Why do so many guys who work in tech look the same?

Bobson Dugnutt

I had to visit the offices of a large tech firm this morning as they are a client of mine. As I was being led to the meeting room I couldn’t help but notice that a lot of the cubicle drones look exactly the same. Bald or heavily receding hairline, beard, black glasses. It wasn’t the first time I’d noticed a very high percentage of these folks together - I attended a craft beer festival many years ago that was also infested with them.

What’s it about? Is there a type that works in tech or is this a look that people in tech go for? Why would there be so many of them in a particular industry?

Examples below:

LambshankRedemption

Did all the people attending the craft beer festival work in Tech?

Assuming not, would you not just put it down to fashion?

ELM327

I believe it's called Techbro

Glaceon

I have the glasses but don’t have a beard and have a full head of hair on me thankfully.

Mrs OBumble

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122093680#Comment_122093680

So far. Give it time .... 😉

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122093680#Comment_122093680

I have a beard, glasses but not thick rims, and a crewcut as the hairline continues to recede.

Trigger Happy

I was in a strip bar last week and could not help but notice that all the girls on stage were dressed the same.

Bobson Dugnutt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122093672#Comment_122093672

Don’t think it is. Isn’t a techbro the new type of people who got into tech because there is coin to be made? Folks who played sport instead of computer games in school, hit the gym daily etc?

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122093745#Comment_122093745

Just because you have a beard doesn't mean you don't go to the gym.

Your powers of deduction continue to astound me.

Markus Antonius

My company rented office space off a large multinational IT company and can confirm 90% of the men looked as described in the Op.

One secondary observation I had - of the very few women hired, 90% of them were incredibly attractive.

Gregor Samsa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122093680#Comment_122093680

Same here, but I don't work in tech.

ELM327

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122093745#Comment_122093745

No idea, but I thought that was what techbro meant.

Anyway, on the stereotype, I'm the same but with long hair too.

Supercell

I work in tech and look a bit like that.

Squinting at monitors made my eyes need glasses, all that thinking made my brain blanket hair fall out.

Quod erat demonstrandum

SuperBowserWorld

Yes, they all look like that. One thing is true is the lack of woman in tech, even in 2024.

Leg End Reject

At least it was a break from all the angry middle-aged men you seem to encounter on a regular basis.

Bobson Dugnutt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122094019#Comment_122094019

They are the CEOs/owners. The lads today were code monkey types. Just a lot of them looked the same. Was curious was all.

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122094019#Comment_122094019

You realise the guy top left is dead yeah?

SuperBowserWorld

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122094373#Comment_122094373

I'm not disagreeing with you ... and there most definitely is that type in tech ... the tech ceos I posted, a lot were/are extremely technical but they knew when to get out and make money out of the tools rather than make or maintain the tools.

SuperBowserWorld

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122094379#Comment_122094379

😁Yes, I just googled and pasted a photo with tech leads in them. And then added some more.

LambshankRedemption

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122094400#Comment_122094400

Fair enough.

bucketybuck

Those pictures all look like re-reg trolls to me. Bald, angry, middle aged and sitting on their arse all day is how I image re-reg trolls to be.

tohaltuwi

what do women in IT look like? Is there a corresponding look?

A lot of people in various industries or job roles adapt a certain look. Someone somewhere in the industry becomes a public figure and starts it, then some copycats and soon unconsciously people adapt their look to fit in.

Sometimes people adopt movements associated with their professional role.
At the aero club where I used to fly as a young wan, my mother made an interesting observation of how pilots walk and said I was starting to adopt it. Walking with toes pointed higher up than average, a kind of heel-dominant gait. Comes from the way the feet are aligned on rudder pedals.

People in tech sit on their posterior most of the time, occasionally walking around, or when they are standing looking over the shoulder of someone at a screen the hunched position is accentuated. A lot of people in IT are rounded at the shoulders and hunched over. By virtue of the position they spend most of their time. I’d say evolution might dictate loss of lower limbs and growth of eyes and fingers over generations.

The folded arms, typical of IT people, is not defiance but “self-comforting”. A proportion of these folk are on the ASD spectrum and an inner anxiety drives the self-hugging, as it were.

Anesthetize

I opened up the thread, and holy smokes that first guy looks a lot like me 😅

But in all fairness, the tech company where I work has a huge diversity of people and lots of different styles. For example, I'm the only person in my team who would come close to the stereotype in the first photo.

My team is a mixture of Irish lads with far more hair on their head than me, Eastern European girls (again, with far more hair on their head than me), and a couple of Indian folk. We all look very different from each other and have different personalities.

forrestgeorge

Vegan diet, male feminist non threatening look so they can get close to women, become their "allies" and molest them when they volunteer to escort them home from the pub when the women get too drunk, every man know the type but despite multiple warnings from men , women fall for it again and again.

Leg End Reject

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122095216#Comment_122095216

That type are the white knights online too, but none of this is specific to any particular industry.

Hamachi

Very weird thread. Have worked in tech for almost 20 years. Don’t know anybody who looks like that. Must be you OP..

MEGA BRO WOLF 5000

I look like that and I don't work in tech.

tohaltuwi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122095148#Comment_122095148

well now, how many other stereotypes are there among your colleagues? 😁 I DO know people in IT as described, beards used to hide face I believe. Too mean to get hair transplant… but I do know at least one who did, I think in Turkey 😁

tohaltuwi

I passed by a guy with badly head, black beard, techy looking with nerdy type t-shirt etc, and I really felt like stopping him on the spot and doing a mini interview for research upon this thread 😁

PP Lee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058350116/why-do-so-many-guys-who-work-in-tech-look-the-same

The craft beer festival reminds me of this meme

Alexus25

Don't think it's a tech thing, think it's just an Irish male thing