this post was submitted on 02 May 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.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:

Rules

  1. All posts must be showerthoughts
  2. The entire showerthought must be in the title
  3. No politics
    • 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
  4. Posts must be original/unique
  5. Adhere to Lemmy's Code of Conduct and the TOS

If you made it this far, showerthoughts is accepting new mods. This community is generally tame so its not a lot of work, but having a few more mods would help reports get addressed a little sooner.

Whats it like to be a mod? Reports just show up as messages in your Lemmy inbox, and if a different mod has already addressed the report, the message goes away and you never worry about it.

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If the government is willing to spend the effort to investigate, they'll find that deleted comment you posted 10 years ago criticizing the government.

But if you want to find your lost files after your cloud account gets suspended for vague "ToS Violations", I hope you have a backup, because good luck trying to get the cloud provider to send you a copy of your files.

It might be out there, but not for you.

Unless you convince a government to try and get it for you. 🤔

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[–] [email protected] 81 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Reminds me of an old joke.

A farmer's son is in jail. His father writes him and says that the horse died and he won't be able to plow the fields. The son writes back that he buried $10 million somewhere in the fields, but can't remember where it is. The next letter from the father tells the son that the FBI showed up and dug up everything, so now he can plant.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 day ago (1 children)

This made me think of something I read online one time that essentially said if you really want to get a question answered correctly on the internet you shouldn't just ask it, but rather you should post the question and then answer it incorrectly as, invariably, someone will show up to correct you

[–] [email protected] 24 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Murphy's Law: the best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

YES THAT IS CORRECT AND NOBODY NEEDS TO SAY ANYTHING ELSE.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

I know some people hate these threads, but I think they're fun. I'd never start one, but I'll join in if someone else does.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Generic spin on it being a mafioso.

An old gentleman lived alone in New Jersey . He wanted to plant his annual tomato garden, but it was very difficult work, as the ground was hard. His only son, Vincent, who used to help him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and described his predicament:

Dear Vincent, I am feeling pretty sad because it looks like I won't be able to plant my tomato garden this year. I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. I know if you were here my troubles would be over. I know you would be happy to dig the plot for me, like in the old days. Love, Papa

A few days later he received a letter from his son.

Dear Papa, Don't dig up that garden. That's where the bodies are buried. Love, Vinnie

At 4 a.m. the next morning, FBI agents and local police arrived and dug up the entire area without finding any bodies. They apologized to the old man and left. That same day the old man received another letter from his son.

Dear Papa, Go ahead and plant the tomatoes now. That's the best I could do under the circumstances.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

A modern spin on it would be like:

The son is accused of drug trafficking

The father: "I can't access the cloud drive account on [Site Name]"

The son: "If you ever remember the password and get in, delete the account. That's where my (drug trade) ledger is"

Overnight, the FBI filed subpoena to the cloud company requesting a copy of any files on any of [the father]'s accounts. Within days, the company compiled and send the info to the FBI.

[The son]'s defence attorney got a copy of the files due to the discovery process, and passed it on to the father.

The father: "Son, I don't know how, but your lawyer just sent me an email this afternoon with all the family photos"

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

I like your version better!

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What if it's a picture of a cat in a closed box with a vial of poison on the internet?

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Then pedantic netizens will point out that it's a complete mischaracterization of Schrödinger's thought experiment.

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

Its accurate so long as you write "C'est ne pas un chat" under the picture of the box.

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

I'm glad there aren't any of those on Lemmy.

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

Are you saying we think we correctly know what his thought experiment represented until we actually look into it?

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago

This is why I only upload incriminating files. No one needs to be convinced to backup my data.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago

Just because it’s out there forever doesn’t mean it will be at all easy to find. You would’ve made a terrible pirate.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I had this conversation with some non-tech savvy relatives a while ago. I think because they'd heard that adage they were under the impression that just by virtue of something being posted online it will remain there forever. Its more like once you post something online you can potentially lose control of it. So it could disappear completely if the site goes down, the file is corrupted or you remove it yourself and the platform or host you used didn't keep a backup. But also someone could download/ screenshot it and even if whatever host agrees to delete it and any backups you still have no way to stop it proliferating, so you should act like everything you post will remain online forever.