A story about how I judged someone based on the saying '90% of a person is their appearance,' only to be spectacularly wrong and then panicked when they pointed out that I was judging them by their looks.

I'm sure many of you are familiar with the saying, '90% of a person is their appearance.' It suggests that we evaluate others 90% of the time based on information we get from their visuals, such as their clothing, attitude, and manner of speaking.

In short, it means we judge people mostly by things other than what they actually say, but this is a story about how I judged someone by their appearance and ended up in a real panic. I'm currently hooked on fishing. Fishing is deep, with so much to learn about rigs, bait, and hook barbs. There's a river mouth near my house, and I've been working hard at goby fishing lately.

While fishing in that canal, I became friends with an older man. He seemed very knowledgeable about fishing, like how to set up the rig and attach the bait. But his appearance was... lacking. He wore a worn-out, faded T-shirt and had messy hair. I thought he was just a local guy and fished with him, but when we got excited and went out for drinks that night, he took me to a rather high-end place.

I panicked at the gap between the man's vibe and the restaurant, thinking, 'Oh no, I've been scammed! Is this some new kind of rip-off joint?' But as I listened to him talk, he told me he was the chairman of a local small-to-medium-sized business. He said, 'You seem like a good guy, but I could tell you had your own preconceived notions about me, so I brought you here.' Personally, I was terrified, thinking, 'Wow, he saw right through me. This is bad. Was I treating him that disrespectfully?' and I regretted my mistake so much. But since his appearance was a fact, I honestly said, 'I was judging you by your appearance. I'm sorry. But you can't tell with that outfit. You're doing that on purpose, aren't you?' The man laughed and said it was fine. In the end, we both got along well—or rather, we both got pretty hammered.

I think it's somewhat inevitable to judge people by their appearance unconsciously, but this is an embarrassing story about how my own shallowness was seen right through. However, when I think about it, I also realize that the other person is likely judging me by my appearance as well. It's important to keep in mind whether one's own judgment is always correct.

Also, I learned that while it's easy to panic when your mistakes or errors are pointed out, if you apologize honestly and manage to close the distance between you, you can sometimes recover from the situation (laughs). So, that was my story about judging someone by their appearance and feeling embarrassed when they saw right through it. Man, I was so panicked.