Modern society promotes a cult of success: be smarter, richer, more productive—be better than everyone else. Social networks are full of stories about how some kid invented an app and made a fortune, articles like “A Thousand and One Ways to Be Happy,” and photos in your feed give the impression that everyone around lives better and more interestingly than we do. But our fixation on positivity and success only reminds us of what we haven’t achieved, of dreams that didn’t come true. So how do you become truly happy?
In his book “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck,” popular blogger Mark Manson offers his own, original approach to this question. His life philosophy is simple: you need to learn the art of not giving a f*ck. Once you’ve identified what you truly care about, you have to ignore everything secondary, stop obsessing over difficulties, tell others’ opinions to go to hell, and be ready to face failures—and show them a middle finger.