Looking Smart

Someone asked for the catchy title and this is what I came up with.. Arhhh something wrong with me to not imagine something better than this.... Not very good looking.

My friends who are aficionado of power dressing always give me a dressing down when they see me in those so called professional forums. The complaint is I don't look impressive, Well to be honest, that is perfectly fine with me since I am not impressive any yardstick. The famous coaching tagline is that we impress the mind of the onlooker with first impression in the split of a second by some part of the brain that is there for the right reason but wrong time (animal instincts).

Was there any time when looking good ( I mean colours and clothes and hairstyle etc,) , as there is no dress among animals and some see monochromatic (trading the color for night vision capabilities ), meant that the person was smart ?

Probably finding a mate/companion meant evaluating by smelling in all the unlikely places to determine the compatibility or chasing or playfighting before connecting. I tend to think that even with all these above still finding the right partner/friend's was dependent on testing for the specific skills like hunting, nesting, fishing, complementary skills etc., rather than how impressive the plume was. I know I am getting into sticky grounds here because birds show off plumes to catch the female ( Atleast that is the general notion). Who knows how does a female decide ?

How come humans fell prey to this split second decision fallacy ?, how can a person dressed well be the trigger for an assumption that he/she is a smart person ? Infact, I don't think Einstein fits the bill or for that matter Galileo(whatever we knew he was ). Then there were a lot of scientists who followed the trend those days but never really questioned probably.

Nowadays the whole world is talking about people being biased and not being objective enough and here the famous drama to impress strangers/superiors with our power dressing. Is it not bias ? that the best dressed is the smart person ?

Given that we evolved from animals, Animals get some genes gifted to them which gives them the Feathers, Mane, Colors or Teeth to dress them with. In humans dressing is usually a derivative of plant , animal or stones that are adorned to impress, none being passed on as above. The things that can be shown are 'muscles' which is covered with clothes, 'talk' which is depending on your capability and intelligence, and the features ( which basically is the face ).

To evaluate a complex person as a human mind takes much more than. split second decision by Amygdala ( my take). Is a person recognised by what he/she wears? unfortunately it seems so to the above power dressing advocates.

Another dimension is that the smart dressing is usually what Colonists were wearing or what the kings were wearing. The former is for professional and latter is for personal forums.

Why should it be that we need to wear Jackets/Coats/Suits whatever you call them be worn in a warm country like ours. I still remember my grandfather would wear suit and walk close to 2 km in hot weather of south summer to the bank for a 30 minute work. He would be sweating and tired but the dress sense remained. I would wonder as a kid. Later when I grew up I was surprised it existed in professional world as blast from the past. Imagine working in a hot climate of south India wearing coats and ties and what not?

Another incident was when I joined my first private sector job. I was asked to wear a tie and come to the office. For someone who was always rebelling against these kind of compulsions, you can imagine my frustration. It was summer and fans overworking and we were sitting with lot of computers and it was hot and I was feeling breathless. I used to loosen the grip of the tie and work. I remember my boss walking in and tightening the knot and giving a warning not to do that again. Fortunately for me the regulation was removed a few years later.

I think in several places the temperature are intentionally kept low so that you can wear such clothes and be comfortable.

I remember my European manager bringing a sweater to our office because he found the temperature to be too cold in office and he used to come to Bangalore thinking that he can enjoy the Sun.

Question is,

If a person is judged by what he wears, is that a smart decision ?

Do we think people are so foolish that they judge a person by dressing rather than intellect ?

Dress may make a person look smart but is he/she really smart ?