Book: The Courage to Be Disliked

Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga’s dialogue on Adlerian psychology keeps circling one uncomfortable claim: freedom costs the courage to be disliked.

As long as your worth depends on other people’s approval, you’re not free — you’re negotiating. You soften the truth. You skip the hard conversation. You stay on a team, in a role, in a life that isn’t yours… because being liked feels safer than being clear.

The book’s answer isn’t “stop caring about people.” It’s task separation. What’s your task, and what belongs to someone else? Their judgment of you is their task. Living in line with your purpose is yours. When you confuse those, you hand them the steering wheel. Along the way they unpack each tool you reach for — approval, agreement, the need to be liked — and what purpose it’s actually serving.

Worth reading if you’ve ever stayed small to stay liked.