this post was submitted on 17 Apr 2025
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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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Sure, playing chess needs intelligence, dedication, and good chess players are smarter than an average person. But it's waaaay exaggerated in movies. I'm a math researcher, and in any movie, my department will be full of chess geniuses. But in reality, only about 10% of them even play chess.

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[–] Geetnerd@lemmy.world 22 points 2 weeks ago (17 children)

Chess requires dedication, conviction, and patience. Anyone with average intelligence can learn the game to the point of competence in 30 minutes.

It requires much more time to become an expert, or master.

And most people don't have that much time to expend on it. That's not something to be ashamed of.

[–] floo@retrolemmy.com 20 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (15 children)

Much of the game of chess, particularly becoming an expert or a master, relies on memorizing every possible move and, then, every possible counter move. Mastery of chess is almost always reliant upon that memorization.

The game itself is not that complex, and most people can learn how to play chess fairly quickly. Much of the apparent wizardry of chest mastery is actually just a sign of excellent memorization of every possible move and it’s possible counter moves.

There’s not a lot of creativity in chess

[–] SexualPolytope@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 2 weeks ago (10 children)

I'd argue that there is a certain kind of creativity in coming up with those moves. But since it's mostly a solved game now, modern players probably don't experience it anymore.

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