Obviously, the tech industry isn’t dead or even dying. In fact, it’s flourishing. So why would we need to save it? Well, no one can deny that there is a toxic culture going on in the tech industry, and that there is a shifting focus in schools to STEM rather than STEAM. We’ve all heard about the bro-culture that pushes people in other groups out. And while there are some great people working on this, the humanities will be the one to save it. If you don’t care what I have to say about it, Neil Gaiman is saying the same thing.

Humanities backgrounds allow for creativity

Without fiction, we’re limited to the world around us. Immersion in non-fiction helps us to recognize the problems at hand, but it limits our abilities to predict the needs and the problems of the future. We’ve seen in the past technological innovations inspired by science fiction works, but if we encourage a humanities culture in the tech workplace or if we hire people with humanities backgrounds, we foster these conversations and encourage creativity from a different perspective.

Humanities backgrounds allow for empathy

Every semester I have a student who says, “I don’t understand the point of having to take this class”–a CORE course that includes prose, poetry, and drama. Every semester I tell my students that we read literature to become better people and to develop empathy. By reading stories, poems, or plays about people of different races, cultures, genders, time periods, etc., we’re better able to understand different points of views. Where else can we do this? Yes, we consume television and movies, but when that industry is also affected by a toxic masculinity, it destroys the ability to build empathy. By encouraging those with humanities backgrounds to enter the tech field, and even more so by hiring them, you encourage a culture of empathy. You’re not just providing some day-long sensitivity training. You’re inviting the culture in through the people you hire.

This week, I’ve spent a lot of time watching the Moms Can: Code Virtual Summit, which showcased a number of women who transitioned to tech from a humanities background. It’s going to be the tech companies that continue antiquated hiring practices that discourage the values we learn in the humanities that will be dying out in the future. By encouraging a humanities culture or hiring those with humanities backgrounds, companies will flourish with innovation, collaboration, and creativity.