvement here,but have chosen the less travelled path or to be precise, a counterintuitive approach as he proclaims, with insights of philosophy sprinkled with Buddhism here and there.

First things first, save your precious cuss words ( or giving a f* ck) only for the things that matters to you most,don’t use it for every hiccup and hurdle of yours, and on all those trivial matters. (So the author himself  contradicts the title by explaining that there is nothing like not giving a f *ck,but learning when to give one)

The author’s approach to self improvement somewhat goes like this,

• Don’t delude yourself by believing and following the Be positive, be happy, be your best approach.Let me quote from the book ,”The desire for more positive experience is itself a negative experience. And, paradoxically, the acceptance of one’s negative experience is itself a positive experience”.

• Embrace all your negatives, accept if one is not good enough, your failures , fears, insecurities etc.Everything worthwhile is won through associated negative experience.

• Happiness is…… solving the problems in your life, as soon as you solve one, another one would pop up from nowhere. So happiness is enjoying the process of solving your problems. (Make sense)

• Emotions are overrated. ( I disagree here,It’s the multitude and minutest of emotions which inspires any art form, and without art, life would be dull,grey and cold)

• You are not special, let alone extraordinary or exceptional, It’s completely fine to be an average Joe .(There is one popular picture in the media,where a cat perceives its own reflection as that of a roaring lion with a caption saying “it’s in your attitude”.Here the message is, perceive yourself as yourself!Oh man, this is one of the reasons I generally stay away from this genre.In the end it’s always what works best for you)

• Suffering and pain are catalysts for growth .(Age old wisdom)

• Going after material success,pleasure, insisting on being right, staying positive are shitty values. (Not sure)

• You are always choosing, your struggles and your success.

• Taking responsibility for your actions and not blaming others. Author reminds the reader here that even reading this book was your decision and hence your responsibility!!( Loved this one)

I have mentioned only few points here ( I wrote a pretty long post already)

There would be a few things you agree with and few you disagree,and I believe the final rating depends on how each reader connects with the book.

You could even say that there is nothing new or enchanting here. I would like to say that the humorous style of narration, backing them with few real life stories makes this an entertaining and interesting read even though you have to come across shitloads of shit and f* ck all the way.

 

Reviewed by:

Sayeede Pearl Ansari

Added 15th February 2018