Benefits of Wearing the Same Thing Every Day?

Today, Mark Zuckerberg made a joke about which outfit he should to wear for his first day back to work after the birth of his child. The joke of course is that he has over a week's worth of grey t-shirts and charcoal hoodies that he wears every day. Steve Jobs popularized this idea originally with his now-iconic black turtleneck and jeans look, arguing that it took away the daily "what should I wear?" decision and let him focus on things that actually matter.

Does it really save that much brainpower or time to not have to pick what you're going to wear in the morning? Is this just an example of trying too hard to be eccentric now that it's a "thing." In a way, the traditional business look of a navy or charcoal suit paired with a white or light blue shirt also follows this line of thinking, but of course not to this extreme. What are your thoughts?

 

I first saw the idea of wearing the same outfit every day in the 1986 movie The Fly, and it appealed to me, even though I was a kid. I went through various phases of implementing this idea and concluded that it's really boring and even suffocating. I think the grey hoodie or the black turtleneck is more about the person's brand, a thing of mystique.

I wear suits to work now, and approach it like this: I built up a wardrobe of 7 suits of identical cut, and about 15 shirts of identical cut. When I dress for work, I simply cycle through the suits, shirts, and ties, removing most of the decision making.

Each of my suits is made of a different wool. Yet, having a consistent cut gives me that consistent look. I make the harder decisions when buying new clothes and make sure they go together with what I already own. I would like to say that nobody cares about this stuff and that it's all in my head, but I noticed that some bankers in my organization, especially at the VP+ level have a certain consistency about them, and I tend to give those guys just that tiny bit of more regard.

Don't fall for bullshit, especially your own.
 

Does anyone else think it heavily depends upon the profession, as well as the personalities that profession attracts? Usually, people in technically rigorous professions have so many better things to ponder, that choosing what to wear everyday simply becomes a waste of mental capacity. It seems like quants, both from Wall Street and Silicon Valley, follow this behaviour.

 

I used to know a commercial real estate broker at CB in CA (Sacramento of all places), Bill Palmer, who was one of the top investment sales guys in the country and usually topped CB's top producing brokers in the world. He owned 10 of the exact same suits, 10 white shirts, and a few pairs of the same shoes and socks. He did change up his ties, although they were all dark red or blue solids. He claimed it saved him a few extra minutes and didn't add to distractions when he was getting dressed in the morning and thinking about his work day.

Although he may have been one of the most driven, insanely schedule oriented people I've ever met and I've met my fair share of OCD fuckers in my time. I don't know if this was true or if it was just a rumor (we bought a couple of properties from him so I knew him but it was the beginning of my career so I worked with his analyst and associate level people more than him), but the story was that he bought this gigantic house in foothills of the Sierra Nevada's and got so tired of wasting time hiring someone to mow his lawn (not cut it himself, but hire someone) that he had the entire thing cemented over and had desert shrubs put in that only needed to be trimmed a couple of times a year. OCD but in the late mid to late 90's he was doing something like $12-15MM/yr in commissions.

 

If this is the kind of thing that is burning up the mental capacity of a person, I question how much mental capacity they have to begin with.

Personally, I mix it up based upon who I have meetings scheduled with. If I'm meeting someone old school, I wear very conservative suit/tie/shoes/socks. If I know I'm meeting someone from a more creative industry or is generally laid back, my clothing will reflect that (although still probably conservative compared to them). If I'm not meeting any clients, I'll go casual.

For guys like Jobs and Zuckerberg, it's pure branding.

 

Let's be fair about it. The guy is lazy when it comes to how he presents himself to the world. He is a try hard that is trying to fit into the college culture long after he has left. It just so happens that this look is now as much about branding as it is laziness. He works for an internet company, it is part of the culture there. Just like presenting yourself well to the world is part of the banking culture, this is why these two industries attract for the most part very different people.

Follow the shit your fellow monkeys say @shitWSOsays Life is hard, it's even harder when you're stupid - John Wayne
 

I work with a former partner from a Tier 2 but very good consulting firm. The first 4 or 5 years of his career, he wore the same color combination of suit - shirt and ate a turkey sandwich for lunch because he read a book that laid out the idea that every decision you make taxes your mind so he removed a couple of decisions everyday.

I don't know if that means anything but he said it worked for him.

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses - Henry Ford
 
happypantsmcgee:
every decision you make taxes your mind

Totally agree. Just today I expended so much mental effort deciding between pausing my work and going to the bathroom to tinkle or just holding it in and keep working until my bladder almost explodes. However if I had been been wearing an old man diaper I could have just let it rip and kept on typing

 

I think it is more about the habit than it is about the clothes.

To quote William James "We must make automatic and habitual…the more of the details of our daily life we can hand over to the effortless custody of automatism, the more our higher powers of mind will be set free for their own proper work."

I agree with DickFuld, Steve Jobs' black turtleneck outfit is more about branding. I think it was mentioned in his biography.

 

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