this post was submitted on 09 Mar 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
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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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[–] WoodScientist 25 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The most common first name in the world is Mohammad. The most common surname name in the world is Wong.

Thus, logically, the most normal person on Earth must be named Mohammad Wong.

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

Me trying to work out the pun over here squinting my eyes and clocking my head. Got nothing.

[–] WoodScientist 4 points 2 days ago

It's really a statistics joke. If you assume both observations are independent, then yes, the most average name might be "Mohammad Wong." But if there are other confounding factors, such as the mapping of names to ethnic groups, then the whole thing falls apart. Obviously Mohammad Wong is not the most common name on the planet.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

One of the most important things I heard in middle school was from a friend of a friend: "It's normal to be weird and it's weird to be normal. Have you ever met someone who was truly 'normal?'"

[–] Noel_Skum 9 points 2 days ago

Shout out to all the abnormal people that don’t consider themselves abnormal.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago (2 children)

No one is looking at me and thinking “normal” lol

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

Same. People look at me all the time for some reason, although who the fuck knows why.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Honestly, I would. In my opinion, if it exists, then it is normal.

Even what we perceive as shitty/horrid/weird/unorthodox is entirely normal, as everything is part of a deeply complex causal system. We may not fully grasp the tapestry of ramifications which lead to said causal normalcy, but, again, if it weren't normal, it wouldn't exist (to further entangle this, nothingness itself thus becomes normal).

Everything beyond that is our biased perception which births opinions. Nothing more. This is not to say that our opinions don't matter, as some aspects are more constructive than others (eg. honesty vs. deception, life vs. death, etc., and even these can switch places in the right context) and we have the power to act upon our opinions and directly influence the system of causality within which we exist, which we should do as often and as sincerely as possible.

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

It’s just a joke, like saying you have a great face for radio.

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

It's also further proof that I absolutely suck at identifying jokes:))

I apologise if I came off as too "dime store philosopher," this whole normalcy thing has deep roots in my conception. I've seen so many people haunted by the feeling of being abnormal (myself included, ngl), that it's become a sort of a nurturing instinct to try to dispel it as much and as often as I can.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

[Correction: the use as "typical or common" predates its use in math. https://www.etymonline.com/word/normal]

"Normal" is first and foremost a mathematical concept. And so by definition, everything can not all be normal

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

Respectfully disagree, our interpretation of mathematics is secondary to the entirety of existence. "Normal" is most definitely not exclusive to mathematics, and thus, in this context, entirely unrelated.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Please see updated comment

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I normally don't consider myself at all.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

I don't consider at all.

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

I thought about it for a second, and my mental idea of what a normal person is is like some black and white nuclear family, white dad with slick back hair and a sweater and a pipe in his mouth, and wife wearing a gingham dress, cooking food and cleaning with her hair in an updo.

If that is what normal is, there's only ever been one family that was actually normal, and they are all dead now.

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

Which family was it?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

the big leap from high school was realizing nobody has the normal life.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

Normal people doesn't exist, because people is a way to broad term to perform any kind of normalisation.