this post was submitted on 05 Oct 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:

Rules

  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
  3. No politics
    • If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
    • A good place for politics is c/politicaldiscussion
  4. Posts must be original/unique
  5. Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS

If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.

Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.

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[–] nanometer1625@thelemmy.club 6 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

In order to work less (fewer hours or more time off), we need legislation that restricts work hours and requires companies to grant a minimum amount of time off. I agree with the sentiment that AI could free us up for more leisure, but in the absence of legislation, companies will just squeeze more productivity out of each worker without granting more leisure time.

[–] Freycruze@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 hours ago
[–] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 5 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

i have been , hell go all the way back to Bertrand Russel, he does as well, see his treatise "In Praise of Idleness", famous economists like Maynard Keys projected we'd all be broking 15 hrs a week now for the same pay.

Productivity increases have gone to the very wealthy and we've voted for it, over decades, over and over and in the face of all that evidence ? we'd fuck in' do it again, Leopards Eating My Face is full of examples. Solutions ? there arent any, the world has to many hateful and stupid people easily led by physcopaths and grifters . Not just the US, it's near ubiquitous.

[–] Honytawk@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 4 hours ago

I am.

My dream job is being jobless in a world where everything is automated.

[–] tigermountain@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

How could we maximize productivity if we allowed people leisure?

[–] Daft_ish@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 5 hours ago

Make working fun! Jk

[–] selokichtli@lemmy.ml 2 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I guess because nobody who works closely with AI would seriously believe they can run shit by themselves.

[–] Daft_ish@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 5 hours ago

Oops cats out the bag.

[–] DupaCycki@lemmy.world 24 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

There has never been a case of capitalism using improvements in efficiency to let people work less, use fewer resources, etc.

It's always more, more, more.

[–] teegus@sh.itjust.works 10 points 12 hours ago

As some wise boys said 40 years ago, "you gotta fight, for your right, to party".

[–] the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

AI bros dont understand the concept of "love".

[–] Daft_ish@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 5 hours ago (1 children)
[–] MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

Bicentennial Man says "yes".

[–] MithranArkanere@lemmy.world -1 points 4 hours ago

AI doesn't exist. LLMs aren't doing anyone's jobs.
They help search for stuff, like finding molecules and DNA strands in medicine. Finding a book out of an entire library. Boilerplate code. Frequently asked questions. That's all they do. Parroting, searching, and other menial tasks that can be done thanks to prediction.
People may save time thanks to them, but they still have to do their jobs.

When an "AI" appears to show any kind of competency outside of being a glorified search engine, it's because they have an underpaid human behind it actually refining the results.

[–] LordCrom@lemmy.world 0 points 4 hours ago

Because who would provide the income tax?

[–] MeatballMam@lemmy.zip 16 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago) (4 children)

They're probably not saying that because they are too busy asking the far more important question of "If Ai takes all the jobs, how can I afford to feed and shelter the family and children I love"

You do understand why people work right? Very few people work just for funsies. They work so they can afford to eat, pay rent, pay for utilities, and be able to afford essentials like clothing, health insurance, transportation.

Almost everything we need to actually live and function costs money. You primarily get money by having a job. So if someone gets laid off, they're probably very busy trying to find another source of income so they can actually keep their children alive and healthy.

[–] Daft_ish@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Ill grant you all those things but what youre describing is the exact chains the oppressor use to keep you enslaved.

[–] Prior_Industry@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

Why would the owners willingly give up those chains? If AI removes the need for work and money, then Elon Musk is just another guy on the street. Can't see billionaires accepting that.

I think its way more likely a Elon Musk would harness AI and Robotics to create personal fiefdoms whilst the rest of us live in the "bad lands"

[–] postscarce@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

But why do we need to work to earn money? Because if those jobs didn’t get done we couldn’t survive. What OP is asking, I think, is if those essential jobs were automated, nobody would need to work, so why aren’t we talking about that?

[–] LordCrom@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago

I have yet to see AI pick up garbage,now a lawn, fix a toilet, make a bed.... AI won't take all jobs, just the ones that actually paid well because it required mental skills and experience e.g.coding, graphics.... We will fight for the low paying manual labor Jobs and there will not be enough of those to satisfy demand, so wages will decrease.

Its a dystopian future for us.

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[–] aesthelete@lemmy.world 4 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (1 children)

See the pandemic if you're interested in knowing how much people want to spend time with their families.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 4 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

We need to stop AI now. My family drive me up the wall it's why I don't live with them, crazy nutcases.

[–] Daft_ish@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 8 hours ago
[–] Xuntari@programming.dev 3 points 13 hours ago

We tried that at my job, who are pushing AI down our throats.

I'm not sure how they can say with a straight face that they now expect us to do 300-700% more work (their estimate) for the same pay and the same hours as before, but they apparently can... Just capitalism things I guess.

They also ridiculed the person who asked in front of the whole company.

[–] fodor@lemmy.zip 19 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

People have always asked that question about tech, my friend. You just weren't listening.

But AI is snake oil. It won't reduce work. It'll just fuck up things that currently work and let the billionaires get richer. Vaporware. That's it. That's why nobody asks about newfound free time. Cuz it's fake.

[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 6 points 13 hours ago

its primarly currently used an excuse to lay people off, and hire less people back if at all.

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[–] Randelung@lemmy.world 5 points 16 hours ago

I've taken that position at work. Since nobody's telling me otherwise, I'm taking some of that efficiency gain for myself. Tickets are still resolved quicker, but I profit despite the job sucking now, being nothing but code review. If I don't get some of the benefits, I'm going back to doing things by hand.

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 20 points 22 hours ago (5 children)

That would require that it come with UBI, which... seems doubtful at best...

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[–] VeryVito@lemmy.world 145 points 1 day ago (91 children)

No technology has ever resulted in lighter workloads for the average person. Different, and sometimes less strenuous, but never less time consuming.

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