Dylan’s Desk: How to improve diversity without compromising on excellence

Venturebeat | Dylan Tweney

Silicon Valley often prides itself on being a meritocracy, where people advance solely because of their talent.Yet it has an obvious diversity problem. Big companies like Google, Twitter, and Facebook regularly release diversity statistics that show clearly that women, blacks, and Hispanics are underrepresented. Venture capital firms are populated largely by white and Asian men, and the companies that get funding from VCs are disproportionately similar.

And, yes, tech journalism has a similar skew: Too many of us are white guys.It might be that there’s a smaller pool of talented engineers, entrepreneurs, and tech journalists among women and minorities. That’s why the argument is often framed in terms of meritocracy vs. diversity or excellence vs. affirmative action.

But it’s also quite possible that there’s something wrong with the recruiting process and that the lack of diversity is actually getting in the way of hiring the best people…Continue Reading