Mark Manson was raised in Austin, Texas, in the United States, where he attended St. Andrews Episcopal School after his parents got a divorce.

[7] In 2010, he started a new blog called post masculine (now defunct) which provided general life advice for men.

[8] In 2015, Manson published a blog article "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck", which would form the basis of his second book by the same name.

[11] His second book, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life, was published in 2016.

[21] Erica Rivera, writing for Mandatory, describes Manson's style in the book as being "as blunt as a man-to-man chat",[22] and Katherine Pushkar describes it as "foul-mouthed, funny-as-hell, [and] dead-on", and his philosophy thus: "that life is hard, you're not special, happiness is a hollow goal and therefore you should make sure you're focused on the truly worthwhile", in her review in the New York Daily News.