I think the guy just doesn't like suits. I don't wear a suit in Australia because it gets too hot, but in winter I love wearing them. You look sharp and feel good for it. I guess not everyones the same.
Unless you're young and have a slim build it's very difficult to look sharp in a full suit. It'll have to be carefully tailored (especially if off-the-rack), and the moment you gain or lose a few pounds it can look bad again. As with all things style you can more than compensate with attitude, but an outgoing, forward, and attention-grabbing personality isn't something programmers are known for. So it's a very expensive proposition.
Baggy pants and a baggy t-shirt look horrible but you won't stand out in a room of programmers. A poor fitting suit will stand-out in the worst possible way--it'll look horrible aesthetically and reflect either neediness, incompetence, naivety, or some combination thereof.
If I had the money I'd wear a tailored suit every day. Not because I want to look flashy, but because I know dressing well matters[1], and because I'd love to be one of those guys with a closet of nearly identical suit "uniforms" that would remove all choice from dressing in the morning. Plus I'd have to professionally launder everything, so much less laundry. You can do something similar with denims and a casual shirt, but for various reasons that can be a trickier proposition, albeit much less costly.
[1] It's near impossible to come across poorly in a well-fitting, single-breasted, conservative suit. But fall short of well-fitting and you subject yourself to ruthless scrutiny.
[2] The conservative suit works well in almost any business-related environment--again, zero decision making required in the morning--whereas a Silicon Valley uniform would never fly in NYC, DC[3], a court room, etc, and IMO is more likely to come across as more pretentious than a suit in some environments, as denim+polo or similar attire can suggest bro culture, frat culture, etc.
[3] Yes, plenty of technical people in DC and even NYC adhere to a California business casual aesthetic, but the people with power or money almost universally look down on those people. In California that same kind of calculus is rarely so simplistic, but in any event on neither coast can you go wrong in a good, conservative suit.
Baggy pants and a baggy t-shirt look horrible but you won't stand out in a room of programmers. A poor fitting suit will stand-out in the worst possible way--it'll look horrible aesthetically and reflect either neediness, incompetence, naivety, or some combination thereof.
If I had the money I'd wear a tailored suit every day. Not because I want to look flashy, but because I know dressing well matters[1], and because I'd love to be one of those guys with a closet of nearly identical suit "uniforms" that would remove all choice from dressing in the morning. Plus I'd have to professionally launder everything, so much less laundry. You can do something similar with denims and a casual shirt, but for various reasons that can be a trickier proposition, albeit much less costly.
[1] It's near impossible to come across poorly in a well-fitting, single-breasted, conservative suit. But fall short of well-fitting and you subject yourself to ruthless scrutiny.
[2] The conservative suit works well in almost any business-related environment--again, zero decision making required in the morning--whereas a Silicon Valley uniform would never fly in NYC, DC[3], a court room, etc, and IMO is more likely to come across as more pretentious than a suit in some environments, as denim+polo or similar attire can suggest bro culture, frat culture, etc.
[3] Yes, plenty of technical people in DC and even NYC adhere to a California business casual aesthetic, but the people with power or money almost universally look down on those people. In California that same kind of calculus is rarely so simplistic, but in any event on neither coast can you go wrong in a good, conservative suit.