The stereotypical San Franciscan gets up at 7am, wears business-casual to work, and his or her hobbies include biking and wine/food. The stereotypical New Yorker gets up at 9am, wears a suit to work, and his or her hobbies include alcoholism and chain smoking.
I'm joking, but only kind of. I spent this summer working in both NYC and the Bay area and it was like a night and day difference. NYC is so much more hierarchical, image conscious and anxiously intense.
Hmm, the only people I know who wear suits are corporate lawyers and wall st folks. everyone else is probably more dressed up than san francisco, but that's because there's fashion industry presence in the city more than the requirements of their respective jobs. San Francisco is a beautiful small town.
Heh, it's funny how that matches my perceptions of the west coast as well. The only difference is in getting up at 7am--nobody at work gets there before lunch. Of course, it's a tech startup, but even the medium-sized (~600 people) enterprise software company had plenty of people coming in around 11-12.
Here's my favorite example of how it's not really so different, at least among status-conscious people:
I live in California and work with someone who recently moved here from Baltimore. He's kind of an older gen-X guy, and he likes to go to thrift stores, buy old suits for < $10 and wear them ironically, like with dress shoes but ankle-length white socks and the sleeves pushed up, and the front end of the tie shorter than the back end.
Every few months, a manager will pull him aside and say in a trying-to-be-friendly way, "You know, you really don't have to wear a suit around here." To which he'll respond, "Yeah, I know, it's just my thing, man." And then there manager will stare at him a little harder and say something along the lines of, "No, I mean you really don't have to wear a suit around here." Eventually the manager gives up and writes him off as an incorrigible free spirit.
TL;DR The West Coast is a place where you can wear whatever you want to work, as long as it's a Hawaiian shirt.
Huh. I thought the counter culture of suits was well understood. Though honestly, why would a suit have to be worn ironically in the first place? I love how suits look. Was I the only guy who watched Gattaca and found myself wishing that it were more socially acceptable to wear a suit to my job? ;) I wouldn't want to emulate much about that world, but man did they look good in their suits.
Anyway, I agree with you that the tech industry, especially in the west, rigorously enforces the presence of the absence of a dress code. Even PG said "Nerds don't just happen to dress informally. They do it too consistently. Consciously or not, they dress informally as a prophylactic measure against stupidity."
Bummer, cause I actually kind of like it when people dress with some style.
That's f'ing hilarious. I am an east coast person who has lived in California for 10 years now. One of my first comments about this place 10 years ago was:
Yeah, but he ended up being able to wear a suit anyway, right? Do you think the equivalent scenario of a guy wearing a Hawaiian shirt at a traditional law firm in DC would've worked out? Correct me if I'm mistaken, but I suspect our free spirited DC lawyer would have been forced into a suit at the end.
That's true, but the partners at a DC law firm don't go around talking about how they're so <insert positive adjective of choice here> that anybody who want to can wear a suit to work.
I think West Coast enforcement of dress codes is still the lesser of two evils. You can still wear what you want; you'll just be weird, as opposed to fired.
I grew up in the north east and then relocated to the west. Almost without fail when I met someone new on the East Coast (especially NE), one of the first questions they would always ask is "where are you from?" I cannot recall ever being asked that as part of an introduction while I've lived out west.
In my experience there is a lot of focus in the northeast on where you come from, and what your background is. I've found out west (and I'm not even in the bay area) there's a lot more focus on where you want to go and what you can do.
And I think related to this, I've generally found people to be much more open and friendly. People are generally much more willing to let you into their social worlds than on the east coast.
As someone who grew up on the east coast and migrated here for grad school, I have noticed that west-coast culture tends to be less judgmental, more free spirited, and more novelty-seeking.
The State of New York has a notoriously dysfunctional state government run by a tiny cabal of powerful, albeit corrupt, legislators. The State of California has a notoriously dysfunctional state government run by the Californians.
(I have lived in New Hampshire all my life.)