Steve Jobs, Barack Obama, Mark Zuckerberg o Albert Einstein These are some examples of successful and recognized people who are known for their professional work but also, if you look closely, you will realize that their clothing is always the same or with a very similar style. Is it a simple coincidence or is there some reason behind this choice? Let’s find out below the curious reason why Steve Jobs or Barack Obama always wear the same clothes.
The reason why some geniuses always wear the same clothes
Throughout the day, there are many decisions we make from the most trivial to those that are most decisive. According to data from a study conducted by Cornell University, there are thousands of decisions every day, but many of them we are not even aware of.
Among these, would be, for example, deciding what to eat or what food to buy (we can end up having to make up to 226 decisions a day) or what to wear. However, there are people who are aware of how this type of decisions further trivial, yes, they can be a wear and tear for your brain.
A trait that seems to be shared by people we know who have achieved important achievements throughout their lives and who are characterized precisely by always dress the same or with a style that is always the same.
For experts in psychology and productivity, always dress the same responds to a strategy to save time and mental energy, and thus be able to dedicate them to the most important and creative decisions of their work.
It’s All Due to “Decision Fatigue”
This phenomenon is known as “decision fatigue”., and refers to the wear and tear our brain suffers when it has to make many decisions throughout the day, no matter how trivial they may be. Although we are not aware of it, every decision involves a cognitive effort no way depleting our mental reserves and decreasing our capacity for concentration, reasoning and creativity.
To avoid this negative effect, some leaders have decided to keep some everyday decisions as simple as possible, such as what to wear each morning. In this way, they eliminate a source of stress and free up mental space to focus on the most relevant and complex issues in their professional field.
The clearest examples
Thus, for example, Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, I always used to wear some Levi’s 501 jeans, New Balance 992 trainers and a black turtleneck. According to his biographer Walter Isaacson, Jobs had hundreds of identical clothes in his closet and used them as a kind of uniform for not having to think about what to wear every day.
The same thing happens to Barack Obamathe former president of the United States, used to wear gray or blue suits with white or blue shirts. In an interview with Vanity Fair in 2012, Obama confessed who made this decision to narrow down the options and simplify your life. “I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m going to eat or what I’m going to wear because I have too many other decisions to make,” she said.
For Mark Zuckerbergthe creator of Facebook, and who always tends to carry gray t-shirt, jeans and sneakersIt is also a question of Prioritize what you consider important and that it is to serve the community of his social network, as he explained in a question and answer session in 2014. “I want to make sure that I use all my energy for that,” he said.
Albert Einsteinthe genius of physics, also had a very definite and repetitive style: a gray or brown suit with a white shirt and sweater or a jacket of the same color. It is said that Einstein had several identical suits in his closet and used them to avoid wasting time choosing his clothes.
Now we know why some of the most prodigious brains have chosen to always dress the same as a way of optimizing their productivity and creativity. However, this is not the only way to combat decision fatigue. Other possible strategies are planning decisions in advance, establish healthy routines and habitsdelegate some tasks or limit the options available.
Article and image Source
