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Comment by seattle_spring | Hacker News Reader

Do you mean people that wear a suit and tie in an environment where most people are in jeans or shorts?

Please, please don't be that guy.

> Please, please don't be that guy.

What's wrong with it? Unless it's a dress code that you need to wear Jeans, you should be able to wear something smarter without fear.

Truth is as coders we understand we can do whatever the fuck we please, so wearing a suit or a gorilla costume are equally acceptable if they help get the job done.

Edit : cuss word added for effect. Not sure if you guys and gals also talk like proverbial sailors at work sometimes. Try doing it with the halo effect turned on

> smarter

A fedora, right?

We used to wear a pink hat during production deploys. There is definitely a semaphore phenomenon that comes with ties and pocket squares.

I'd like to know all about it from any perspective. I've come to learn the reasons people do things are varied and worthy of respect. It may seem outwardly that one is exhibiting a certain behavior for one reason whereas the truth may underlie a completely different motivation. The question relates to coders who prefer a suit and tie for any reason and we're hoping to understand what those reasons are.

The cultural and societal implications are important and extend from the personal and individual motivations.

Here is a video that came up on Digg which underscores this idea. http://digg.com/video/mind-body-problem

People make all sorts of assumptions. We treat casual clothes like a form of democracy, what if professional clothes fit the same heuristic?

I had a long think on this, it occured to me that fitting in was not always the intention of casual office attire. One inhention originally was to fly in the face of convention and show a level of superiority due to technical prowess versus the squares in suits. There's a sociological phenomenon which escapes me. The same reason teenage girls go out in public with trackpants and messed up hair.

Some people do it to exploit the Halo effect. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_effect

There's a youtube who always wears a suit in his videos, here he talks about why he started (and continues). It's quite interesting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oqp5zI4Ng_s

The halo effect is definitely one aspect, also the Diderot effect or California effect. There are many other nuances I care very much to understand, one of them being a possible memory palace effect.

Some people get extra confidence from clothing. It might be something worth exploiting

I care to explore this comment it should not be ignored. The confidence ultimately comes from the trusty aspect of the suit, not from any inflation of the ego. The pride associated with wearing suits and ties is a rookie phenomenon. Anyone who wears suits long term realizes it's a humbling display of modesty and equality in actual fact, contrary to conventional wisdom.

I agree. I have friends who wear makeup to work that reason. The confidence from looking like they are put-together. I imagine wearing a suit can be the same mental confidence.

Most certainly the put together effect cannot be understated. I looked up the definition of confidence one day and fundamentally it means holding onto some intimate knowledge like a secret that provides an advantage to the holder. It has grown to mean so wany things it's one of those words like 'agile' where agreement on terminology ironically masks disagreement on ultimate meaning.

The word confidence is overloaded and means many things to each person. It's worthy of a discussion in its own right.

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