Please help me understand variance in statistics

Variance is defined as: E[(X - μ)²]

So this is E[X] minus μ? I'm confused 'cause I thought E[X] and μ are two ways of writing the exact same thing. It looks to me like "expectation times expectation squared."

Can someone explain?

Thanks!

You cannot distribute the E like that because E isn't a number, it's shorthand for "expected value" or "expectation", like you said. But variance is the expected value of (X - μ)². Think of (X - μ)² as a single variable to find the average of.