I eagerly await the backlash to suggesting any one thing is all you need, the first shot of which shall surely be titled: “‘All you need’ Considered Harmful”
(Payouts are expected to drop in about ten years if no action is taken, but that doesn’t render the SSA irrelevant or cause it to suddenly collapse and shut down, so I assume you mean something else)
1) blazers, specifically, are awesome, they’re wearable purses that also make you look sharper. They’re a superior version of the open button-up shirt I’d wear in high school because it was trendy back then and which also had (less well-realized) utility and useful-in-a-pinch value, and
2) loafers are the best shoe for everyday not-very-active stuff, and it’s not a close call. Slip on! It’s insane that they’re considered even a little dressy. A small miracle.
My description probably painted this type as more assholish than I intended—it’s mostly that they’re willing, even in fairly casual conversation, to really dig into fine points, to play devil’s advocate (maybe without saying that’s what they’re doing), to pursue any little thing that they don’t immediately get or that seems contradictory.
Conversationally, they poke, they prod, they chase. I assume this is from being educated in environments where that was the norm, and my guess that this is a style that starts in certain types of prep school (and is then imparted on the less-elite folks who attend a university with that set) is really just a guess, but there sure does seem to be a lot of correlation between school prestige and that kind of affect, in my experience, whatever the cause.
As mentioned, I have similar tendencies, but the tenacity at and commitment to this way of chatting from several elite-college folks I’ve met has been a bit much even for me—with more exposure I suspect I’d come to like it, but as it is it feels like being squished on a microscope slide, though I don’t exactly think that’s their fault and I don’t think they’re trying to give offense—but I do think the fact that it can put a person a bit off balance is part of why they’ve picked it up, it seems like a habit honed in a certain kind of affably-contentious intellectual environment (again, I’m just guessing at the causes here)
I’ve definitely noticed a type from top universities (not just MIT). It can come off as kinda in-your-face or confrontational or intense. I have some of the same tendencies, and have to rein it in because people really don’t like it—but it seems to be encouraged some places, they do it way more and harder than I ever have. It even throws me off (that part’s probably my midwesternness coming through)
My guess is part of it’s to do with a much higher proportion of students at top institutions (than at sub-top-1%) having attended prep schools that teach in small group discussion-based seminars rather than traditional classes. Changes how you converse, changes what you consider normal for interacting with your instructors and peers, carries over to the cultures that develop at universities they attend. Plus just everyone there being really driven to get good grades.
I also noticed watching online courses from top universities in a couple areas I’m fairly familiar with from having taken similar courses at a maybe-3rd-tier university, that the content and quality of the lectures was basically the same—the difference was entirely in how engaged the students were, and the kinds of guest lecturers they can pull in for a visit (“holy shit, I know that guy!”)