And either way, if the "software engineering dress code" becomes shorts and sandals and you'd be looked down on for wearing a shirt and tie, well, you're still

And either way, if the "software engineering dress code" becomes shorts and sandals and you'd be looked down on for wearing a shirt and tie, well, you're still a conformist. You're just selling out to a different rule book. I was a non-conformist in high school and much of my undergrad, but you'd probably never have known it, as I wore things which were comfortable (and happened to be inoffensive) rather than going out of my way to dress in the same uncomfortable things that all the other "non-conformists" wore to show society they didn't care, man.