You know, this probably isn't very comforting, but Paul Graham had a great comment in one of his essays that you really can't stop caring about what people think of you. If you did (he says) you'd be some sort of psychopath--caring about what people think is natural and a very important part of how society works.
Now, of course that doesn't mean you can't solve this problem: many of the comments above are very helpful, even if you accept that you'll always care what people think.
|