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Personally I think caring about how they are dressed for anything less than "covered in bodily fluids and/or naked" is stupidity normalized. It is not only a superfical distraction from the relevant and "bike shedding" but literally asking to be deceived and selecting for people who can deceive you best.

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Dressing appropriately is short-hand for "I speak your language. I understand cultural norms and can adhere to them. I won't embarrass you in front of your peers and clients." If you don't dress appropriately, they will have to find out all those items through discussions with you, and it definitely adds a hurdle to any initial discussions.

Yeah, it is a game. Dressing up is just playing the game, to show that you're one of the boys. But you know what? It's also an extremely low-hanging fruit kind of game to play, so why not? What do you have to gain by refusing to play that one, when what it might take is a few hundred bucks and an afternoon going shopping?

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