I love this left-wing podcast by Michael Hobbes (the gay guy who sounds like a girl) and Peter Shamshiri (the straight guy) that decodes airport best-sellers.
The latest episode is about The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck.
Peter: “On Reddit, someone was saying that they read this book a few years ago and they thought it was so insightful and it helped them a lot and then they read a few years later and they thought, what the fuck is this? A lot of self-help is like that. It’s getting people when they need advice… The feeling that you are receiving advice is therapeutic. A lot of people are at a crossroads in their life and they read a book like this and it gives a good impression because they needed to be talked to.”
This reminds me of Dr. Stephen Marmer’s point that life is a spiral staircase.
Michael: “I have no contempt for people who read and enjoy these books but bottomless contempt for the authors. They’re fulfilling a real emotional need for people and sometimes you just need a pep talk… I get that they are an individualist frame and they never cover structural solutions. The limitations of the genre are baked in. There are responsible ways for doing this — that you are not a piece of shit and you can do this. The core advice of this book is set a goal and work towards it.”
