this post was submitted on 08 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:

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If they could draw or make music, they wouldn't need a robot to do it, and they clearly want to but don't have the skills.

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[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 13 points 1 day ago (3 children)

The question has never been whether people want it. I think it's pretty clear they do. The problem is whether people want to spend the time in money, or skill, to get it.

I would love to be able to paint sci-fi pinups. But do I want to trade 10k hours of other stuff I'm already better at to do it? Once I painted them, would I truly love the work, or would I just see all the imperfections and be grumpy about it?

Artists have it hard. They spend unending hours on their passion and, in the end, see everything through a critical lens. And when they spend a month of time on something amazing, no one wants to trade a day of salary to own a copy, or a month of salary to own the original.

AI is so wildly popular because it's cheap, and through the lens of the consumer (read untrained eye), the best of it evokes emotions they get from a piece that would go for hundreds or thousands of dollars.

The true fucked up part. If the courts all say NFG, dump all your diffusion models that are full of copyrighted material. They'd just go back and commission artists in distressed places and rebuild the models from properly purchased material and we'll be right back where we are.

Still image diffusion isn't even expensive to run,

[–] agent_nycto@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Have you considered the end result is not the purpose? The doing of art is what gives it meaning, to the artist and the viewer. It's what makes it satisfying, even if it didn't turn out how you wanted exactly.

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

is not the purpose? The doing of art is what gives it meaning, to the artist and th

I'm in a business that has a lot of artists. These are observations I make.

[–] agent_nycto@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

I'm also in the business of art abd I'm standing by what I said.

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 hour ago

have a nice one

[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

The end result is what other people see and what gets you paid. That's why people want to do it via AI.

Personally, I could sink 10k hours into whatever visual art and I'll never be good at it. I don't enjoy it either. I can only hire an expensive artist or use AI if I want something made. Since using AI art sucks, I've opted not to continue work on the video game I started work on a while ago. An alternative is to pay for asset packs from a studio that sells them, but then it's just an asset flip.

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

How soullessly capitalist it is to think the only purpose of art is what money you can make off of it. Who cares about meaning, the almighty dollar is the only thing important in life.

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[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (3 children)

i dont think it does.

because if people wanted to do the arts, they'd do the arts. while schools are expensive, sitting at home and writing lyrics or sketching out drawing isnt.

What using AI does, is let them get adoration from fools and idiots without having to make an effort in lifting a finger.

If you gave me a Star Trek Replicator, I'm gonna be eating all kinds of gourmet shit. It doesnt mean I want to be a world class chef, it just means I'm a lazy fat fuck that wants excess without effort or cost.

[–] pigup@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

Stolen valor

[–] Simon_Shitewood@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago

Arts in state schools isn't about mastering a particular medium, it's about introducing learners to the different forms art can take and giving access to specialised equipment that's too expensive for them to buy without committing to the art form. Sketching and lyrics writing are fine for some, but others won't learn they want to learn more about photography, or sculpture, or pottery, or an instrument, or any number of other things if they don't actually get the opportunity to try it. If more people understood art, AI artists wouldn't get that adoration in the first place.

[–] Donebrach@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Not sure why you got a downvote (at time of writing this). It’s absolutely the truth that using AI is laziness, not an accessibility tool. It’s unfortunate though. I find its use morally reprehensible and yet can’t help but be charmed by some of the batshit garbage it spits out. It’s definitely a 7-fingered sword.

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

Up/down votes dont matter anyway, don't concern yourself with it. They are a root evil and should just be ignored. If lemmy wanted to actually be different, and better, it'd get rid of the damned thing cause all it does is lead to mindless, thoughtless bandwagoning and dopamine addiction directed behavior.

[–] tmyakal@infosec.pub 95 points 2 days ago (5 children)

What it's actually highlighted is how overworked and underpaid everyone is now. When a single salary could comfortably support a whole family, people had more time. When only one person needed to leave the house to earn money, the rest of the family had time during the day to help with the domestic work: dishes, laundry, gardening, etc. Then the evenings could be spent indulging hobbies.

Now that we live in a world where you need to have a dual income to barely get by, both partners are working 8-10 hours per day for the paycheck and then coming home to another 2-3 hours of domestic work. It's fucking exhausting and there isn't time to focus on quilting, whittling, playing music, or any of the other fun and creative hobbies that my grandparents got to be into.

So these AIdiot tech bros come along and offer to sell you the feeling of doing those hobbies without having to spend the time or energy to actually do them? It's shitty, but I understand why a lot of people are taking that deal.

[–] pelespirit@sh.itjust.works 37 points 2 days ago (2 children)

If you look at the history of work in the US though, there was only a short window of time that you had that extra time. Unless you were wealthy, your kids started to work at a very young age. Have you seen the pics of kids where they look like they could haggle with you and rob you? The teenage years are a relatively new concept.

Also, most of the boomer and older generations:

  • Had no therapy
  • Had no entertainment or education to let them know what's possible. It was by who you had contact with.
  • If you were a POC, your life was most likely hell
  • If you were gay, your life was most likely hell.
  • If you were a woman, you life was most likely hell.

Yes, the goal is for everyone to get back to the lives of upper middle class, white men.

[–] SippyCup@lemmy.world 27 points 2 days ago

The middle class sprung out of a post war boom and the ruling class snatched that shit right back.

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[–] 4grams@awful.systems 36 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (8 children)

My sibling is trying to launch an AI music career and it drives me off a fucking cliff. No shit, one of the songs they made was used at a funeral and I nearly barfed. What’s worse, whenever I try to talk any sort of serious subject, about shit in the world, or what I’m dealing with in my personal life, their advice is to find a creative outlet Iike theirs.

