Lithographers don’t get to see me in a suit.

When I first started working in the semiconductor industry, I started out wearing a tie to conferences (I didn’t own a suit back then), but quickly realized that not only were ties optional, you were better off not wearing them. Sales and marketing folks wore ties. To an engineer, wearing a tie made you suspect. I quickly ditched the ties.

Except in Japan. When I started traveling to Japan in the early 1990s, I bought some suits. Those are still my only suits (and they still fit … barely). But I stopped wearing them 10 years ago even to Japan. The trend towards casual has caught up to the conservative corporate culture of Japan.

So, most of my friends in the lithography world have never seen me in a suit. Well, here is what it looks like.

I gave a talk last week at an investment banker conference in Hong Kong. Suit required. Someday maybe the finance folks will catch up to where lithographers have been all along.