Unpopular opinion: one of the lessons from Don’t Look Up is that fashion matters.
Jennifer Lawrence, playing the scientist trying to warn society about incoming tragedy, much like AI risk advocates, looked 𝘸𝘦𝘪𝘳𝘥.
And she’s 𝘑𝘦𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘧𝘦𝘳 𝘓𝘢𝘸𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦!
But in the movie she dressed and did her hair in a way that all but guarantees that at 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵 75% of the world would immediately dismiss her.
Instead of paying attention to the world-ending message, people got caught up on how funny she looked, and she became a meme.
It 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯’𝘵 matter.
We should be robots, who are not affected by how somebody looks.
But we’re not robots.
We’re monkeys.
We are affected by people’s looks, no matter how much moralizing we do about it.
So if you’re trying to work on potentially world-saving stuff, and you’re public-facing, put non-zero effort into fashion. Pick fashion that will turn off the least number of your audience.
Don’t spend all your time shopping and doing your hair, because that’s also dumb.
And by all means, express yourself.
You just don’t need to express 𝘢𝘭𝘭 aspects of yourself 𝘰𝘯 𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘢 in high stakes situations.
I hate having hair in my face, so I always wear my hair in a ponytail and wear a baseball cap. But when I'm on a podcast, I - gasp - take off my hat and wear my hair down.
It's not a big deal.
And maybe you really like your own personal fashion. Maybe your friends do too.
But you're not trying to convince your friends. You're not trying to convince yourself.
You're trying to convince the public. And if you look like a basement dwelling neckbeard or a hippie who's taken too much LSD, they won't take you seriously.
Just dress nice while you're on camera, then go back to being your hippie or neckbeard self the rest of the time if you want.
Just don’t risk the fate of the world on your iconoclastic fashion preferences.