Looking forward to the holidays after that banger they prompted for my birthday!

[–] jballs@sh.itjust.works 14 points 2 days ago (2 children)

What the fuck is an "AI music career"? Like, they're writing prompts for AI songs and then hoping people will pay money for this songs?

They're also stealing music from REAL musicians like me and trying to sell it and replace us. Fuck em, hope they fucking die.

[–] 4grams@awful.systems 8 points 1 day ago

Yes. Has quite a playlist on Spotify or something like it.

[–] agent_nycto@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Disgusting. I'd crawl out of my grave and strangle someone if they pulled this.

[–] anarchy79@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I was in on Suno super early. I write my own lyrics and beats and music but couldn't record voice (poor), so I'd put it in there and it's shocking how well it works.

So I figured, let's defraud a bunch of people on Spotify and get money, and then I thought about it and was like, what kind of scumbag would do such a thing, and dropped the idea and stopped using suno.

[–] mobyduck648@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

Honestly as a musician what I was hoping Suno would be is an intelligent loop pedal or backing generator that I could plug my instruments in and be supported by when there's not enough people for a whole band. I was so disappointed it's basically a slop generator.

I think a better tool for me would be a normal loop pedal which can be be disciplined in tempo by the drummer in real time.

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[–] MeatballMam@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

They're not even really using the ai correctly. If you really absolutely must use ai, there is a way to do it without ripping people off, harming artists, or being a petulant jackass on the internet.

Draw something. Draw something, upload it to your precious ai, "ok llm, here is what I can draw at my current level, tell me what I need to work on and give me exercises I can do to improve."

Boom. You can actually become a better artist, still use your precious ai, not hurt anyone, and actually develop a skill, and improve your life without a single artist getting harmed or a single person getting ripped off.

[–] agent_nycto@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago

Or better, check out a book from the library because ai will give you the art equivalent advice if putting glue on pizza

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Sure... If the AI could consistently give accurate, relevant answers and not conflate everything it has been trained on together resulting in incorrect or even entirely made up garbage.

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[–] glitchdx@lemmy.world 25 points 2 days ago (12 children)

Has nobody considered the angle that slopping is fun? It doesn't make you an artist, nor an author, nor a musician. But it makes a thing at your direction and you can point at it and say "this vaguely resembles the idea in my brain". For some people, that's enough.

(this has been part 4 on my Nuanced Opinions Regarding AI)

[–] Limonene@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's still theft. Nobody gave permission for their work to be used as training data.

[–] glitchdx@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

I agree. Sam Altman and his ilk deserve prison for stealing every intellectual property on the internet (among other crimes).

[–] OctopusNemeses@lemmy.world 19 points 2 days ago (2 children)

That's why the zeitgeist needs more time to settle on the perception of LLMs. It's a cool toy, but people shouldn't be getting it in their head that it gives them a shortcut to becoming a professional.

[–] dream_weasel@sh.itjust.works 9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

You gotta understand what it's good for as a tool and realize it's not going to do your job for you.

The problem is that it's utility is basically correlated with your skill on a given subject because you can't reasonably hope to guide it to what you actually want if you aren't already pretty skilled. Contrarily, the perceived "benefit" or "coolness" it provides you is inversely correlated with your skill but with like 3x the slope of utility.

If you are needing to navigate a pool of text as an expert in a field, it's obscenely useful and the holes/pitfalls are super evident. The less skilled you are as a user the more magical and beneficial it all looks, which is scary.

Edit I said some of that backwards . More skill more actually useful, less skill the more it seems useful and cool but will screw you up.

[–] anarchy79@lemmy.world 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

the problem is that it's utility is basically inversely correlated with your skill

I've thought this exact thing too, I'm sure many of us have. AI is really you get what you give, literally. If you're educated, well read, know how to write and interact and think critically and have some technical skill, it can be massively useful.

If you don't you just get mental masturbation.

Edit:

It's like, I hate cars. I want them dead, gone, erased.

And I can acknowledge their utility.

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[–] agent_nycto@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If people got a proper art education they would know drawing is more fun.

[–] glitchdx@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

to be fair, if the masses were educated we'd be on track to solve a shitton of our problems with that change alone.

As a completely separate thought, different people can find different things fun. And one person can find multiple things fun. I know I'm not indicative of a typical person, but I'd compare making your own art to Factorio, and prompting images from stable diffusion (or similar) to Cookie Clicker. I've put over a thousand hours into Factorio, and I like to think I'm mediocre at it, but that hasn't stopped me from enjoying games like Cookie Clicker (I say "like Cookie Clicker" because the incremental genre has moved on since then but that's besides the point).

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[–] MoogleMaestro@lemmy.zip 17 points 2 days ago (2 children)

They'd still do this even if they had the opportunity to not do it.

I've said it before and I'll say it again-- the only thing AI is good at is defrauding others. It's literally what it is trained to do.

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[–] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 4 points 1 day ago

even going to these expensive art or music schools, like juilhart, wont guaranteed your a good actor/musician, or artist. point out, like glenn howerton of isaip, hes very rigid in his acting, so hes not good elsewhere outside of his shows.(it explains why the cast so desperate to branch out like a decade ago)

[–] BlindPenguin@piefed.social 16 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I'm not sure if they really want to do art. My impression is, that those guys rather seek fame. And somehow got convinced that art is some kind of elitist thing, that leads to fame.

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