4 ms·

> Wearing swag is as much as a signal as wearing "fast-fashion" clothes or insisting on wearing a shirt and tie on places that do not require it. Vast majority

> Wearing swag is as much as a signal as wearing "fast-fashion" clothes or insisting on wearing a shirt and tie on places that do not require it. Vast majority of people are genuinely just wearing some clothes and are not signalling anything.

rglullis 4y ago
My standard test to see if this is true: "what if someone gets you this <slightly different style from what you commonly wear> piece of clothing?" It doesn't even need to be completely opposite, just different enough to be noticeable. If you can see that the person is pondering about the answer, it tells you right away that they do care.
- bawolff 4y ago
  There is a lot tied up in "slightly". Like a burlap shirt is a slightly different style, but i wouldn't wear it because that sounds really uncomfortable. Similarly i might not care generally, but there is a line where i start to. I wouldn't wear a shirt with a picture of dead babies on it. Does that mean i care? Maybe technically, but in context i dont really think it shows i care in the way that was implied originally.
  - rglullis 4y ago
    I really don't mean to be tricky about it. I mean really small things; like getting a t-shirt in the same normal fabric and adding a breast pocket [0]. Or if the person only uses neutral colors, would they wear something like [1] if they found it on their wardrobe? [0] https://www.harmontblaine.com/US/all-the-good-things/t-shirt-with-breast-pocket/IRH118021158 https://www.harmontblaine.com/US/all-the-good-things/t-shirt... [1] https://www.redbubble.com/i/t-shirt/Elf-Green-and-Black-on-White-Three-Stripes-Pattern-Vertical-Stripes-by-SimplyStripes/66366367.1YYVU https://www.redbubble.com/i/t-shirt/Elf-Green-and-Black-on-W...
    - chrisseaton 4y ago
      Vast majority of people could not possibly care less about these differences between their clothes. You're hugely over-estimating how many people in tech care about what they wear.
      - rglullis 4y ago
        If that was true, wouldn't you expect a much larger variance in how people got dressed? How can it be that so many people say they "don't care" about what they wear, yet their overall style is so uniform?
        chrisseaton 4y ago
        Because they don’t care to vary from what’s easy to find and wear for most people.
        KptMarchewa 4y ago
        They aren't "not caring" in a sense they don't spend a minute of their time choosing clothes. It's not a binary choice. Not caring in that context means minimizing effort, time spend and external impact on their lives, while maximizing comfort. Buying what everyone else buys maximizes that value. I would say I don't care about clothes, but had to make some choices when I got cats. I used to wear primarily black clothes, but cat fur is extremely visible and hard to get off them, so now I just buy diverse colors, while still not caring whether the green is too bright and goes with beige or whatever.
        phil21 4y ago
        > How can it be that so many people say they "don't care" about what they wear, yet their overall style is so uniform? That kind of goes in with "not caring". I agree with your overall thrust here - clothing is a social signal whether or not you want it to be. Even the lack of someone signaling is in itself a signal. It legitimately took me a very long while to figure this out. For me - comfort is all that matters, even in public, until I get into a social situation. Then it's simply dressing to "the average" as to not stick out. I used to describe this as not caring, but it definitely is caring in my own way. Plenty of other folks dress specifically to stand out, so the opposite is certainly a positive action as well. In the end, me simply wearing pretty much the same dumpy thing everyday sort of became a personal brand in of itself. That said, I'd be perfectly happy with everyday uniforms assuming they are comfortable. It would save me mental effort of having to imagine what other folks will be wearing in a given situation.

rglullis 4y ago

My standard test to see if this is true: "what if someone gets you this <slightly different style from what you commonly wear> piece of clothing?" It doesn't even need to be completely opposite, just different enough to be noticeable. If you can see that the person is pondering about the answer, it tells you right away that they do care.

bawolff 4y ago
There is a lot tied up in "slightly". Like a burlap shirt is a slightly different style, but i wouldn't wear it because that sounds really uncomfortable. Similarly i might not care generally, but there is a line where i start to. I wouldn't wear a shirt with a picture of dead babies on it. Does that mean i care? Maybe technically, but in context i dont really think it shows i care in the way that was implied originally.
- rglullis 4y ago
  I really don't mean to be tricky about it. I mean really small things; like getting a t-shirt in the same normal fabric and adding a breast pocket [0]. Or if the person only uses neutral colors, would they wear something like [1] if they found it on their wardrobe? [0] https://www.harmontblaine.com/US/all-the-good-things/t-shirt-with-breast-pocket/IRH118021158 https://www.harmontblaine.com/US/all-the-good-things/t-shirt... [1] https://www.redbubble.com/i/t-shirt/Elf-Green-and-Black-on-White-Three-Stripes-Pattern-Vertical-Stripes-by-SimplyStripes/66366367.1YYVU https://www.redbubble.com/i/t-shirt/Elf-Green-and-Black-on-W...
  - chrisseaton 4y ago
    Vast majority of people could not possibly care less about these differences between their clothes. You're hugely over-estimating how many people in tech care about what they wear.
    - rglullis 4y ago
      If that was true, wouldn't you expect a much larger variance in how people got dressed? How can it be that so many people say they "don't care" about what they wear, yet their overall style is so uniform?
      - chrisseaton 4y ago
        Because they don’t care to vary from what’s easy to find and wear for most people.
      - KptMarchewa 4y ago
        They aren't "not caring" in a sense they don't spend a minute of their time choosing clothes. It's not a binary choice. Not caring in that context means minimizing effort, time spend and external impact on their lives, while maximizing comfort. Buying what everyone else buys maximizes that value. I would say I don't care about clothes, but had to make some choices when I got cats. I used to wear primarily black clothes, but cat fur is extremely visible and hard to get off them, so now I just buy diverse colors, while still not caring whether the green is too bright and goes with beige or whatever.
      - phil21 4y ago
        > How can it be that so many people say they "don't care" about what they wear, yet their overall style is so uniform? That kind of goes in with "not caring". I agree with your overall thrust here - clothing is a social signal whether or not you want it to be. Even the lack of someone signaling is in itself a signal. It legitimately took me a very long while to figure this out. For me - comfort is all that matters, even in public, until I get into a social situation. Then it's simply dressing to "the average" as to not stick out. I used to describe this as not caring, but it definitely is caring in my own way. Plenty of other folks dress specifically to stand out, so the opposite is certainly a positive action as well. In the end, me simply wearing pretty much the same dumpy thing everyday sort of became a personal brand in of itself. That said, I'd be perfectly happy with everyday uniforms assuming they are comfortable. It would save me mental effort of having to imagine what other folks will be wearing in a given situation.