The quote lands sharply in a culture where identity is often treated like a public-facing project. Social media, professional branding, and constant comparison can turn the inner life into a performance review, making “worrying about your identity” feel both urgent and endless. Even sincere self-exploration can harden into rumination: a loop of labels, alignments, and anxieties.
Consequently, Smith’s advice can be read as an antidote to this loop. By redirecting attention toward other people, it breaks the spell of self-surveillance. Care becomes not a distraction from the self, but a way out of the echo chamber that identity worry can create. [...]
