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I'm utterly tired of the way tech executives are dressing nowadays; this audience clearly doesn't believe it matters in the slightest, but I'm challenging anyon

I'm utterly tired of the way tech executives are dressing nowadays; this audience clearly doesn't believe it matters in the slightest, but I'm challenging anyone to come up with some inkling of why it actually might --

artsyca 7y ago
Let me give you an argument from a functionalist perspective, as a designer -- If you're never going to wear a necktie, why bother ever wearing a collared shirt? The collar is in place to hold the tie, you don't need a tie, you don't need a collar, so don't wear one
- artsyca 7y ago
  This argument is somewhat metaphysical but it strikes at the core of the tech industry as it stands now -- the question of being overdressed vs underdressed, of fitting in vs standing out It seems that the safe and generally accepted path is 'underdressed' and 'fitting in' and I'm telling you this is causing the entire industry to optimize for false signals which leads to social issues and frankly leaves tons of money on the table for ordinary people who are struggling to find proper career prospects
- flukus 7y ago
  Pragmatic answer: because it crosses some threshold where it's deemed I'm dressed appropriately at work and a normal shirt wouldn't. > The collar is in place to hold the tie, you don't need a tie, you don't need a collar, so don't wear one A collar can also be popped to provide extra shade to the neck, it has it's own functionality independent of the tie. I'm not sure if these execs are getting enough sun that it matters, but I certainly do.
artsyca 7y ago
You might believe that questions of this nature don't belong on HN, but they certainly do when viewed from the perspective of semaphores -- human beings are going to communicate on all possible wavelengths and that includes the visual The audience of this video is processing visual information and then audio, in that order, if you want your message to have some kind of impact you need to provide more visual cues than an unbuttoned neckline
- FpUser 7y ago
  I only noticed that after reading your reply. To me, unless one wears wolf skin it would not even register in my mind.
  - artsyca 7y ago
    Are you referring to Jack Wolfskin? Yes it's not something that might be consciously noticed but 100% it's picked up by the subconscious and in post-processing this CEO is going to be a blur with all the other tech execs who flash by one's screen on any given day It's simply that tech professionals who ought to know a thing or two about data science, statistics, human psychology, color theory etc would notice how naively they've optimized for a very narrow band when it comes to personal and professional branding
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - artsyca 7y ago
      Like I mean most all tech execs dress as some variation of Marc Benioff of Salesforce .. unbuttoned shirt, jacket, looking like they just came out of the shower My question is how many are doing that because they are simply copying each other and trying to signal that they are indeed tech execs, how many are simply clueless and how many just don't care Why isn't there a one except say Masayoshi Son and Mark Zuckerberg who dresses all the way up every now and then? Is it because they care what other people think -- and using the same argument, wouldn't there be a case for over dressing if you care about what people think? This should be old hat to professionals who specialize in statistics and human behaviour and who understand concepts like the central limit theory, branding and other advanced topics but to a man they all seem to prefer looking like they just got off a private jet and didn't have time to get dressed on the way to the conference and it's getting tired and boring It seems they want to over-optimize for being 'casual and approachable' and never for being 'authoritative and distant' and then their companies tank and they move onto other companies -- leaving the ordinary people to scrounge for new career prospects in an increasingly cynical job market

artsyca 7y ago

Let me give you an argument from a functionalist perspective, as a designer -- If you're never going to wear a necktie, why bother ever wearing a collared shirt? The collar is in place to hold the tie, you don't need a tie, you don't need a collar, so don't wear one

artsyca 7y ago
This argument is somewhat metaphysical but it strikes at the core of the tech industry as it stands now -- the question of being overdressed vs underdressed, of fitting in vs standing out It seems that the safe and generally accepted path is 'underdressed' and 'fitting in' and I'm telling you this is causing the entire industry to optimize for false signals which leads to social issues and frankly leaves tons of money on the table for ordinary people who are struggling to find proper career prospects
flukus 7y ago
Pragmatic answer: because it crosses some threshold where it's deemed I'm dressed appropriately at work and a normal shirt wouldn't. > The collar is in place to hold the tie, you don't need a tie, you don't need a collar, so don't wear one A collar can also be popped to provide extra shade to the neck, it has it's own functionality independent of the tie. I'm not sure if these execs are getting enough sun that it matters, but I certainly do.

artsyca 7y ago

You might believe that questions of this nature don't belong on HN, but they certainly do when viewed from the perspective of semaphores -- human beings are going to communicate on all possible wavelengths and that includes the visual The audience of this video is processing visual information and then audio, in that order, if you want your message to have some kind of impact you need to provide more visual cues than an unbuttoned neckline

FpUser 7y ago
I only noticed that after reading your reply. To me, unless one wears wolf skin it would not even register in my mind.
- artsyca 7y ago
  Are you referring to Jack Wolfskin? Yes it's not something that might be consciously noticed but 100% it's picked up by the subconscious and in post-processing this CEO is going to be a blur with all the other tech execs who flash by one's screen on any given day It's simply that tech professionals who ought to know a thing or two about data science, statistics, human psychology, color theory etc would notice how naively they've optimized for a very narrow band when it comes to personal and professional branding
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - artsyca 7y ago
    Like I mean most all tech execs dress as some variation of Marc Benioff of Salesforce .. unbuttoned shirt, jacket, looking like they just came out of the shower My question is how many are doing that because they are simply copying each other and trying to signal that they are indeed tech execs, how many are simply clueless and how many just don't care Why isn't there a one except say Masayoshi Son and Mark Zuckerberg who dresses all the way up every now and then? Is it because they care what other people think -- and using the same argument, wouldn't there be a case for over dressing if you care about what people think? This should be old hat to professionals who specialize in statistics and human behaviour and who understand concepts like the central limit theory, branding and other advanced topics but to a man they all seem to prefer looking like they just got off a private jet and didn't have time to get dressed on the way to the conference and it's getting tired and boring It seems they want to over-optimize for being 'casual and approachable' and never for being 'authoritative and distant' and then their companies tank and they move onto other companies -- leaving the ordinary people to scrounge for new career prospects in an increasingly cynical job market