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I apply this thinking to formal business dress very often -- People in our industry are notorious for dressing down to where the art of dressing up is lost to

I apply this thinking to formal business dress very often -- People in our industry are notorious for dressing down to where the art of dressing up is lost to the silicon sands of time Most anyone you ask from an entry level to a manager, director, vice president all the way to Jack Dorsey himself will tell you dress is meaningless and unimportant to "getting things done and building great things" and I know it comes from a place of ignorance because I used to be the same way until I stumbled into a Brooks Brothers one day a few years back Dress is a lot like art in that one must master the classics but that too is becoming the exception in fail fast culture where the means exceedingly outweigh the ends So I ask myself what would Alan Turing do? And I know he'd dress formally and carry on because back then computer science really did save lives as opposed to now when the user is only worth the data that can be squeezed out of them -- I'm sure this is exactly the future the hippies in the Homebrew Computer Club envisioned when they convened in their dark garages by the light of their fluorescent vacuum tubes to worship their newfound digital deities dressed in jeans and printed T's /rant

WalterBright 7y ago
Back in the olden Zortech days, we decided on a company rule that staff could wear whatever they wanted to work, but had to wear a suit when visiting customers. This got some pushback, and some said they couldn't afford a suit. So we bought them suits. It was great. They loved wearing the suits (often their first suit) and opened a lot of doors for us with our customers. They were tired of tech people showing up in rags, and then we'd show up in suits. For a small business like ours, it was a game changer.
- artsyca 7y ago
  I understand the sentiment and the intention and there are many layers of this onion to unwrap Formal wear unlocked some muscles your organization never even knew it had, and also some difficult conversations and investment dynamics which arose but were settled magnanimously enough and seem to have led to modest gains in morale despite initial skepticism and coercion / push & pushback The point is you got to somewhere you didn't know you'd go and now you have a taste for how the world actually works that's ever so slightly outside of the organizational event horizon i.e. the collective comfort zone that keeps you all locked in to a shared inertia I'd venture, not to harp on your example that the organization never quite reached the critical mass that would possibly have occurred had you followed down this road a ways, and perhaps the whole thing fizzled out after some new people got onboarded and the old guard began to drift away?
  - WalterBright 7y ago
    Zortech did very well, and was on a nice upward trajectory, and so became a very attractive investment opportunity for Symantec, which acquired it. > now you have a taste for how the world actually works I've known that since college, I just was lackadaisical about applying it. Dressing better is a big part of being more successful. My advice to anyone who feels their talents are underappreciated and overlooked is to consider upgrading their wardrobe. Billionaires can dress like slobs, but the rest of us can't really afford to. Dressing better won't close the deal, but it can open up opportunities one wasn't aware of. Working on one's speech patterns is effective, too.
    - artsyca 7y ago
      I view everything in the world as a conversation essentially -- there are indeed 3 sides to every story but perhaps a little different than what the general consensus in my opinion There's what we say, what we mean, and what to intend The conversation has gotten so mixed up its hard for anyone to know anything especially with people with whom one is unfamiliar and in large groups Dress is very much part of that conversation and is a great heuristic of where the conversation is going; as a very stark generalization I'd venture that people with advanced dress sense also have advanced conversation skills Don't get me wrong I'm sure that people exist who don't fit this but that's why it's just a heuristic And before you mention judging a book by its cover I'm not being judgemental I'm simply stating that humans still need all the help they can get -- we can't all be Kurt Cobains because there are simply some conversations that can't be had in certain milieus
      - Balanceinfinity 7y ago
        The distinction between dressing up and not dressing up is not as big as those who dress with intention and purpose and those who don't. I've seen people wear very expensive suits but they look terrible because they are illfitting and poorly matched. I've seen people in brown pants and a button down shirt looking good because they have their leathers matching and have given some thought to their appearance. so wear suits by all means, but even more important, learn how to put together a set of clothes that speak well for you.

WalterBright 7y ago

Back in the olden Zortech days, we decided on a company rule that staff could wear whatever they wanted to work, but had to wear a suit when visiting customers. This got some pushback, and some said they couldn't afford a suit. So we bought them suits. It was great. They loved wearing the suits (often their first suit) and opened a lot of doors for us with our customers. They were tired of tech people showing up in rags, and then we'd show up in suits. For a small business like ours, it was a game changer.

artsyca 7y ago
I understand the sentiment and the intention and there are many layers of this onion to unwrap Formal wear unlocked some muscles your organization never even knew it had, and also some difficult conversations and investment dynamics which arose but were settled magnanimously enough and seem to have led to modest gains in morale despite initial skepticism and coercion / push & pushback The point is you got to somewhere you didn't know you'd go and now you have a taste for how the world actually works that's ever so slightly outside of the organizational event horizon i.e. the collective comfort zone that keeps you all locked in to a shared inertia I'd venture, not to harp on your example that the organization never quite reached the critical mass that would possibly have occurred had you followed down this road a ways, and perhaps the whole thing fizzled out after some new people got onboarded and the old guard began to drift away?
- WalterBright 7y ago
  Zortech did very well, and was on a nice upward trajectory, and so became a very attractive investment opportunity for Symantec, which acquired it. > now you have a taste for how the world actually works I've known that since college, I just was lackadaisical about applying it. Dressing better is a big part of being more successful. My advice to anyone who feels their talents are underappreciated and overlooked is to consider upgrading their wardrobe. Billionaires can dress like slobs, but the rest of us can't really afford to. Dressing better won't close the deal, but it can open up opportunities one wasn't aware of. Working on one's speech patterns is effective, too.
  - artsyca 7y ago
    I view everything in the world as a conversation essentially -- there are indeed 3 sides to every story but perhaps a little different than what the general consensus in my opinion There's what we say, what we mean, and what to intend The conversation has gotten so mixed up its hard for anyone to know anything especially with people with whom one is unfamiliar and in large groups Dress is very much part of that conversation and is a great heuristic of where the conversation is going; as a very stark generalization I'd venture that people with advanced dress sense also have advanced conversation skills Don't get me wrong I'm sure that people exist who don't fit this but that's why it's just a heuristic And before you mention judging a book by its cover I'm not being judgemental I'm simply stating that humans still need all the help they can get -- we can't all be Kurt Cobains because there are simply some conversations that can't be had in certain milieus
    - Balanceinfinity 7y ago
      The distinction between dressing up and not dressing up is not as big as those who dress with intention and purpose and those who don't. I've seen people wear very expensive suits but they look terrible because they are illfitting and poorly matched. I've seen people in brown pants and a button down shirt looking good because they have their leathers matching and have given some thought to their appearance. so wear suits by all means, but even more important, learn how to put together a set of clothes that speak well for you.