The Backwards Law: How to Get More by Doing Less

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck Podcast

Mark Manson

Self-improvement, Education

4.8 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 24 July 2024

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

There are certain areas in life where trying harder only makes things worse. Trying to prove how likable and confident you are only makes you feel more unlikable and less confident. Trying to make someone love you only makes you feel more unlovable.

The solution to this conundrum is what’s known as “The Backwards Law”.

Simply put, The Backwards law states that desiring a positive experience is itself a negative experience, while accepting a negative experience is a positive experience.

In this episode, Drew and I talk about five areas of life where doing less can actually reap massive benefits.

Enjoy.

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I was trying to think of something clever and I was like that's not clever.
0:08.0	Insert clever intro here listeners pretend I said something very witty and funny.
0:14.4	See that's the funny thing Drew is the more you try to be witty and funny
0:18.9	the less witty and funny.
0:19.8	Ahh, which is the topic of today's episode.
0:23.2	The backward.
0:24.2	The backwards.
0:24.8	See that was witty and funny!
0:26.5	I did it.
0:27.3	I fucking did it.
0:28.1	As soon as I stopped trying, I did it.
0:31.1	Bro.
0:32.1	Do you even podcast?
0:34.0	Like bro?
0:35.0	This is the subtle art of not giving a fuck podcast with your host Mark Manson.
0:42.0	We're going to talk about the backwards law today.
0:44.0	This is a classic, a favorite.
0:46.0	Comes from my book, The Subtle Art Not Giving A Fock.
0:49.0	It's been in a number of articles, YouTube videos.
0:51.0	And it's actually, it's not my concept, like it's been around for a long,
0:54.3	I mean it, first of all, it's like a Buddhist concept, but beyond that, Alan Watts popularized it in the 60s, but essentially the way I define the backwards law in the subtle art is I say that the desire for a positive experience is itself a negative experience and the acceptance of a negative experience is itself a positive experience.
1:15.0	And this creates this kind of paradoxical experience that we all have quite often of
	...

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