[rjreed]

We all seek approval and validation from others; it's a fundamental part of the human experience. We all care about the part of ourselves that others see because it's only a part - a tiny fraction.

"The truth is you’ve already heard this. That this is what it’s like. That it’s what makes room for the universes inside you, all the endless in-bent fractals of connection and symphonies of different voices, the infinities you can never show another soul. And you think it makes you a fraud, the tiny fraction anyone else ever sees? Of course you’re a fraud, of course what people see is never you. And of course you know this, and of course you try to manage what part they see if you know it’s only a part. Who wouldn’t?"

-Good Old Neon, David Foster Wallace