Do you care what other people think about you?

[Plato]

Yes, but not for my self esteem.

[Marco Polo]

I figure if I do my best at everything, I'll have no regrets and what others think of me becomes almost irrelevant. Letting others dictate your emotions is a bad idea.

But of course reality is not that simple. For instance, most of us care whether we are sexually attractive to other people. In fact that's just a sign of mental health. You fix yourself up in the morning, you wear appropriate clothes to work, you don't greet your boss with "yo what's happening my ni***?". Most of us actually care how we're perceived.

A person who genuinely doesn't care what others think of him, will be an insufferable twat. Generally speaking, people who say they don't care about others will still conform to societal rules, seek approval from their boss, try to impress others etc etc. Perhaps the biggest exception would be a site like this where nobody knows you.

"No man is an island" still holds true even in today's rampant individualism.