3 ms·

The Programmer Dress Code

18 points by nickb 19y ago

DarrenStuart 19y ago
My dress code most days is a pair of boxers and a t-shirt and I grow about 10 beards a year. I bet I am not alone :p P.S I work from home, I don't think I could let the world suffer me walking around in my boxers in public....
sspencer 19y ago
I like that picture of Dijkstra, but the one on lemonodor is better: http://lemonodor.com/archives/2007/10/youre_doing_it_wrong.html http://lemonodor.com/archives/2007/10/youre_doing_it_wrong.h... Zach Beane is awesome. PS: And where is Linus? I guess he doesn't dress stereotypically enough.
brlewis 19y ago
When I worked at MIT my officemate kept a "debugging tie" in the office. The idea was to fool the heisenbugs that disappear when a programmer is watching. With the tie on they would think he was a high-level administrator.
tlrobinson 19y ago
Dude, where's Eric Raymond?!
rokhayakebe 19y ago
i think most programmers intentionally dress down because it is almost as if they hurt their intelligence as a human being if they cared too much about anything as worldly as clothes, cars..(anything material). So they just do the bear minimum.
- Goladus 19y ago
  I think it's less 'intentionally dress down' and more just a logical consequence of caring more about abstract and technical problems than impressing people. It's not as if they refuse to care about worldly things like clothes or cars, they simply don't because there are other things they care about more. I can see it in myself based on my environment and current goals.
te_platt 19y ago
And that is why I let my wife buy my clothes and always ask my daughters if my clothes match before I leave the house. Sometimes I complain but those pictures are enough to scare me straight.
hugh 19y ago
Am I the only one who harbors a secret (and shameful?) yearning to wear a nice snazzy suit to work every day, instead of jeans and a t-shirt? I'm a physicist rather than a programmer per se, but I'm sure there must be others like me out there somewhere.
- jamesbritt 19y ago
  I used to wear a suit to work. Gets tiresome after a while. Now I dress how a like. Not a slob, though I am a member of the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Rubyists. All in all, I like being comfy, and suits fail me on that.
- tomjen 19y ago
  The good thing about suits is that they match. And they might not be that bad if you can get the shirt on size to large: That way the tie still look good, but it wont strangle you.
- geebee 19y ago
  Yeah, I'm totally with you here. Not sure there was much to recommend about the world protrayed in Gattaca, but they sure did look good in those suits. All my lawyer friends hate it, though. I think it comes down to associations. I never wear a suit to work, so when I "suit up", it's typically because I'm going to a wedding or other formal party where I'll drink free booze, dance a bit, and listen to a cool band - usually surrounded by very attractive women who are also dressed up. If I associated suits with showing up at work every morning in a stuffy work environment, I'd probably hate them too.
simianstyle 19y ago
I know a computer science major who is gay and is totally into fashion and stuff. If you saw him on the street you would've never guessed that he can compile and deploy enterprise applications. He recently graduated from college in Boston and now works at Cisco Systems. He's a friendly guy, and a reminder that not all programmers live by stereotypes.

18 points by nickb 19y ago

My dress code most days is a pair of boxers and a t-shirt and I grow about 10 beards a year. I bet I am not alone :p P.S I work from home, I don't think I could let the world suffer me walking around in my boxers in public....

sspencer 19y ago

I like that picture of Dijkstra, but the one on lemonodor is better: http://lemonodor.com/archives/2007/10/youre_doing_it_wrong.html http://lemonodor.com/archives/2007/10/youre_doing_it_wrong.h... Zach Beane is awesome. PS: And where is Linus? I guess he doesn't dress stereotypically enough.

brlewis 19y ago

When I worked at MIT my officemate kept a "debugging tie" in the office. The idea was to fool the heisenbugs that disappear when a programmer is watching. With the tie on they would think he was a high-level administrator.

tlrobinson 19y ago

Dude, where's Eric Raymond?!

rokhayakebe 19y ago

i think most programmers intentionally dress down because it is almost as if they hurt their intelligence as a human being if they cared too much about anything as worldly as clothes, cars..(anything material). So they just do the bear minimum.

Goladus 19y ago
I think it's less 'intentionally dress down' and more just a logical consequence of caring more about abstract and technical problems than impressing people. It's not as if they refuse to care about worldly things like clothes or cars, they simply don't because there are other things they care about more. I can see it in myself based on my environment and current goals.

te_platt 19y ago

And that is why I let my wife buy my clothes and always ask my daughters if my clothes match before I leave the house. Sometimes I complain but those pictures are enough to scare me straight.

hugh 19y ago

Am I the only one who harbors a secret (and shameful?) yearning to wear a nice snazzy suit to work every day, instead of jeans and a t-shirt? I'm a physicist rather than a programmer per se, but I'm sure there must be others like me out there somewhere.

jamesbritt 19y ago
I used to wear a suit to work. Gets tiresome after a while. Now I dress how a like. Not a slob, though I am a member of the Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Rubyists. All in all, I like being comfy, and suits fail me on that.
tomjen 19y ago
The good thing about suits is that they match. And they might not be that bad if you can get the shirt on size to large: That way the tie still look good, but it wont strangle you.
geebee 19y ago
Yeah, I'm totally with you here. Not sure there was much to recommend about the world protrayed in Gattaca, but they sure did look good in those suits. All my lawyer friends hate it, though. I think it comes down to associations. I never wear a suit to work, so when I "suit up", it's typically because I'm going to a wedding or other formal party where I'll drink free booze, dance a bit, and listen to a cool band - usually surrounded by very attractive women who are also dressed up. If I associated suits with showing up at work every morning in a stuffy work environment, I'd probably hate them too.

simianstyle 19y ago

I know a computer science major who is gay and is totally into fashion and stuff. If you saw him on the street you would've never guessed that he can compile and deploy enterprise applications. He recently graduated from college in Boston and now works at Cisco Systems. He's a friendly guy, and a reminder that not all programmers live by stereotypes.