Shining the apple.

 Just a tad miffed about that prophet thing (I was talking about people who make prophecies, not official titles in the Mormon church), I did a google on his Thoreau quote.

He is correct, that is something that Thoreau said, but it is just half of the quote:

I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.

Google added:

So even though our outer garments are somewhat transient and don't reflect our core values, Thoreau warns against investing so much in perceptual appeal or adherence to norms. If a job requires you to wear nicer clothes, it's fundamentally asking you to alter the ways that you present yourself to the world.

Here is something that I have thought about on that matter.  You are sitting in the airport awaiting your plane and two pilots walk by.  One of the pilots has just-polished shiny shoes and the shoes of the other pilot are downright scruffy.  Which pilot are you hoping is driving your plane?

The first thought is the guy with the shiny shoes certainly.  He looks like he pays attention to all details, even superficial ones, and is that not the sort of person that you wish to have driving your plane?  Seems so, but maybe the shoes of the other pilot are scruffy because he did not have time this morning to shine them because he was poring over the latest findings on the safest way to drive a plane.  Perhaps a pilot who does not waste his time on superficial crap would be the best person to drive your plane.

The Prairie State 2000 Authority (We dropped the 2000 in the year 2000, so as not to appear out of date) where I worked was a tiny agency who, well the state gave us several million bucks at the beginning of the year and we gave it away to companies and individuals so that they could be trained to make the company more money and get the individual a job.  Did we give out this money in the best way to promote our aim?  Who knows?

But one thing I noticed right away with the bosses was they were not nearly as concerned with spending that money wisely as they were in appearing to spend the money wisely.

You know if you want to get ahead a good idea is to do a good job.  But a better idea is to appear to be doing a good job. You will probably have to sacrifice some of the principles of doing a good job and put that time into appearing to do a good job.  but you want to get ahead don't you?