"This is something called maturity. It's nice; you should try it sometimes."
There weren't any 1 or 2-star rated books on my GR shelves until now. If I find a book is not working out the way I had hoped, I stay away from it, and will not invest any more time. This is the first book to contradict this practice. Based on the hype, I was looking forward to enjoying this book for a very long time. When I finally started, I quickly got the impression that this is not for me. But even with getting do-not-continue warning signs right from the start, I proceeded till the end, hoping something will change my opinion. Well, if I had received any help from this book, that would be with 'not giving a f*ck' about this book, and move on. I even feel like I'm being generous giving 2-stars instead of one, but that's only for the interesting example stories author presented (only the stories, not the author's opinions) and for the obvious difficulties of life that we all already know.
"Rejections that were painful in the moment have actually worked out for the best."
"If you're able to not give a f*ck about the pain, you become unstoppable."
Starting from the first chapter, I had the vague feeling that I had dived into a Gladwell 'self-help' book. The obvious (and simple) truths about life and circumstances are presented in a very amusing manner, sandwiched between what I felt to be inexperienced conjecture of the author. True, there were a few good parts, and I would even categorized them as helpful, but it felt those truths had been taken out of context to suit to the author's own views. Initially, I had the impression, may be the book is moving along the lines of the art of letting go, but that also stopped very quickly. According to the author, there's a line separating what's worth or not giving attention to, and our principles are only valid based on which side of the line we're at. Even the almost annoying number of 'f*cks' diminished after a few chapters, to proceed along what felt like a very long rant.
"Maturity is what happens when one learns to only give a f*ck about what's truly f*ckworthy."
"Self-improvement and success often occur together. But that doesn't necessarily mean they're the same things."
I'm a Buddhist, and would like to consider myself at least somewhat familiar with Buddhism. As the enlightenment is accepted to be related to letting go of the worldly pleasures according to Buddhism, Manson takes this as an example to justify his opinions. Then, he goes and creates a line, which he thinks is from where the letting-go should be applied to. It's not that the content are false, but everything's completely taken out of the original context, and I'm failing to see how any of this is supposed to be 'helpful'. One could certainly empathize with everything stated here, and agree to most of it, but that's pretty much it: I couldn't find the self-help part (if there was any). If the book's intention was to make one immune (or resistant) to the difficulties the society put in one's way (as the name implies), at least for me, it failed spectacularly. After the first few chapters, it often felt like the author contradicting himself with what followed.
"Happiness is not a solvable equation. Dissatisfaction and unease are inherent parts of human nature."
"The greatest truths in life are usually the most unpleasant to hear."
Just like with a Gladwell book, I think one should read this book carefully, especially if the reader is new to self-help/ philosophy genres. If you're already familiar with some good/ logical philosophy books, chances are, you'll take everything in this with a grain of salt, and only extract what's helpful. However, when a non-fiction book gets this much popularity, this could even become the very first self-help book one reads. And that's a dangerous thing, to start along with a system that accepts 'expecting the negative to happen to be a positive thing'. As the experiences/ examples presented are clear, and very easy to relate to, it's easy to get completely lost in a philosophy like this. I still decided to share some (obvious) wisdom quotes, but I hope you won't be tempted to read this one because of them. On the contrary, I'm only reviewing this one to warn any future readers, especially if you're new to self-help or non-fiction books.
"People who base their self-worth on being right about everything prevent themselves from their mistakes."