Sir, can I introduce you to depression?
this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2025
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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.
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- 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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I thought ignorance was supposed to be blissful 🥲
Knowledge is a separate thing from intelligence. Even the smartest person in the world is ignorant of tons of stuff because it hasn't come up in their life yet.
Intelligence can make it easier to collect knowledge, or to better understand it, but they are separate things.
I've always seen the distinction as:
- knowledge = the body of facts
- wisdom = ability to apply knowledge to situations in the world and your life
In our society the word "smart" can be applied to either one. Ken Jennings, legendary game show player of Jeopardy, is considered smart because of his extensive depth of knowledge of trivia. I content Method Man (and other members of the Wu-Tang Clan) along with Raider Ruckus are wise for encapsulating the idea of "Cash rules everything around me, C.R.E.A.M., get the money, Dollar, dollar bill y'all".
Sir, this is The Andes
There is a non-zero chance that if you press it, you become smarter enough to realize you shouldn't have pressed it...
Actually a lot of chance if you're the only one pushing it
Oops!
Until you do and wish you hadn't.
I thought the only smart move was to not play?
Oh, wait, that's Global Thermonuclear War.
And blackjack
And stock options.
Dividend reinvestment, index funds, and someone in charge not trying to steal all our money.
That used to be the secret recipe
It'll be interesting to see if it stands up to the test of time. For better or worse, I replaced my VTI index ETF with VTV to avoid the highest p/e offending tickers.
It sucks that I spent my whole life following the rules. Saving my money. Making low risk investments to provide for my family and our future.
And it’s all being stolen now.
Steal what people have to lose and they'll start acting like they've nothing left to lose...
The sheer unfairness of it stings and festers, I agree and feel the same as you. There's some solace in knowing there was never really anything I could have done differently, except perhaps lived a little more decadently, although I'm not sure that would have made me much happier at the time and probably would have made me even more poorly prepared, mentally, for the austerity to come.
My parents were strategic geniuses for having this book in the house when I was a kid. I believe it helped my slow lifetime acceptance of the 'life is no fair' fact.
And The Game. Wait, you can't!
I lost the game
and hookers!
I'm smart enough to ask questions about the button before I press it.
Step into Cthulu's trap.
Only good things can happen.
Speaking of cthulu. You ever read a colder war by Charles Strauss? It's got Cthulhu in it and he talks about how awful he is. Like what he does is he murders you from like 100 miles away and psychically copies your soul into his personal universe where he tortures you forever in every possible way
Would rather have a charm button
It's a real shame then that I'm a complete idiot.
Ignorance is bliss
Intelligence begets depression.
Oh bullshit
Well, I've never seen a depressed brick
Replace button with book and press with read and yup.
Reading is overrated.
Plus, you can't trust books... with all those words....
Yeah, I mean, c'mon books. Why you gotta be so wordy?
You live in a society where we are told from birth that reading is awsome. In school we are told to read every day. Million dollar propaganda campaigns are waged to get us to read more. Popular celebrities are portrayed enjoying a good book.
And you think that reading is good too.
Coincidence?
I was of the understanding reading books had fallen out of favor and reality shows, endless scrolling, 24/7 news, and podcasts were the new and supposedly best way to expose oneself to entertainment disguised as information.
What's your preferred method of acquiring knowledge and exercising your intelligence to hit the proverbial 'ensmartment button'?
False equivalence. And point-dodging. Bzzzt
In what activities do you personally engage to cultivate your intellect?
Sounds like you better get busy on building that ensmartering button then, because exposure to knowledge through books and other educational media is the only way I know of to become smarter. I suppose healthy living facilitates the process greatly, as well.
That's just your level of smartness talking.
The smarter you are the less happy you are. Fuck that button.
Bullshit
If you say so.
ignorance is bliss
Ignorance is being trapped in a maze. Intelligence is flying above the walls of the maze
i wish my understanding of how fucked we really are gave me flying superpowers.
ignorance is not knowing how you are trapped.
Acceptance is calling a corner of the maze home.
On another note, I have an idea for a minecraft world