‘I’m all for offending people,’ author Mark Manson tells UAE book event

At a time when people are easily offended and “constantly being upset,” Manson urged attendees to develop the ability to hear “the things that we need to hear”.

When asked how he deals with people who are offended by his work, he said: “To deal with people being offended all the time, it’s interesting… Because of the language I use, I’ve been offending people for a long, long time, so I’m a little bit desensitised to it. But in the United States in the last 2 or 3 years, it’s definitely becoming a real issue with people constantly being upset.

“For me, I believe strongly that sometimes the most valuable things you can hear in life are upsetting… There needs to be an ability to hear the things that we need to hear. To let that anger calm and understand that it’s not that important, it’s not as important as the message. So I’m all for offending people.”

Manson said people will naturally resist the things they need – but don’t want – to hear.

“One of the points I made in my work is that change is by definition painful. By definition, we will resist change and hearing the things that we need to hear… When I think back to the most important things people have said to me, probably 74 percent of them, I got really upset [about hearing] and said ‘that’s not true, you don’t understand’ and then two days later I say, ‘Oh, they were right,’ so we need that,” he said.

Manson began blogging after quitting music school and ultimately grew his website www.markmanson.net into one of the largest personal development platforms in the world, with two million monthly readers. His first book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F— has been the number one bestseller in 13 countries and has been translated in over 50 languages. His second book, Everything is F—–, A Book About Hope, was published in May this year.