Being aware of something being wrong doesn't mean you know how to do it better.
this post was submitted on 26 Jun 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 would accept that answer if we actually tried literally anything else at any point in time.
We should teach this to our children in school and then absolutely savage them as adults for believing it.
That's how Catholic school felt
They wrote it down, and often in insightful, compelling ways.
I go to a Shakespeare festival every year to see plays I've seen before, because they make laugh, they offer new insights, new perspectives, by being presented by different directors, different actors.
Hell, all stories are the hero's journey - may as well stop making new stories since they're all the same.
As an aside, Upstart Crow is a send-up of Shakespeare himself, using his own stories and methods. Same old stories, but completely new.
all stories are the hero's journey
People need to stop saying this shit. When Joseph Campbell wrote Hero with a Thousand Faces, it was from his limited point of view and selectively chose or changed details on the subjects he picked. It wasn't true then, and it's even less true now.
He was acknowledging a common trend between many works involving a hero. It is similar to the three acts of a story, which is also not completely universal, just really common. He also applied it with some heavy squinting so what he was looking at fit into his box, more so than being selective about the works.
It works as one version of a story of self discovery, but I can't think of any that have every step in his journey. Many have a number of parts but mostly the basic ideas that person growth requires outside input and changes based on experiences. If it wasn't so rigid it would be far more informative.
I don't think it's enough just to point out that we're doing society wrong. Unless you're Earnest Hemingway, you need to do it in an appealing literary way, language and structure and characters and that sort of thing.