🐳 #1 Just a Splash | The Shallow End | My Swimlane
Watermelon high jinks! Submit your questions! And, do you tsundoku, too?
Last week I shared that changes were afoot at The Diving Board.
This week, the first change is upon us! What was formerly called “The Plunge”, a recurring post format that included a long-form essay followed by three mini sections of odds and ends, will now be deconstructed into two types of posts:
🐳 Just a Splash | The Shallow End | My Swimlane: no essay, just bits of work-life inspiration that runs the gamut. And it’s a weird gamut, my friends. Want a quick hit of professional development AND links to things like Emotional Support Poo AND unsolicited updates on my not-particularly-interesting life? I’ve got you.
🌊 The Plunge: for those who dig a long-form essay on topics like the unseen work of working women, not to worry. The Plunge will still be around to take you deep in topics of interest. I’ll just be keeping The Plunge focused on the main event so you don’t drown. (God, I love finding buckets of water metaphors to use in this newsletter.)
Keep reading for another announcement – a new feature on The Diving Board that you, dear swimmers, will shape.
📣 Ok, curious readers with curious questions, now is your time!
Introducing…. 🍹Poolside Chat🍹, a brand-new feature on The Diving Board!
In 🍹Poolside Chat 🍹, I’ll respond to real questions from you and/or invite this community to weigh in with their wisdom. Questions can be “ask a coach” style (got a work or leadership or life conundrum?), ask Claire anything (personal, frivolous, historical, spiritual, serious...I love all the questions), or “ask the community” (got a question you’d love multiple perspectives on?). SUBMIT A QUESTION here.
✉️ One of my favorite Substack follows is British writer Bruce Daisley of Make Work Better. His recent post on letting go of old-school notions of workplace bonding struck a chord, especially in light of my own musings on loneliness and remote work.
Daisley argues that orgs are pressuring people back to the office “to improve culture”, but younger workers (1) are in a worse financial position for commuting than ever before and (2) just don’t value work relationships in the same way previous generations did. How do we need to think differently about work culture rather than pining for the happy hours of yesteryear? (P.S. Daisley’s “Presence Deck” takes on adjacent topics and is an equally great resource: “Fixing culture starts with calendars, not offices”.)
I find a lot of weird things on my dog’s bed, but this was one of my more surprising discoveries:
💫 You definitely need these at your next celebration, or just next Tuesday night when you want to set something on fire and believe magic exists in the world: Flying Wishpaper (not an affiliate link, just something I enjoyed setting ablaze at my 40th birthday dinner). Could be cool at a certain kind of team offsite, too (like the kind I design). 😉
📚 Vocab Lesson: Tsundoku (積ん読) is a Japanese slang term for “the phenomenon of acquiring reading materials but letting them pile up in one's home without reading them”1. I feel a little too seen by this word.
🎂 So, yes, I turned 40 in May! (The morning after my birthday, Rob said, “Now you’re over 40.” He is sooooo funny, right?)
I celebrated with a wonderful, intimate dinner party. It was an introverted foodie’s dream: all the flavors, none of the small talk. The festivities were co-hosted by my sister-in-law Steph and a talented chef-friend Heidi, with help from other near and dear ones. I felt rich with friendship and laughter and ahi tuna. Cheers to mid-life!
P.S. I just realized that the official birthday cake emoji 🎂 looks exactly like my ACTUAL birthday cake this year: Tres Leches, adorned with raspberries. I am irrationally excited by this.
😹 One of the best parts of having kids is the constant stream of entertaining things they say. A sampling from my 7-year-old, Mabel:
“Sometimes I get talking and I forget to breathe.”
“Nature is beautiful….but sometimes itchy.”
“Love is glue that sticks to your soul even after you die.”
And finally….recently, Mabel said something cute, and I laughed, which she did NOT like. I explained I was laughing with delight at what she said. She grumbled, “You could have just clapped for me, Mom.”
Talk to you soon on The Diving Board! Remember to submit your questions here for our first-ever 🍹Poolside Chat 🍹.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsundoku