
“There’s no such thing as a dating problem. Every dating problem is simply a personal emotional/trauma/baggage problem that’s manifesting as a dating problem.”
— Mark Manson
Mark Manson (@IAmMarkManson) is a three-time #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck as well as other titles. His books have sold nearly 20 million copies worldwide and have reached number one in more than a dozen countries.
Since 2008, he has written articles at MarkManson.net, one of the largest personal-development blogs in the world, with more than a million monthly readers. In 2023, a feature film about him and his work will be released in theaters by Universal Pictures. See SubtleArtMovie.com for more details, and click here for the trailer.
Please enjoy!
The transcript of this episode can be found here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.
This episode is brought to you by Eight Sleep! Eight Sleep’s Pod Cover is the easiest and fastest way to sleep at the perfect temperature. It pairs dynamic cooling and heating with biometric tracking to offer the most advanced (and user-friendly) solution on the market. Simply add the Pod Cover to your current mattress and start sleeping as cool as 55°F or as hot as 110°F. It also splits your bed in half, so your partner can choose a totally different temperature.
Until November 30th, my listeners can save $350 on the Pod Cover. Go to eightsleep.com/tim for these exclusive holiday savings. That’s eightsleep.com/tim for these exclusive and very special holiday savings! Eight Sleep currently ships within the USA, Canada, the UK, select countries in the EU, and Australia.
This episode is brought to you by AG1! I get asked all the time, “If you could use only one supplement, what would it be?” My answer is usually AG1, my all-in-one nutritional insurance. I recommended it in The 4-Hour Body in 2010 and did not get paid to do so. I do my best with nutrient-dense meals, of course, but AG1 further covers my bases with vitamins, minerals, and whole-food-sourced micronutrients that support gut health and the immune system.
Right now, you’ll get a 1-year supply of Vitamin D free with your first subscription purchase—a vital nutrient for a strong immune system and strong bones. Visit DrinkAG1.com/Tim to claim this special offer today and receive your 1-year supply of Vitamin D (and 5 free AG1 travel packs) with your first subscription purchase! That’s up to a one-year supply of Vitamin D as added value when you try their delicious and comprehensive daily, foundational nutrition supplement that supports whole-body health.
This episode is brought to you by Peloton Row! Peloton Row delivers personalized rowing workouts to help you learn and master your stroke. Form features like Form Assist and Form Ratings & Insights indicate how to improve your stroke in class in real time and provide a post-class breakdown so you can hit the Row harder next time. And with the ability to customize your target metrics, you become an expert at the level and pace that feels good for you. You get all your cardio and strength in one shot, while protecting your joints and ligaments in a high-intensity, low-impact way. Fun fact: you work 86% of your muscles in only 15 minutes.
Right now is the perfect time to get rowing with Peloton Row. Peloton Row offers a variety of classes for all levels plus game-changing features that help you get rowing or advance the rowing you can already do. Explore Peloton Row at OnePeloton.com/Row.
Want to hear an episode with someone who also sold an ungodly amount of books? Listen to my interview with Eat, Pray, Love author Elizabeth Gilbert, which explores her creative path, saying no, trusting one’s intuition, index cards, integrity checks, grief, awe, and more.
What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let me know in the comments.
SCROLL BELOW FOR LINKS AND SHOW NOTES…
SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE
- Connect with Mark Manson:
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | LinkedIn
- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson | Amazon
- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck | IMDb
- How Mark Manson Learned The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck | New York Magazine
- How to Overcome Imposter Syndrome | The Jordan Harbinger Show 127
- Why Ramit Sethi Says Buying a Home ‘Will Be a Terrible Financial Decision’ for Him | The Ascent
- Forrest Gump | Prime Video
- 1,000 True Fans by Kevin Kelly | The Technium
- Creative Artists Agency (CAA)
- Katamari Damacy | Wikipedia
- State of the Word 2022
- How The Subtle Art of Not Giving a #@&! Author Went from Pickup Artist to Documentary Star | Stuff
- The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Tim Ferriss | Amazon
- How to Pick Up Girls and Attract Women | Practical Pickup
- A Rational Self Help Site for Men | Postmasculine
- The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman by Timothy Ferriss | Amazon
- The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists by Neil Strauss | Amazon
- I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell by Tucker Max | Amazon
- Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery | Prime Video
- How Mark Manson Crafts Viral Posts and Grows His Audience | Sproutworth
- New Post: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck | Mark Manson, Twitter
- The Subtle Arts of Murder and Persuasion by Lamb Of God | Amazon Music
- 7 Strange Questions That Help You Find Your Life Purpose | Mark Manson
- What Are the Biggest Cultural Differences between New York City and Los Angeles? | Quora
- Cirque du Soleil
- Will by Will Smith and Mark Manson | Amazon
- Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby | Prime Video
- Watch the Uncensored Moment Will Smith Smacks Chris Rock on Stage at the Oscars | Guardian News
- Why the Ford Model T was Such a No-Brainer Over Horses | Energyphile
- Oscar Buzz Edition Part 2: Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis | Funny or Die
- The Marshmallow Experiment and the Power of Delayed Gratification | James Clear
- 100 Girls Vs. 100 Boys For $500,000 | MrBeast
- A Look at Gen Z’s Preferred Social Platforms | Insider Intelligence
- Best TikTok Dances: Top 20 | Dexerto
- Scrivener | Literature & Latte
- Microsoft Word | Microsoft 365
- Sophie’s World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy by Jostein Gaarder | Amazon
- Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman | Amazon
- Die With Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your Life by Bill Perkins | Amazon
- CØCKPUNCH™
- The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher Vogler | Amazon
- The Tao of Seneca: Letters from a Stoic Master (aka The Moral Letters to Lucilius) | Tim Ferriss
- A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments by David Foster Wallace | Amazon
- Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert | Amazon
- Unbroken: An Olympian’s Journey from Airman to Castaway to Captive by Laura Hillenbrand | Amazon
- All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel by Anthony Doerr | Amazon
- The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley | Amazon
- Exhalation: Stories by Ted Chiang | Amazon
- Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang | Amazon
- This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar | Amazon
SHOW NOTES
- [07:02] Difficult changes and modified default behaviors.
