The iceberg, applied to a person

Three long answers about the parts of a life you cannot see from outside — including an honest one about what a self-assessment can and cannot tell you. Written to be worth reading whether or not you ever install the app.

• What parts of a life are invisible

  The iceberg model is usually drawn for companies. Drawn for one person it has eight layers, and only one of them is the part anyone else can see. Here is what sits in each.

• Why the visible results are the smallest part

  When you compare yourself to someone, you are comparing your whole iceberg to their tip. The comparison is not unfair so much as structurally uninformative.

• How to self-assess without grading yourself

  An honest account of what rating your own life can and cannot tell you — written by the people who built an app that does it, including the parts of the format that do not hold up.