No matter what we see, think or hear, nine times out of ten, things aren’t really what they seem; And this doesn’t go just for objects like a book, but to even other people and ourselves.

Many different objects and ideas aren’t what they really seem to be. The 99% Invisible podcast episode, “The Mojave Phone Booth” talks about this old busted up and broken phone in the middle of nowhere, you’d think no one would ever use it, or even call it. But after a man tried for months, calling everyday, he got an answer. After this, news about this phone reached the whole world, and everyday people from the entire world were calling it. 

One of the biggest examples of how things aren’t really how they seem is something called the “Dunning Kruger Effect.” People, just like you and I, overestimate ourselves. The Dunning Kruger effect shows how people believe they have knowledge or expertise in a subject, but don’t have as much as they really do. We aren’t what we seem to ourselves, our knowledge is often a lot different than what we think it is, and this is a good thing, we can always expand and learn more about ourselves and what we know. 

“Othello” by William Shakespeare also shows this. The main villain Iago is a very manipulative person, and he even manipulates himself into hating his victims. Other main characters in the play like Othello and Roderigo thought they had control: control over their reputation and control of their situations.But really, Iago was pulling the strings, all his manipulations tricked Othello into rage, and Iago was his most trusted ally. He used Roderigo for his plans and had control over his money. Not only was Iago a dissembler, but Othello and Roderigos’ whole situations weren’t what they thought they were.

But, after all this, this doesn’t go for everything, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing. If everything is just plain and as we see it, there’s less room for us to learn and grow. After all, people always say, “Never judge a book by its cover.”