this post was submitted on 07 Jan 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:

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

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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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[–] roguelazer@lemmy.world 242 points 6 days ago (7 children)
[–] cosmOS@lemmy.zip 79 points 6 days ago

And here I thought I was being clever. Thanks for sharing! That was great.

[–] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 47 points 6 days ago

And either way, eventually someone from the city would probably show up to ask why you're using 40 tons of water every day. Image

lol

[–] Lumidaub@feddit.org 49 points 6 days ago

I am DELIGHTED

[–] VicksVaporBBQrub@sh.itjust.works 16 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Wow. I never thought of bottling and selling water.

Was surprised xkcd didn't mention steam boiler turbines.

[–] RelativeArea1@sh.itjust.works 12 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Wow. I never thought of bottling and selling water.

ah. yes. the nestle way.

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[–] cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 5 days ago (4 children)

Love this article, but they kinda bury the lede making the Coca-cola joke about bottling and selling water.

Most bottled water you buy in stores is, in fact, tap water. If you think they're getting it from a mountain spring, even if there's a mountain on the label, you would be mistaken. You wouldn't want mountain water (with bear piss) anyway, the water you buy bottled is filtered and treated. It's good tap water, but it's still tap water. So next time your water bottle runs out, just refill it from the tap. Assuming your tap water is potable and doesn't taste like shit.

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 4 points 5 days ago

That's only correct if it's labeled as "purified water." If it says "spring water," then it came from a mountain spring.

The thing about being bottled at the source, is that it's upstream from all the "bear piss."

[–] teft@piefed.social 5 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I grew up drinking mountain spring water. It’s way better than “bear piss”. Filtered and treated doesn’t mean better. Some natural water from springs is perfectly fine.

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[–] Cevilia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 68 points 5 days ago (2 children)
[–] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 11 points 5 days ago

Nice to know that someone already did the math (the monster math!)

[–] Crashumbc@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago (1 children)

That's a really stupid way to do it, you connect the water turbine directly to the faucet. Why water all the tap water pressure.

[–] Hacksaw@lemmy.ca 14 points 5 days ago (1 children)

You didn't read past the first paragraph.

you can just hook the faucet up to your device, and let the water pressure drive the generator directly. In either case, for a bathtub faucet, this works out to almost 200 watts, or $25 per month

[–] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

Though what you could do is place small turbines in your piping so that any time you use your water for normal uses, it would generate some electricity at the cost of a loss of pressure once it passes through. Though it would be more efficient to just turn down the pumps generating that pressure to the new pressure setting and using the electricity saved there (if you are the one running the pump, water included in rent would transfer some energy to you but lose some overall).

[–] IWW4@lemmy.zip 85 points 5 days ago (3 children)

You would be that asshole who ruined it for everyone else.

[–] YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 19 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Not to mention considering most water pressure in... well, any country. They may be able to charge their phone and run a lamp at best.

No tv, no water heater, no fridge, no ac or heat, no white noise fans to fall asleep to.

[–] fuzzzerd@programming.dev 14 points 5 days ago

Wth water running 24/7 there's no need for a white noise machine any more, just listen to the water.

[–] IWW4@lemmy.zip 5 points 5 days ago

That is a very good point.

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[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 99 points 6 days ago (12 children)
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[–] Win012@lemmy.today 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

You could stick a windmill on top of your car and build up power as you drive to go faster if you drive faster

[–] tux7350@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago

Thank you for the laugh (⁀ᗢ⁀)

[–] EpicFailGuy@lemmy.world 31 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Most apartments with water included in the rent price (Sorry kids, there's no such thing as "free water") closely monitor their usage on a per building or floor basis. Whenever they detect irregularities they schedule inspections with the tenants to check for things like leaking toilet valves and such.

"free water" just means that they've calculated the cost of installing the meters and additional plumbing and determined that monitoring global usage and including it in the price of rent is cheaper.

Source: I have water included in my rent, I pay about $50 more a month than a similar apartment without.

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[–] PeachMan@lemmy.world 50 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Oh shit, mine gives me free heat......I could just strap a Stirling engine to my radiator!

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[–] db2@lemmy.world 37 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Think harder next time. They'll be able to figure out that you're not filling an Olympic sized pool every week and water/sewer use that excessive is gonna be a breach of contract aka eviction.

[–] Lumidaub@feddit.org 20 points 6 days ago (1 children)

What if I live in a country with renter-friendly laws where landnobility can't just kick out their tenants but have to give them opportunity to correct their behaviour? And also there is a reason that right now eludes me why my landnobleperson or anyone else won't be checking water consumption for the foreseeable future?

[–] db2@lemmy.world 10 points 6 days ago (1 children)

If they're paying the water bill they're going to know.

[–] Lumidaub@feddit.org 12 points 6 days ago (8 children)

Yes but that's future me's problem. Present me wants to know if the thing OP is suggesting would work now.

[–] db2@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Sort of. You could probably get enough out of it for lights and maybe an appliance, but eventually if you're using a lot you'll hit a power consumption ceiling where the water pressure even with the valve wide open is insufficient to turn the generator. In case you don't know, as demand increases the windings of a generator (any generator) get harder to turn.

You could cheat a little and have the water turn a big heavy flywheel that in turn turns the generator, it would be slow to start up but more resilient to demand spikes once it's up to speed.

There's also the noise any of it would make turning and vibrating but that can be future you's problem too.

[–] Lumidaub@feddit.org 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Noice. You're now tagged as "dis dood hydrates" :D

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[–] nandeEbisu@lemmy.world 12 points 5 days ago

For high rises, why not stick a turbine on the outlet for waste water at the bottom of the building? You've already spent the energy to pump it up dozens of floors why not recoup some of it when it falls back down?

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Mine used to give me free water and natural gas. I filled my waterbed with hot water when I moved in.

Years later, they changed it over so that the whole building was metered and the price was divided.

[–] SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today 2 points 4 days ago (2 children)

That's a legal. Metered utilities can be either included in the rent, or metered on a per unit basis. In this setup, if your neighbor uses a lot of utilities your bill will go up. That's why this is illegal.

[–] rumba@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 days ago

looking into my state code, it's legal if it's in the lease and they did ammend the lease on renewal to include it.

Morale? no. Legal here? it would appear to be.

[–] ADTJ@feddit.uk 3 points 4 days ago

It's illegal everywhere in the world?

Seems an odd thing to come together on

[–] DoubleDongle@lemmy.world 14 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Also consider running cold water through some sort of radiator if you want free AC

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[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 10 points 5 days ago

You'll be using less water than an AI data centre

[–] Trigger2_2000@sh.itjust.works 9 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Best fucking idea ever!

If you ever get free gas too, I have an idea for a wind turbine.

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[–] gravitas@pie.gravitywell.xyz 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Well I can say from experience that your landlord won't be happy, but as long as it doesnt say a limit in your lease there's nothing they can do about it.

Free Water Every Single Day!

[–] CallMeAnAI@lemmy.world 10 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Their ain't a lease in the country that doesn't give a complex the right to toss you out for generic reasons. 

And you could waste your time in court, but you'd lose.

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[–] j4k3@piefed.world 7 points 6 days ago

Unlikely, but if any main power lines run past your walls or floor where they are regularly carrying substantial current, you can probably use a wire coil to light an led or something.

[–] Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works 6 points 6 days ago (4 children)

Sure but there wouldn’t be enough power, especially if you need things like AC.

[–] Fondots@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

You're thinking too small: water cool your apartment

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