But seriously, celebrating the fact that we dress like 22 year olds might have a teeny tiny bit to do with the fact that programmers are typically PAID like 22 year olds.
The false consciousness is epic. We'd do a lot better if we put on a suit and admitted that we're going to a place where we work. We'd do a lot better if we demonstrated on a regular basis that we have no real problem putting on a suit and walking out the damn door into a bank if pay or conditions go to shit. We'd do a lot better if we demonstrated that we think we're going to a place of work rather than a place to hang out with friends and do 'cool stuff'. We'd do a lot better if we conveyed regularly to our employers that paying us properly and treating us well is more important to us than playing stupid 'tribal identification' mind games (this stuff should come organically from below, not be created by management).
Apparently we're celebrating our individuality and difference on one hand with our tshirts, while also having 'tribal cohesion' and advertising our company in our spare time. We're showing how flat our organization is in one way, while collecting t-shirts as merit badges on the other.
It's all a bit eyerolling. Combine all this with the non-existent standards for programmer qualification, and the vocal minority of GPL people who claim that it's actually _immoral_ to be writing closed-source software, and I feel like I'm working in a field that has a 'anti-guild' (that works in the reverse direction from a traditional guild, ensuring that its members are paid less and treated worse than their qualifications should imply).