My Key Takeaway From The Subtle Art of Not Giving A F#CK
August 10, 2025
I discovered this book when I at high school, but at that time I don’t give a F*CK about this book. Two years later, a friend of mine recommended me this book. I go to a bookstore and buy this book. What can I say, I don’t regret it.
There are many things that you can learn from this book. But I will share my favorite takeaway.
1. Reverse Law
Most of the time, negative emotions will produce positive emotions later and positive emotions will produce negative emotions later.
Jack always goes to the bar every night. He found happiness when consuming drugs, alcohol, and having a one-night stand. But, every morning the happiness turns into SADNESS. So on and on.
Meanwhile,
Jessica has a fat body. She knows that was her problem and she takes responsibility for herself. She workout, feel the pain, tired, struggled, and feel all the negative emotions from her dedication. 5 months later, she defeat his evil fat in her belly. She now has a better body and not just her body. She gains confidence and of course HAPPINESS.
2. Master Your Emotion
Why are you mad?
Why she not texting you make you sad?
Emotion is a double-edged sword. It differentiates us from robots. Emotion can make your decision in life better if you know how to use it. But it can also make you worse if you can’t control it. You can use your emotion by asking yourself why you feel that way.
Are you mad? WHY. Are you happy now? WHY. Try to ask your emotion. Be honest or it's not gonna work. It will give you some pain every time you answer it. Sometimes it's gonna make you cry. But it will make you happier later (remember, it's reversed).
3. The “Do” Generator
We know this old concept:
Inspiration → Motivation → Action
When you go to the mountains doesn’t mean you will get inspiration. When you go to pee doesn’t mean you will not get inspiration. We always try to wait for inspiration to get to the action. This is not efficient. Because it depends on things that you can’t control. Try this new concept:
Action → Inspire → Motivation → action → …..
“ACTION will INSPIRE your thinking and create MOTIVATION to ACTION”. Now you don’t need to find inspiration. Just do it.
It completely changes my approach when I do something. For example, when I get a briefing from my client to design something. Instead jump into design or interest software, I’m waiting for inspiration. Yeah, waiting for something to pop into my head so I can do something. In the end, I procrastinated and tried to beat the deadline. Now, when I get tasks to do, I just do it and the inspiration comes as I work.
BONUS: What pain do you want?
Rather say:
“ What good life that I want ”
Try to say:
“ What pain/problem that I want and enjoy ”
We like to have a Captain America body shape. But are we ready to wake at 5 am? are we ready to get pressured in the gym? are we ready not to eat fried chicken anymore? No, I don’t.
Defining what problems that excite you and what problems you’re ready to face are important. Because 90% of your time will you spend in the process, not on the result. So if you’re happy in the process, if you’re happy spending your time to solve your problem. You already win most of the game.
There are a lot of things I didn’t explain in this post. You should read it by yourself. If you live in this noisy social media where everyone is jealous of each other. If you care too much about what other people do. If you give a f*ck of what people think. You should read this book.