this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2026
59 points (96.8% liked)
Showerthoughts
41231 readers
336 users here now
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
Rules
- All posts must be showerthoughts
- The entire showerthought must be in the title
- 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
- Posts must be original/unique
- 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.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
The 'wtf' subreddit comes to mind. By the time I left that site there were FB moms posting issues with their casserole purchase from Walmart to r/wtf. Was both disheartening and hilarious.
There’s a weird phenomenon where subs get homogenized and less accurate as they get popular. It’s because posts and comments are ranked by user votes, not accuracy. So as subs get popular, pandering to the average user works more and more.
I work in professional audio, and there is a lot of misinformation, disinformation, and snake oil in the audiophile world. And I was fairly active on a few audio related subs back when they were niche. But as they grew, the snake oil inevitably ended up at the top of the comments more frequently.
It’s because someone peddling snake oil can get upvoted by the masses if they make it sound believable, and stroke the average reader’s ego just a little bit. If a situation requires in-depth technical knowledge about how something works, that post likely won’t appeal to the average user on a popular sub. But someone offering snake oil in an easily digestible format will get upvoted just because the masses believe it.
Let’s say someone posts a troubleshooting question on a technical topic. The problem isn’t something the average user would encounter, and just using surface-level knowledge will get you nowhere. Now let’s say there are two answers: One is correct, but highly technical. It flies over the average user’s head. The other is incorrect, but is presented in a way that the average user feels like they learned something from it. On a niche sub, the first answer (correct) would be upvoted. On a popular sub, the second (incorrect) would be upvoted.
People want to feel smart, not be smart. If you’re reading a highly technical post that you don’t understand, you don’t feel smart. Because if it’s too technical, it’s all just going right over your head. And that doesn’t feel good. But if someone posts something that seems technical but is really just surface-level stuff that anyone can understand, it will get upvoted by the average user. On a niche sub, there are enough experts to bury the incorrect/surface-level posts. But on a popular sub, those experts get buried by the masses.