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Comment by GreaterFool | Hacker News Reader

This reminds me of all those articles I've read about Silicon Valley hoodie as some sort of way for techies to declare their tribe.

Then I went to Bay Area. And guess what? One really needs a hoodie there! It is the most versatile thing to wear for the local weather. Covers 90% of what you need!

Suit doesn't keep one warm one as warm as vest. I, and many colleagues, often wear a vest in the office because AC makes it too cold otherwise. I think the author here is overthinking it.

That said, I don't know what Wall Street is like these days. Maybe they do consider it some sort of status symbol.

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There is even an Instagram account poking fun at the phenomena of bros in vests in NYC - https://www.instagram.com/midtownuniform I now see it everywhere :)

This "Midtown Uniform" is as versatile and practical as the hoodie in the bay area, but for a colder climate.

I work on Wall St (metaphorically of course) and people wear vests because it’s cold, windy, and you look good wearing one. They’re also light and sleaveless, so they’re easy to take off and they also make your arms look good.

It's subjective, but I've really got to disagree with you that vests look good. They're pretty hard to pull off, IMO.

"virtuous delts" I got a kick out of that line in the article

> Suit doesn't keep one warm one as warm as vest

Sure it does. A have a tweed sports jacket that could keep me warm in the arctic. Even my regular wool blend jackets are plenty in colder months or freezing offices.

In the UK, I find the majority of offices too cold.

AC tempatures generally cover large areas and are controlled by the older managers who often like it colder than the yongers boots on the ground. This in turn means we end up wearing hoodies or cardigans indoor.

I actually worked for a bank, with a dress code, that was so cold I wore 3 hoodies. As a tech contractor I wear whatever I want, but I was questioned about it several times. Pretty bizarre really.

I don't think AC in the Bay Area is much colder than AC anywhere else.

I don't dare ask why you can't just change the A/C!

Two challenges: building AC systems are often surprisingly poorly designed and installed, especially if your building has ever had internal redesigns, so you’re picking which areas are either too hot or cold rather than getting the entire place the same temperature. Developers tend not to be high-status enough to get the building set for them — that tends to be the suit-wearing executive suite or, at many places, sales.

The other factor to consider is that people who are too cold can layer up but someone who’s too hot doesn’t have an option other than working from home.

One thing which increased environmental concerns is leading to is reconsidering both of these given how expensive AC is. Getting people to dress appropriately for the season would lead to a big reduction in peak electrical load in much of the U.S. In some cities like San Diego where distribution capacity is constrained that’s the difference between having brownouts or not.

AC is the reason why I think solar power can do wonders even if it's nowhere near being able to meet all the demand.

Especially in dry climates like the American southwest, solar produces the most energy during the exact same hours when air conditioners need the most power. Build an excess of solar capacity, and you can probably prevent all brownouts. This would be a major benefit even for people who don't care about climate change.

I would expect the solar peak to be an hour or two earlier than the peak of AC demand.

It's not a perfect alignment but it's close enough: the key point is that you can generate the power without long-distance distribution requirements (which is a source of waste in the current model) with a considerable comfort margin.

In the example I mentioned, San Diego has (IIRC) three long-distance interconnects and building more is extremely difficult because the routes are generally full of homeowners who will sue you. You don't need to power every AC unit in San Diego completely off of solar the entire day — just enough to keep the total draw well below the capacity limits of that network avoids the prospect of brownouts or blackouts, and it would cut the number of times they have to pay industrial customers to reduce usage for a few hours.

You can turn the panels slightly to the west or fiddle with other angles if you're concerned more about aligning peak hours than producing the maximum amount of energy possible.

> The other factor to consider is that people who are too cold can layer up but someone who’s too hot doesn’t have an option other than working from home.

While true in the abstract, the real reason why most office buildings are "cold" is because indoor climate regulations are based on empirical thermal comfort models that were developed in the 1960s, and thus mostly based on the metabolic rates of men instead of women.

https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate2741

I very much doubt that the people responsible for temperature control are aware of the empirical thermal comfort models from 1960. My prediction is that almost none of them have any idea that the study exist or what it says.

I contrast I suspect those people to be fully aware of the cost of running the temperature control system and if the CEO/manager of the company want it to be right now warmer or colder in their room. The resulting temperature is then the balance between costs and the willingness to make the CEO/manager happy.

That's basically the same point from a different angle: most set-points were created to be comfortable for men in suits, in an era where business attire was a requirement for office-workers in most fields.

A/C only has two settings: off and too cold. Some people like too cold though. And a nice vest fixes the problem. I don't actually mind the ambient temperature being low as long as I can keep warm.

I worked in offices where workers can set the ac temperature. At least half the people are always unhappy and the temperature becomes on of the main discussion points. If they're set centrally, at least everyone can complain together instead of complaining about each other.

I want climate control, not aircon. ie - keep a single consistent sodding temperature. As it is we spend the day toggling the aircon on/off depending whether it's currently freezing or too warm in the office.

The consistency with which office aircon can be unfit for purpose is astonishing.

As someone who works in an office with heating and cooling they just oscillate wildly - you end with a office that heats or cools seemingly at random, or one area fighting another as one corner tries to heat like crazy as the other blows cold air across the others thermostat.

What fixes frozen fingers?

My hands are almost always cold in the winter here (NE Ohio) and I've found a couple of things that help with that while still letting me get work done.

Fingerless mittens are one option, and while they don't cover your actual fingers, just warming your hands up helps a lot. I can still type and use a trackpad just fine with them.

If you don't need to use a touch-sensitive device with them, the really thin, lightweight gloves that are meant to be a layer underneath a heavier pair actually work great. I can work in them as normal and only give up a little bit of my normal typing speed; not enough to be a hindrance when doing software development since typing speed isn't the bottleneck anyway.

Doing something that requires moving them. If you're furiously typing obscene code comments your fingers will be warm. If you're mindlessly clicking the "approve" button on the PRs your fingers will be cold.

My personal reason is the much higher environmental cost of that option.

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