A short time ago Kelly Sutton wrote about developers clothing styles. The tl;dr summary is that developers tend to dress like crap, and should dress better.
Why?
Why should the dress code for the new century be driven by the fashions of the one before the last? Sure, there is no reason for developers to wear dirty, worn, or ill-fitting clothes, but why should we wear ties at work? Or expensive dress shoes that are slippery on hard floors?
Kelly makes a nod that developers (usually) strive to improve their development skills, and sometimes their personal health, so why not fashion?
Because fashion is not a merit-based activity with intrinsic value - work skills are, and personal health has direct value to us. But buying expensive clothes that often require toxic cleaning chemicals just to suit an externally-imposed standard? Not a very useful action, in my opinion.
Now, there may be merit to dressing up to fit in at your employer and climb the career ladder, but that is not necessary in companies run by fellow geeks.
So my fellow nerds, revel in your freedom to dress in comfortable, inexpensive clothes, and thumb your noses at the fashionistas that scoff!
Why?
Why should the dress code for the new century be driven by the fashions of the one before the last? Sure, there is no reason for developers to wear dirty, worn, or ill-fitting clothes, but why should we wear ties at work? Or expensive dress shoes that are slippery on hard floors?
Kelly makes a nod that developers (usually) strive to improve their development skills, and sometimes their personal health, so why not fashion?
Because fashion is not a merit-based activity with intrinsic value - work skills are, and personal health has direct value to us. But buying expensive clothes that often require toxic cleaning chemicals just to suit an externally-imposed standard? Not a very useful action, in my opinion.
Now, there may be merit to dressing up to fit in at your employer and climb the career ladder, but that is not necessary in companies run by fellow geeks.
So my fellow nerds, revel in your freedom to dress in comfortable, inexpensive clothes, and thumb your noses at the fashionistas that scoff!
2 comments:
I just think most programmers are introverts, and what *other* people think is not interesting enough to figure out, or to make me uncomfortable enough to go on display for their benefit (like you said).
Ultimately, others want us to dress for them? Sorry, Homey don't play that.
I suppose my point is that while it's certainly reasonable to ask that the programmers wear clean, well-fitting clothes, it seems madly conformist to suggest we need to wear suits and (ack) ties just because it's what has been worn since the 1800's.
It's the 21st Century, fercryinoutloud, why can't we dress differently from our ancestors?
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