Diversity and Inclusion has been a hot topic in tech this year, but the data shows that we still have a long way to go. As a first step on this journey, let’s be honest about what diversity really means. We need skilled people from a range of economic backgrounds, just as much as we need greater gender and racial diversity in tech. Not by 2042, but like yesterday.

It’s not enough to hire upper middle class kids from wealthy suburbs abroad; we need to hire from the inner city here at home. This isn’t a matter of equality, it’s one of competitiveness; creative thought occurs in the gap between two ideas, and between two perspectives in the case of collaboration. If we all kneel at the altar of Steve Jobs and therefore believe software development is an art, why don’t we spark a renaissance by empowering all the talent that has been shamefully shoved to the side? If we want to eliminate online harassment, why don’t we empower people who have actually been harassed?

In an increasingly competitive and global industry, diversity is as imperative for the long-term viability of the technology industry in the United States as it is for the prosperity of the people who are being discriminated against. And as software rapidly becomes an invisible layer of our everyday experience, the fallout of unconscious bias may soon be too pervasive for us to ever reverse.