diversity (in tech)
Heard a speaker at #dreamforce18 yesterday say that we need to focus on diversity of thought - so hire people who look different.
I disagree with the underlying presumption that people who look the same must think the same. Isn't that to say: What you amount to, and what you think, are determined by your race/gender/appearance, etc.?
diversity (in tech)
@hashtaggrammar
It blows my mind that someone would exclude people who don't seem to be just like them. My own team is diverse looking, but we were going for diverse thinking, which happened in this case to create a diverse looking team.
I think if we aim for a diverse looking team is easy to seek a team with no diversity of thought. But we feel virtuous because we have the form of diversity regardless of substance.
To me its a form VS substance issue. If we go for the substance (diverse thinking) we'll often get diverse appearance /form. I don't think we get diverse thought just by hiring people that appear different.
Tech is known as being far left ideologically, and taking those who don't fall in line with same thinking out back and beating them (figuratively).
It's rich to have that same group claim to be the champion of diversity in thought.
diversity (in tech)
@SecondJon Right. I agree with you that diversity doesn't just mean looking different (assuming you mean race and not just different haircuts.) I don't have the energy to unpack what else you're saying.
diversity (in tech)
@hashtaggrammar
LOL. I like the diversity of haircuts model.
diversity (in tech)
@SecondJon
"must" and "determined by" are too strong, but I think there are often correlations between the characteristics you mention and the way people think. Eg, we often see polling data that show politcal opinions breaking down by gender or race. People have a known (probably subconscious) bias to recruit people who are like them, which is one mechanism by which entrenched biases persist in industries that are dominated by a particular demographic. Encouraging people to recruit people who look different is a blunt instrument to fix that. But given the amount to which recruitment in tech is unavoidably subjective, and given that many parts of the industry do have entrenched demographics, I think it can be the right line to take. Is there a better way? Maybe.. We should certainly look for it. But doing nothing promoted the status quo, which I don't think is optimal. Anecdotally, my own workplace has gone from 95% middle aged white men to a much healthier balance of people over the last few years, partly because we noticed this and made an effort to correct it. It has become a much better place to work, both technically and socially.
diversity (in tech)
@SecondJon That sounds to me like an oversimplication of the issue. In a way you're right, because you and I could look the same, but if I grew up poor in a different country and you grew up rich in another, we are more likely going to have more diversity of thought. Socioeconomic background, political background, all that shapes us. However, hiring teams can certainly start by at least taking it seriously that they should hire people of a different gender, sexual orientation, race, etc. Studies show we lack diversity on teams because we hire people who remind us of us. So we have to start somewhere.