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Comment by pb7 | Hacker News Reader

I believe there is ample research showing height and attractiveness (one could reasonably consider weight to be one determining factor in attractiveness) do play a factor in career success, compensation, and selection for leadership.

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I noticed at Microsoft that the tallest people always got promoted. It never made any sense to me - we weren’t playing basketball.

It may have been other factors that were involved in their promotions. Did they perhaps walk around with their arms out to the sides, in a T-esque shape?

I think that only works in Tetris.

To give one (admittedly not conclusive) datapoint: almost all US Presidents have been taller than the average American male, many of them exceptionally slow (Lincoln was 6'4"!), and the effect has become more pronounced in the modern era (height was less of an advantage in the days when there was no TV or photography so voters had less of an idea what you looked like.)

Also, the taller presidential candidate is statistically more likely to win the election: "In the thirty-one presidential elections between 1900 and 2020, twenty of the winning candidates have been taller than their opponents, while nine have been shorter, and two were the same height. On average the winner was 1.1 inches (2.8 cm) taller than the loser."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heights_of_presidents_and_pres...

Invader Zim was prescient, it turns out.

Halo Effect, baby.

I think it goes more the other way around. Successful people prefer to look attractive, so they take the necessary steps to achieve that. Elon M would be an example, I guess.

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7378972

Yes, we all know that time when Musk decided to grow taller.

Yes, we all know that time when Musk decided to grow t̶a̶l̶l̶e̶r̶ hair.

Fatness and lack of stature was the original topic.

But the comment you replied to talked about attractiveness in general.

Here’s the comment that that one was a reply to:

> I believe there is ample research showing height and attractiveness (one could reasonably consider weight to be one determining factor in attractiveness) do play a factor in career success, compensation, and selection for leadership.

Look, only about obesity and height (and mainly height). To which they replied:

> I think it goes more the other way around. …

Which makes no sense because no one ever mentioned hair, so that can’t be used as a direct counter-argument to a comment about research on height.

Are we gonna continue this? This is enough for me.

I would write a rebuttal, but you have written it for me. "attractiveness (one could reasonably consider weight to be one determining factor in attractiveness)" does not mean "attractiveness (which means weight)".

Wait, it's possible to look significantly more attractive through willpower alone? I dress okay and am not a total slob but I've never considered myself anything more than average-looking, and I've certainly never been told that I'm hot or that I should consider a career in modelling.

What tricks can I apply to make myself as gorgeous as Elon Musk?

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