this post was submitted on 03 Apr 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:

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Applies to many other colors as well. I "understand" why that is but it hurts my brain to think about.

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[–] TheFeatureCreature@lemmy.ca 16 points 2 days ago (4 children)

No, that is incorrect. Modern displays have subpixels of red, green, and blue and they are only ever producing various brightness levels of those exact colours. In the case of an OLED or LED displays, they would be perfectly monochromatic colours. The colours do not combine as coloured paint would to produce a new colour. That isn't how they work nor how you view them. We are looking directly at the subpixels and they are activating your rods and cones directly.

Yellow does not exist when a monitor displays a yellow colour. Your brain thinks it does because its red and green cells are being activated. This is also how you can see the colour magenta despite your monitor display red and blue, colours which are on the opposite ends of the visible spectrum. Magenta never exists during the process of displaying magenta on a screen, it only does in your brain.

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

Exen paint mixing does not result in a new color; it's the same effect.

[–] four@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago

What I meant is that if you have a photo of a yellow flower, I'd would say that the file contains "yellow color", even though it only uses RGB values. The display is "transmitting yellow into your brain" by emitting a combination of wavelengths. Wavelength that normally represents color yellow is not emitted, but the "color yellow" is sent, in a way

[–] fubbernuckin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 days ago

A few nitpicks

Subpixels would not be perfectly monochromatic unless they were laser displays. Quantum dot can get kinda close though.

if mixing light additively didn't create new colors then mixing paints subtractively wouldn't either. the results of those processes still result in light that can activate our cones with combinations of wavelengths in the exact same way.

I think the semantics of what color light is doesn't matter which wavelengths are used to produce it, but what it looks like. We don't say something is yellow because it has wavelengths of light that look yellow on their own, we say something is yellow because it looks yellow. Likewise people use the term white light all the time when there's no single wavelength that produces white.

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca -4 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] TheFeatureCreature@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

A 16 year old niche display tech that has seen next to no use is not the epic zinger gotcha you think it is.

If I were to cover every single niche display tech that wasn't strictly RGB then I'd be writing a damn novel. Nearly every device that people interact with will be RGB. That is the common standard.