this post was submitted on 12 Aug 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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Yes.
Like trains and bike lanes, people only love the environment enough to oppose investment in those specific things, their own environmental impacts from voting for roads to nowhere are irrelevant to them.
Therefore it’s only logical that people hate data centers and AI because they primarily concentrate wealth at the top. The valuations around AI are justified by the devaluation of college. To preface, I understand that wages and valuations are different metrics, but those with wealth have their net worth increase by 12%-ish per year. Maybe more, maybe less, but that’s about the edge of the pareto frontier that the market demands as a return. Lately it’s been way higher.
So we see frankly easy paths to a better living than 99% of the planet via careers CS, and very livable careers like environmental sciences becoming devalued. The goal of the AI companies is not to obsolete software engineers, it’s to satiate the demand for them and augment the leftovers with enough instant-knowledge and quasi-reasoning that they can replace 95% of other white-collar careers. Now the AI companies have a business market corner, to participate in the economy at all, you must first be trained through AI.
This hard pivot and devaluing of both the compensation and enjoyment of work has led people to oppose the build out of AI.
I’m generally a big optimist economically. I think simultaneously the environmental effects are overblown and not as wasteful as other water usage. Lawns and golf courses, for instance are wastes and paper mills are far more polluting for their economic output. But yeah, I’m kind of “with” the faux-environmentalists on stopping the build out.
The environmentalists have unfortunately been very unsuccessful historically, but the data center bans are here and growing without opposition. This is clearly about more than environmentalism.
If we’re truly approaching a post scarcity world, let’s see it! Throw the average person a bone! Let’s see a dignified life be made MORE achievable. Let’s see it! I dare them. They won’t though. So let the bans from the people roll in, and when the country falls behind on the AI race, investors will cry for deregulation, but everyone will know this was their fault all along.