[eru]

Thanks for explaining. We don't get much of this 'uniform' here in Singapore. It's too hot for tech people to wear long trousers and long sleeves.

I guess it makes sense of a joke. Though I don't think sense in fashion correlates much with sense in technology: the guy might just be wearing what everyone else is wearing, so that his wife doesn't bug him about it and he can concentrate on the hills he's actually prepared to die on?

[lamasery]

I don't think any wife has ever asked for this look :-)

Someone just trying to minimally not-stand-out could do so way cheaper. The high cost is part of the point (for signaling).

The other major standard look is rich-hipster: $300 Japanese jeans ("they bought the actual looms Levi's used in the '50s! It's more authentically Levi's than Levi's is now!"), $350-400 work-, jump-, or motorcycle-pattern leather boots, $150+ shirt probably in some variety of rugged wool. Corduroy or denim trucker's jacket, also with some authenticity-story and expensive. Folks adopting this look are probably a little more self-consciously into fashion than the ones who go the "walk into an REI and buy five outfits, choosing the most expensive option for everything" route.

Turns out you can get more-rational-than-thou "screw fashion" tech dorks to spend just as much money on their cookie-cutter work-uniforms as a first-year investment bank employee in lower Manhattan with their week's-worth of HF or BB suits in sober greys and blues, you just have to take a different approach.

(I am 100% guilty myself of being a sucker for "authenticity" and heritage/old-timey-quality marketing, though I do deliberately try to avoid looking like a walking trope by branching out beyond the categories of clothes like those depicted in the original joke-image; the "standard" looks are very real though, you can spot a lot of US tech workers a mile away by knowing them)

[eru]

> I don't think any wife has ever asked for this look :-)

The wife wouldn't specifically ask, it's just that she doesn't bug him, when he's wearing something 'normal'. And normal is what everyone else is wearing.

> Someone just trying to minimally not-stand-out could do so way cheaper. The high cost is part of the point (for signaling).

Yes and No. You might have to spend so much just to blend in, depending on where you are. And it might not be all that much money, if you make enough.

Here in Singapore people (thankfully!) tend to dress down a lot. It's a big difference from eg Hong Kong. Flip-flops, shorts and t-shirt seem to be the norm.

I'm indulging a bit by wearing the same, but in wool. Eg from https://woolandprince.com/ but that's mostly because it deals with my copious sweat marginally better than cotton.

Btw, looking like a trope can be beneficial. Eg at tech conference, if you look like a techie you often get better treatment than when you look like some kind of influencer or (low level) manager. In normal life, signalling that you are well-off often gets you good treatment, too.

What's an REI?