[eertami]

Do you exclusively use a messenger bag/shoulder bag? I've never had a problem with a backpack and wired headphones.

There's an auxiliary benefit as well in that a backpack seems to be way better for my back than a shoulder bag.

[aksss]

A downside being that backpacks (outside of hiking context) are so visually associated with schoolchildren that wearing them as a professional is kind of impossible, image-wise. For someone fresh out of college maybe; for thirty+ it starts communicating a very juvenile appearance. The key with messenger and shoulder bag ergonomics is all in positioning (vertically and in orientation relative to body).

[NikolaeVarius]

How juvenile do you have to be to give a fuck about what people think of you wearing a backpack

[Arrath]

Or to give more than a second's through to someone wearing a backpack, beyond "oh hey they have a backpack".

For one, if you're carrying enough crap isn't a backpack more ergonomic (assuming you wear both straps and aren't one-strapping it like the cool guy you are)

[aksss]

Image is one of those laws of society that we all wish wasn't true, all believe shouldn't be true, but is intractable and almost certainly derived from evolutionary pressure.

"Vestis virum facit", or clothes make the man is extraordinarily powerful in business and social dealings. Clothes signal a lot of information quickly. So this isn't about you caring what other people think, it's about how what other people care about affect your options. I could prescribe a few experiments to witness the differences directly but I'll tell you from personal experience that the A-B differences are stark.

There was a time when I was younger that I raged against this rule, but it's a youthful variation of "old man yells at cloud". You can try and create a new reality in your head and believe it fervently, and cut your nose to spite your face, but image matters greatly to other people, at a deep level.

[brokenmachine]

Those kinds of things matter when it's all about appearance and there's nothing of importance being done.

If I need a job done, I couldn't care less if the person who is able to do it wears a backpack or not.

[brokenmachine]

I could give less of a shit if someone wants to judge me by whether or not I wear a backpack.

FWIW I think messenger bags are shitty design and think people who use them just don't know any better.

[Vrondi]

No, silly. You just get a nicer backpack that is made of leather or something instead of nylon.