[13b9f227ecf0]

I think the failure of so many in the software/IT business to dress and groom to professional standards has important consequences. The perception of the social prestige of the occupation is lowered in the broader society. This in turn invites the misguided pointy-haired-boss managerial approach to developers. In the eyes of many, software people appear to be some sort of lower level technicians like the guys who stock the soda machines, because that's how they're dressed. Ergo software development must be commodity labor like the soda machine guys. We should outsource!

[marssaxman]

The personal computer industry has its roots in the late-60s/early-70s California counterculture, which deliberately rejected those "professional standards" and the corporate mindset which went with them. It is not a "failure", but a conscious expression of a different value system.

People typically care more about the respect of their peers than the respect of random people in general. Wearing a suit among software people doesn't make you look "professional", it makes you pretentious at worst and just a bit weird at best.