Diversity Works

Over the past few weeks, I have had the opportunity to work with two teams of talented people that I only got to know at the start of each assignment. We come from different backgrounds (countries, disciplines, year of study, interests), and naturally have varying opinions about many things. From micro issues like where a vote button should be placed to macro ones like the grand purpose of an application, I enjoyed the different perspectives that everyone had to offer.

As one of my groupmates pointed out in our random discussions, working with tech for a prolonged period of time will sometimes land us in a tech bubble. Within this bubble are people with similar experiences and beliefs about tech, and if we are not aware of it, we slowly lose touch with other parts of society. Excluding ourselves from human elements like basic UI/UX, or even just communicating ideas to people outside of the bubble.

Personally, I think this is an issue that exists for anyone working exclusively in an area for an extended period of time, and the key might just be to pop our heads out of the bubble once in a while to learn from awesome people from other fields. It might feel weird at the start seeing how different the world outside is, but in my opinion, that’s how great ideas/products are created, when people see things others inside the bubble don’t.

Get out of the bubble, embrace diversity 🙂