What if I told you that Diversity was and never will be the viral coefficient to any startup. Stay with me. It's no news that the Tech scene is mostly populated by male whites and Asians that can code. This can probably be mostly attributed to gender roles growing up. Females were likely given dolls while males took to console gaming and Legos. I'm sure we could delve even further into this and bring up the amount of men in science prior to the tech boom but lets keep this short and to the point.
I watched Evan Spiegel (Snapchat Founder) be questioned about diversity numbers within his Snapchat team during his [1] Re/Code interview with Walt Mossberg. He didn't have the numbers off the top of his head and I believe it's because it's not something that really matters to him. Now hold on I'm not attacking the Billionaire founder lets just be real here. What if I told you that his application had amassed billions of views a day without the explicit attention to Diversity numbers? Would that mean anything to you? His main goal is probably to ensure Snapchat is stocked with Alpha type engineers, regardless of their demographic. The amount of women, men, Hispanics, Indians, etc. is completely irrelevant. Hire the most qualified candidate.
Now I can definitely see the merit in reaching out to a broader demographic, affording individuals the opportunity to gauge interest in Tech via coding outreach programs. It's really admirable. Despite there being what I would describe as an "overwhelming plethora of coding resources" available online and for free mind you, there still seems to be a skewed graph of tech participants. Why is that? Well it's going to take time. Most women in their early 20's came of age within stricter gender roles. So maybe staring into an inverted screen most of the day has less appeal to a young educated woman whom likely had colorful toy dolls pushed on her as a youth. It's going to take time as many of these demographics that are being called into tech already have their own industries that they focus on and dominate. Sports and music across all sorts of genres are almost entirely skewed.
I've come to realize that if enough White/Asian Men assemble and generate wealth that what ensues is a glaring sense of exclusion, finger pointing, and accusations at them. What comes next is a discussion of “What are you doing to diversify your team?” as if an all White/Asian tech team conspired to exclude and was caught. The real question is where is the empirical evidence to support the claim that Diversity, outside the realm of skill sets, should be the only way to form a team. Now, there certainly is nothing inherently wrong with it. I mean, organic anything is always a plus in my book, therefore, if a diverse team forms organically then hack on. So long as you know your Users in and out with a flush understanding of communication, there is opportunity regardless of the demographics. It does help if someone on your team fits the demographic and background of your target Users. However, is this the argument of most Diversity advocates, from what’s in my news feed, no. My thesis is this:
Diversity may come in handy, but there is no sufficient evidence or moral high ground to cast a stigma on efficient non-diverse teams.
There are times when I'm listening to speakers at events and there's a sense of accusation at the Tech scene. The claim I am sensing is that the Tech scene is preferential to Whites and Asians, that minorities and women are either not funded or hired simply for being just that. The public has created an atmosphere of shame to cast on nerds. When did we change our stance of marveling at their innovation, uniting in servers, and gathering under the cloud as we uploaded to it only to cast such a scorning on the nerds that made it all happen. To me, this growing trend is shameful. If I were a person embarking into a life of uncertainty, risking debt, relationships, heightened stress levels, etc., the last thing I want is to be accused of is exclusion. Founders have enough problems, so if and when you come out on top, maybe that's cause for celebration and not sitting in at the Crunchies [2] taking scathing remarks because you happen to be a White/Asian successful founder.
"Look,
guys, for thousands of years guys like us have gotten the shit kicked out of
us.
But now, for the first time, we are living in an era where we can be in
charge and build empires.
We could be the Vikings of our day." -Richard Hendriks in
the HBO series Silicon Valley.
In closing, I want to say that even if the teams themselves are not diverse, the effects of their innovation are. Indirectly, we all have in someway benefited from the nerds. It use to be that the term "Nerd", was derogatory and used to describe socially awkward, geeky people. Hackers, as they are more frequently referred to as, have finally reached a spot in the sun and their success is in everyone's palm staring back at them. This is their time. Let them have it, no matter who they happen to be.
[1]
[2]