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

Scroll through any feed and you'll be told to be happier, richer, fitter, more confident and more grateful, preferably by Friday. Every one of those messages quietly reminds you of what you don't have yet. The more you chase the feeling of being fine, the less fine you feel.

Mark Manson spent years writing a blunt, popular blog about life and relationships before he turned its best ideas into this book. His title is famously rude, but his point is serious: you have a limited supply of care, energy and attention. Spend it on everything and you'll be exhausted and anxious. Spend it on the few things that really matter and life gets simpler, sturdier and, oddly, happier.

This isn't a book about being cold or indifferent. It's about choosing. Which problems are worth having? Which pain is worth paying for? What do you measure yourself by, and is that measure making you miserable?

In the next few minutes you'll meet a hard-drinking poet, a prince who ran away from his palace, two musicians thrown out of famous bands, a soldier who fought a war that had already ended, and a famous painter with a napkin. Each one carries a piece of the same lesson.

So where do you start, when the usual advice is to try harder? With a gravestone that tells you not to try at all.