37 pages • 1 hour read
Mark MansonA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
This chapter includes four subchapters: “The Self-Awareness Onion,” “Rock Star Problems,” “Shitty Values,” and “Defining Good and Bad Values.” Manson opens with a fascinating anecdote about Hiroo Onoda, a former soldier of the Japanese army, who was stranded on the island of Luban in the Philippines during WWII. Once the war ended, Onoda had no way to receive verifiable communication that it had ended and subsequently spent the next 30 years living in a jungle, still believing the war was raging on. When Onoda was finally convinced that the war had indeed ended, he returned to his native Japan and was aghast at what he saw. The consumerism that had become the norm in Japan while he was away disappointed Onoda and made him question the purpose of the last 30 years of his life. Ultimately, Onoda left Japan because he couldn’t live with the signs of defeat that were all around him. Manson uses this story as the jumping off point for his discussion of suffering and its hidden value.
Manson accepts that suffering is inevitable but then challenges us to ask ourselves a significant question: “Why am I suffering—for what purpose?” rather than asking “How do I stop suffering?” (68).
Business & Economics
View Collection
Challenging Authority
View Collection
Fate
View Collection
Fear
View Collection
Laugh-out-Loud Books
View Collection
Mental Illness
View Collection
Mortality & Death
View Collection
Nation & Nationalism
View Collection
New York Times Best Sellers
View Collection
Philosophy, Logic, & Ethics
View Collection
Popular Book Club Picks
View Collection
Power
View Collection
Psychology
View Collection
Self-Help Books
View Collection
Truth & Lies
View Collection