- [10:22] Be careful what you wish for.
- [12:14] How Mark’s feature film deal came to be.
- [15:55] The teamwork that makes Mark’s dream work.
- [20:26] Sourcing talent.
- [24:45] How Mark knew he’d found the right agent.
- [28:36] From Entropy to F*ckery.
- [47:21] Learning the subtle art of strategic F-bombing.
- [56:31] Prioritizing health maintenance.
- [1:04:04] Co-authoring a book with Will Smith.
- [1:11:34] In a post-slap world, what should we know about the real Will Smith?
- [1:16:36] How Will Smith depends on and interacts with his team.
- [1:18:41] Setting the course for the next few years.
- [1:22:51] How Mark says no to financially tempting projects he doesn’t want to do.
- [1:31:02] The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck‘s cover story.
- [1:33:39] Why Mark is pivoting to video production rather than podcasting.
- [1:37:46] What can we expect from Mark’s future video trajectory?
- [1:42:56] Staying relevant and creatively fulfilled in a crowded market.
- [1:44:56] The software Mark uses to compose a book.
- [1:46:10] Recommended reading,
- [1:56:51] Parting thoughts.
MORE MARK MANSON QUOTES FROM THE INTERVIEW
“I like working long-term with people. I like finding exceptional talent, paying them very well, and then sticking with them over a long period of time. So I’ve never had an employee leave. And two of my guys—one’s been with me for 10 years, one’s been with me for almost nine, and then the other two have been with me for about three or four, which in the web world is crazy. And I have entrepreneur friends with online businesses, and they look at me and they’re like, ‘Are you nuts? You could pay these people half as much.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, but I’d be hiring every six months.'”
— Mark Manson
“I feel like it’s almost a prerequisite to being ‘wealthy’ is you have to spend money on something stupid that you regret. I just feel like that is a nonnegotiable. You’re not really wealthy until you’ve done that at some point. So I went through a couple of those experiences.”
— Mark Manson
“For a number of years I really, really wanted that, for lack of a better term, mainstream media attention. Just that nod of respect of like, ‘Yeah, kid, you did it.’ And when I started getting that and started working and engaging with a lot of legacy media, I was like, ‘Wow, this sucks. I miss my blog. I miss the emails from my readers. I don’t want to do this. This is such a pain in the ass.'”
— Mark Manson
“There’s no such thing as a dating problem. Every dating problem is simply a personal emotional/trauma/baggage problem that’s manifesting as a dating problem.”
— Mark Manson
PEOPLE MENTIONED
- Mollie Glick
- Kevin Kelly
- Matt Cutts
- Tucker Max
- Will Smith
- Austin Powers
- Fernanda Neute
- Ang Lee
- Chris Rock
- Scot Sardinha
- Steven Spielberg
- Ryan Holiday
- MrBeast
- Charlie Munger
- Jostein Gaarder
- David Foster Wallace
- Joan Didion
- Hunter S. Thompson
- Steven Pinker
- Jonathan Haidt
- Oliver Burkeman
- Bill Perkins
- Ursula K. Le Guin
- Seneca
- Daniel Gilbert
- James Clear
- Stephen King
- Laura Hillenbrand
- James Crumley
- Ted Chiang
- Steve Jobs
The Tim Ferriss Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world with more than 900 million downloads. It has been selected for "Best of Apple Podcasts" three times, it is often the #1 interview podcast across all of Apple Podcasts, and it's been ranked #1 out of 400,000+ podcasts on many occasions. To listen to any of the past episodes for free, check out this page.
Hi Tim, do you know Psychologist Dr. Kenneth Adams and his book Silently Seduced? a really great guy, is helping me and so many people. Very much worth an interview!
https://www.overcomingenmeshment.com/dr-kenneth-m-adams/
Mark Manson will go down as a pioneer in content based entrepreneurship.
A very enjoyable podcast!
FYI Mark’s Youtube link is broken though.
I love podcast and listen religiously, however, this one left a little bit of a bad taste in my mouth. If felt like two guys with a lot of money talking about the things they can do now that they have a lot of money. Not sure we are all there yet…
I hope Mark saw Katie Porter on the floor of the House tonight (1/6). Savage.
I really like what Tim Ferris does. I think the work week could even be two days. More time for friends and family. More time to take care of our broken world. Thank you.
Disappointing that there wasn’t more acknowledgement and discussion of the exceptionally manipulative aspects of men providing other men advice and tips on how to “pick up women”. There was reference to ‘toxic’ aspects of this, but no deeper discussion nor recognition of how this can lead to highly damaging, sometimes abusive, experiences for women. This is something that men with public platforms and influence should give a F*ck about.