The-Subtle-Art-of-Not-Giving-a-F-ck-EnglishPDF-Mark-Manson

CHAPTER 6
You’re Wrong About Everything (But So Am I)
Five hundred years ago cartographers believed that California was an island.
Doctors believed that slicing a person’s arm open (or causing bleeding
anywhere) could cure disease. Scientists believed that fire was made out of
something called phlogiston. Women believed that rubbing dog urine on their
face had anti-aging benefits. Astronomers believed that the sun revolved
around the earth.
When I was a little boy, I used to think “mediocre” was a kind of
vegetable that I didn’t want to eat. I thought my brother had found a secret
passageway in my grandmother’s house because he could get outside without
having to leave the bathroom (spoiler alert: there was a window). I also
thought that when my friend and his family visited “Washington, B.C.,” they
had somehow traveled back in time to when the dinosaurs lived, because after
all, “B.C.” was a long time ago.
As a teenager, I told everybody that I didn’t care about anything, when
the truth was I cared about way too much. Other people ruled my world
without my even knowing. I thought happiness was a destiny and not a
choice. I thought love was something that just happened, not something that
you worked for. I thought being “cool” had to be practiced and learned from
others, rather than invented for oneself.
When I was with my first girlfriend, I thought we would be together
forever. And then, when that relationship ended, I thought I’d never feel the
same way about a woman again. And then when I felt the same way about a
woman again, I thought that love sometimes just wasn’t enough. And then I
realized that each individual gets to decide what is “enough,” and that love
can be whatever we let it be.
Every step of the way I was wrong. About everything. Throughout my