this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2023
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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 best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.

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Just wondering about how my life could have touched someone else's and I realized this. Maybe you're just joking around online and mention something that triggers an idea in someone else that leads to revolutionary new things that impact humans everywhere. Even if you're forgotten, or uncredited, you had a meaningful contribution.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This idea reminds me of an observation I’ve often had, which is that there are no true auteurs, in other words, nothing creative or special is ever the product of one person. Even in the most extreme case of an artist who lives their whole life without ever being discovered, there is also the person who eventually discovers the legacy and does the work of making it accessible to people, not to mention all the people who validate the life’s work by viewing it and relating it to their lives.

What the idea does for me is it helps me understand that I don’t need to “complete the universe” with what I do, in other words, the way OP put it is great.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I mean, imagine someone credits their toilet or their shower, which definitely have triggered a lot of ideas

[–] Samihazah 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Better yet, misinterpretation can lead to wonderful things.
Mistaking one thing for another, mishearing stuff, tripping over your own shoelaces, those are still things that contribute to the creative process.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Or something negative. Maybe you just got a job. Awesome. But you were in front of someone else. Someone who too could have gotten that job, someone who's been unsuccessful for years. And now he again has no chance. He keeps searching for a few more months, but now in huge debts, that person decides to take their life by jumping under a train. But this is only start. It gives the train driver trauma, he's no longer able to do his job that his family so much depended on. They can't afford education for their children. And things keep getting perpetually worse and worse. From 1 person, it now affects 5, which creates even bigger impact and the story could continue.

I am certainly overthinking this, but you never know.

Or maybe you just rejected mediocre artist from art school without thinking about it. You know that one.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

You could very well be the reason why someone hates your entire race/gender/creed/country!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Or you could be so amazing that you're the reason why someone loves your entire race/gender/creed/country!

... And that in turn makes that person hate all other races/genders/creeds/countries and spend their whole lives committing atrocities to eradicate them, so that everyone in the world looks a bit more like you.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago

I'm the kind of person parents point to to scare their children into learning.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Let me be the catalyst and say

be the change that you want, bud!

Now, you have been tasked to do something special. Don't let us down OP, we're all counting on you!

Edit : Don't fail humanity! No pressure!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

Oh shiiit im not op but now i must do something special

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Martha and John Kent may not have changed the world, but Superman sure did

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

This gave me a great idea!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Like the ex-husband of J K Rawling?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

My neighbor from childhood told me their daughter took up guitar when she heard me and my friends playing music in my garage. She started a band, toured a chunk of the country for a few years after college.