this post was submitted on 24 Sep 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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- 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
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Yeah, shit does suck and having financial security is better therapy than therapy.
Success is the best antidepressant. Weight loss does wonders.
Yeah, but that's a different mechanism of addiction to feeling good due to a surge of emotions.
Celebrities, multi-millionaires, all kinds of people with what look like imaginary problems to outsiders - but those problems leave them with the same helpless feelings, unable to change the "unacceptable" things in their lives. Depression is "all in your head" no matter what your circumstances are. Suicide is a pretty undeniable indicator that it was real / serious. Suicide rates are higher in people with financial stress, but they're far from zero all the way up the economic pyramid.
Having financial security eases with financial worries to an extent but doesn't entirely solve even that issue nor does it even begin to deal with the unrelated issues. One can be financially secure and absolutely miserable.
well I am financially insecure and miserable :(
They say misery loves company, you have a lot of that today...
I often think about how if I was financially secure for the future it would not change the state of my country or the world. I would be happier day to day to some degree but it would not change whats going on.
Turn that on its head: what if the world were to change where not only you, but everyone was more financially secure...
oh yeah that would be great. my dream scenario is a world where I am the lowest on the totem and that is not so bad a thing to be. I mean I can be content on pretty small amounts but its gotta be in a rational caring system.
But if that was true Elon would be the happiest person on earth.
Offer valid only up to $150k, turns out. After that, it starts going downhill.
*different cities may experience slightly higher or lower values, terms and conditions apply
No study suggests this. It keeps going up - you're just hitting diminishing returns.
There’s a trillionaire that is desperate to get into pedophile parties, and between him and the common person, there’s a lot of millionaires and billionaires in those pedophile parties, so there’s clearly a downward trending curve.
Yeah but that's because he's a shit excuse for a human, and is fundamentally broken. Whereas a normie would self-actualize with the resources to do so.
Above the $150K threshold (was $70K when they first widely published the idea, but inflation...) it really depends on what you are doing for that $150K, what kind of responsibilities you have taken on, stressors you have, and zero responsibilities or stressors is not a great place to be on the curve, people with no reasons to live aren't in a great spot.
Feel like that used to be true, now you need that and stability.
Maybe his happiness is so far up the scale it folded back in on itself and circled back to depression. Like getting a burn from dry ice.
unsigned integer overflow in real life :o
No, you're picturing a linear curve on a graph (i.e. a straight line). Most systems in life do not behave linearly though. An S shape is probably more accurate, with happiness levelling off past a certain point.
I'll agree with the S, but there's also probably a bit of a bump up at the low end when you get into "nothing left to lose" territory.
That should just be the bare minimum for everyone and whatever other issues can be handled by therapy, but instead we live in a world of constant, easily preventable trauma and the ones who have it the worst have the least access to therapy. Great system!
First, everybody should have financial security - it's better not to have justifiably pissed off desperate members of society.
Next, everybody should have decent healthcare, physical and mental - society is not stronger having weak / broken members.
Then: people are still going to be depressed. People who have all the financial security, access to all the best therapy, no "real" problems in their lives still get depressed - like: Carrie Fischer suicidally depressed. She's not an isolated case. Some of it's genetic (runs in families), some of it's environmental, some of it's just mental. Most of it's based in feelings of hopelessness / helplessness. The AA serenity prayer is very applicable:
...grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference.
Genuinely internally actualizing those three things alleviates a lot of depressive feelings. Not everybody can do it on their own, even with support many people still struggle. It's likely underreported, but globally 1/100 deaths are ruled as suicides. Among ages 15-29 it is the third leading cause of death.