this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2026
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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I think this is a neurodiversity thing. Different people find different things challenging, and I've noticed within my circle of friends that navigational ability varies wildly. I would find it unlikely that I'd have trouble finding somewhere I went using satnav once, but I could also see someone else using it several times without it teaching them the route.
I imagine that in the same way some people will use AI and have it be a learning experience, while for others it will be a crutch.
It might be more of a problem for people who grow up with it though; less of them may find the need to develop the underlying skills.
Nav still requires you think critically to interpret the instructions in the context of the real world signs/roads/spatial setting. When you reach your destination you're either where you wanted to be or not. The fact checking is inherent to the result.
AI chats require an individual to be critical of their own volition. So most don't stress the brain when using it and plasticity never occurs, all the while they're absorbing near truths, guesses, and falsehoods.
Navigation can definitely do the same thing. My wife uses Google maps everywhere she goes, even to get to her own job or friends' houses.
One time her phone died on her way back home from somewhere she doesn't go very often, and she was crying by the time she found her way home. At the time we lived in a big city surrounded by a ring of highways - all she needed to do was drive toward the skyline and she'd hit that ring, but since she never thinks about what direction she's going or where she needs to turn, the thought of making those decisions herself never entered her brain. Instead she stopped at a gas station, charged her phone for 30 minutes, and used navigation to get back.
I've never been much into using apps like that, but now I specifically avoid them, so that I can keep my own ability to think about those kinds of things.
Yeah I'm not suggesting using a maps app teaches route/wayfinding at all.
When it says to turn you still need to recognize the street direction, signs, signals, etc to decide you CAN turn that way and you also know when you've reached your destination because you're where you need to be. It's not probability and it can't lie to you without you knowing. You still have to be a competent driver.
AI chats don't have any indication of reasoning nor built-in fact checking. If you just want an answer you are not functionally obliged to check it, there is no built in safeguard.
In the same way navigation apps offload the skill of wayfinding, AI apps offload the skill of critical thinking.
Ah, yeah, that's fair. They degenerate some of your decision making, but not to the point where you can't drive at all. I think it's still probability-based in the end, but not to the same extent as AI, like how it's not going to tell you to drive onto a park trail the way AI might if it were in charge.
How many phone numbers can you remember?
You used to be required to memorize a bare minimum number of phone numbers to survive. Now, you're lucky if people know their spouse's and their own.
Cognitive offloading results in an atrophy of the skill and retention. There is a similar phenomena with people who watch 1000 tutorial videos but never implement anything or do it themselves. This is not "deep learning", and its entertainment masquerading as productivity.
GPS is undeniably the same, and it's easily observable between generations. AI LLM search queries are already resulting in a disturbing amount of people accepting what is presented non-critically. These people are sadly atrophying whatever critical analysis skills they had to vet information and links.