Hello and Welcome!

In addition to exploring and connecting here, you can participate in some of my projects related to sustainable variety and proximity thinking. Start by visiting relevant links you’ll find here on the site.

Sustainable variety? What’s that? Well, I’ve always been interested in what makes life great. What makes people feel alive, excited, vital and engaged? What makes life enjoyable? I think a good answer is what I call “sustainable variety” and sometimes “SustaVariety.” You could say it’s variety that continues and grows. It’s variety that doesn’t become static, yet also isn’t so great that it becomes chaotic. You could say that sustainable variety, in many ways, is what nature does. Yet I don’t think sustainable variety just accidentally happens, at least on a consistent basis. I do think there are things we can to do to increase our chances of having sustainable variety. That’s what I pursue. 

To understand more about sustainable variety, you’ll need a little backstory about proximity thinking. Why? I think sustainable proximities and sustainable variety reinforce each other.

When I was first trying to understand what makes things come alive, I developed 16 patterns I thought applied to a huge variety of situations. It seemed the patterns could be observed in situations that were alive, flowing and working well. I also thought the patterns could be used to help situations become that way. I called them ProxPatterns, short for proximity patterns. As I further developed the ideas, integrating a diverse array of knowledge and experiences, they became the proximity thinking framework, or ProxThink for short. ProxThink is a proximity-focused framework for creativity, innovation, problem-solving, sustainability and living. You can explore the full framework at proxthink.com, and get up-to-speed faster with the Let’s Be More Alive — Intro to ProxThink online course. You can also explore our Services (events, an online course, collaboration/coaching, idea sessions, speaking and consulting), the blog at proxthinkriver.com, and the ProxThink YouTube channel.

With the ProxThink framework I created the sustainable proximities approach. From that evolved the idea of sustainable variety. I think variety in life is critical to health, happiness, and vibrant communities, and that variety and sustainability reinforce each other and enhance each other. I’ve come to think that sustainable variety is a viable way to approach both life and our shared challenges, and that the sustainable proximities approach could assist us in getting more sustainable variety. This resulted, among other things, in the Shared Situations Guide, for proximity-oriented collaboration based on the sustainable proximities approach, and the Shared Situations project, at sharedsituations.wordpress.com.

I’ve also created some other projects related to proximity thinking and sustainable variety (varietypeople.org, proxri.org, artsdown.org and a few others). I’m an artist and photographer as well. Together, my various projects are my attempt at creating sustainable variety in my life, and encouraging and enabling sustainable variety for other people as well.

For more about me, there’s a bit of a bio here, and a summary of my major accomplishments here.

Here are my major projects, some of which are in the site menu. This site also offers some of my art, photos and videos, and a blog.

If you need to get in touch, you can contact me here.

For connecting and/or following me and some of my projects via social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Behance, YouTube and other WordPress sites), see Connect on Social Media.

I hope you enjoy the site, that you’ll try some of my projects, and that you’ll get involved in some of their growth and evolution! We need more SustaVariety, as individuals, in our groups, and here on the planet!

David Loughry
Los Angeles