Diversity Means "Cognitive Diversity" (Diversity of Thought)

Matthew Syed's book Rebel Ideas Matthew Syed’s Rebel Ideas is a really clear explanation of why, when we emphasize the importance of “diversity” for problem solving, cognitive diversity is what we are after.

Most people simply assume “demographic” diversity (race, gender, class, university affiliation or class rank) does the trick.

It does not, if the demographically-diverse individuals all were trained the same way; in the same disciplines; by the same teachers.

And, to elaborate, the advantages of “people who think differently” is important for tackling complex problems, not every problem.

Sometimes such diversity is not necessary. When attempting to deliver humans safely to Mars and getting them back just as safely, there likely are limits to even cognitive diversity, as arbitrary diversity of thought might not actually help with the collective solutions we need. Building a hadron collider with cost constraints might not benefit at all from arbitrarily adding team members who are skateboarders, with or without demographic diversity. The diversity has to be relevant to the problem space! Still, when trying to solve complex problems that are not heavily social (where demographic diversity might actually be relevant), cognitive diversity (thinking differently) is expected to be helpful.