Join our Variety People LA meetup group!
I loved the story about “Rat Park” in this video. It may show that when people have adequate variety in their lives, other kinds of dysfunctional things might happen less. I also like when he talks about the idea that we’ve traded stuff and space for friends and connections. And, that we need to cure addictions at the social level, not just the individual level. Perhaps valuing, allowing, seeking and managing variety in our lives might be part of that.
I was reading an article in Fast Company when I came across some research showing something I had suspected in a general way. It said “individuals connected to disparate clusters of people have more creative ideas than those with homogenous, closed social networks.” It’s based on an aspect of network science called “brokerage,” pioneered by Professor Ronald S. Burt at the University of Chicago.
I have observed over the years that people who explore diverse ideas, areas, people, processes, etc. seem to make more integrated and novel creative connections. Such people are a kind of variety people, and “individuals connected to disparate clusters of people” are a kind of subset of the people I’m talking about. So the research shows, you may well boost your creativity by being the kind of variety person who is connected to disparate clusters of people!
Here’s the link to the full article, about an entrepreneur in Silicon Valley:
http://www.fastcompany.com/3037933/the-visible-man
Reblogged this on David Loughry and commented:
A recent post of mine over on varietypeople.org …
Here’s an excerpt from New York Times article. See link at end.
The most socially skilled among us — those who project the emotions they intend, when they intend to — are not wedded to any one strategy, Dr. Hofmann argues. In a paper published last month with Todd Kashdan of George Mason University, he proposed that emotion researchers adopt a questionnaire to measure three components of regulation: concealing (i.e., suppression), adjusting (quickly calming anger, for instance) and tolerating (openly expressing emotion).
“These are each valuable strategies, in different situations,” Dr. Hofmann said. “The people who get into trouble socially, I believe, are the ones who are inflexible — who stick to just one.”
Variety People 
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