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Developer culture is a meritocracy, and if you're putting out good code you can wear whatever the fuck you want.

My favorite part of the Zucks mythos is the flip-flops. What he wore didn't matter, because what he and Facebook were doing was so amazing.

Most people just happen to want to wear t-shirts, shorts, and flip-flops.



>> Developer culture is a meritocracy, and if you're putting out good code you can wear whatever the fuck you want.

Yeah. My problem with what you're saying is that if you're putting out great code, you can probably wear whatever the f you want.

But if "good" represents average, and you tell any competent employer that you can wear whatever the f you want, you're just telling him/her that you've got an attitude problem.


an employee who insists that he be judged upon his technical abilities and otherwise left alone has an "attitude problem?"

i'll take someone with that attitude problem over a doormat any day.


No, I'm saying that there's a scale. If you're a rock star, more is tolerated of you.

If you're just average, you can't insist on rock star treatment.


There's nothing rockstar about wearing comfortable clothes.


Comfortable clothes and dressing up are not mutually exclusive. Just because a nerd might not know how to find comfortable dressier clothes does not make a suit uncomfortable in itself.

And what I was trying to say is that a rock star (insert profession here) is more likely to be able to get away with saying "I'm going to wear whatever the f--- I want to wear" than someone who is just good, especially in a workplace where wearing jeans and t-shirts is not an accepted norm. And that's usually the case outside of the tech startup and creative worlds.


Well, you're on HN. Startups aren't average - they can't afford to be. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't attempt to hire average people.

Suits and stuff are fine for everyone else, maybe even for developers at BigCo Inc. But, the OP was in the context of YCNYC...




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