Comment by sethammons | Hacker News Reader

Comment by sethammons | Hacker News Reader

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I fully disagree with dressing up at work as being important. I fully agree that many of our problems at work stem from folks trying to prove that they are competent/best at something they are largely ignorant at. Some of these people dress up professionally to help hide their lack of effectiveness.

Dressing up for work is value signalling. "oh, a blazer? They are important." When it comes to client interactions, depending on the culture of the industry, being more professionally dressed is important. First impressions and all that. Self-confidence can be boosted by your appearance and that can help when interacting with folks. I've seen it work for folks that talk on the phone to customers. The other thing that helps boost confidence? Actually knowing what you are talking about :) I may not trust an investment representative as much if they are in their sweat pants compared to a suit. But for knowledge workers, I think there is a boon to being comfortable.

Bro I appreciate your reply and I want to remind you this is a wildly unpopular opinions thread so I'd encourage you to try to look at things from a different angle than playing the "I disagree" card which carries no merit here whatsoever.

As a hint I'd like to convey that the blazer is actually a dress down apparel compared to the outfits it replaced and the suit is designed as the ultimate comfort and convenience garment so if you can't feel comfortable in a suit and assume therefore it's impossible to for anyone to be comfortable in one, maybe you just haven't found the right tailor you know?

Which goes to my point that people don't understand what dressing up even means let alone how to do it.

> if you can't feel comfortable in a suit and assume therefore it's impossible to for anyone to be comfortable in one,

I don't think you can't be comfortable, I just think they're less comfortable. No one spends a lazy Sunday afternoon on the couch watching TV while wearing a suit, if they were more comfortable than other clothes this would be common. Either way your solution of getting better suits or a tailor is an unnecessary expense I can do without.

As far as signalling goes it generally means the opposite of it's intention to me, if I see someone in a suite I'm more likely to think used car salesman, mormon or boss. I'm immediately much more skeptical and defensive because they'll want to sell me something or control me.

There are advantages for dressing up but you'll never understand them by taking the majority view.

Nobody cares what anyone wears at home we're talking comfort at work.

And again, a suit is ultimately a dress down garment requiring less care to put on than a track suit.

In all this discourse nobody ever bothered to ask what dressing is even defined as and we're supposed to call ourselves software engineers.

Another hint: wearing swag is not equivalent to dressing up.

> Nobody cares what anyone wears at home we're talking comfort at work.

Comfort is independent of location, the only difference is that at home we prioritize comfort and that translates to not wearing suits.

> And again, a suit is ultimately a dress down garment requiring less care to put on than a track suit.

In what world? Track pants you just pull on and maybe tie up if there's some weight in your pockets, dress pants you have to pull on zip/button up and put a belt on. Some with the upper half, it's easier to pull on a T shirt than button one up. Neither are hardly arduous (hence my surprise that some people take "pride in their appearance") but a suit is definitely not the easiest option.

> In all this discourse nobody ever bothered to ask what dressing is even defined as and we're supposed to call ourselves software engineers.

Because we all have a functional shared understanding of what it means, if you have a definition that differs or constrains this general understanding then it would be much more useful to state it rather than vague hints.

> suit is designed as the ultimate comfort and convenience garment

Weren't suits and shirts designed with XIX-century England in mind? I.e. very little hot summers, cold indoors (17 C was considered normal room temperature back then).

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