this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2024
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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 best ones are thoughts that many people can relate to and they find something funny or interesting in regular stuff.

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Corporate America has programmed people to HUSTLE! BE THE BEST! ACHIEVE! MAKE MORE MONEY!!! for so long that they now need to pay someone to come and teach us how to relax, enjoy the moment and be happy again.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

now need to pay someone to come and teach us how to relax, enjoy the moment and be happy again.

That ain't what is happening here lol

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I was at a work event recently and the keynote speaker was talking about ai and stuff but she brought up Finland and started calling the people finlindians instead of Finnish, I was very confuse.

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

Finish him!

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

finlindians instead of Finnish, I was very confuse.

Suburban trash for ya

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Motivational speakers are repulsive to me in the same way super-engineered food is

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Except Matt Foley. He's a truly inspirational man.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Agreed. Matt Foley saved my life. If not for him, I would have ended up living in a van down by the river.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

Hell, I could go for that. Sitting on the tailgate, eating my can of pasta, watching the water flow by, no reports to finish, no quotas I need to meet.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 weeks ago

Practice patience. Drive slow. Why is it so hard?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

you should try reading zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I know someone who can fix all of their stuff, and they can't understand that book.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

it's not really about the motorcycle maintenance

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

the motorcycle maintenance is used as a metaphor for attending to one's own needs

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I can't tell if I'm being trolled or not.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago

That is the essential premise of the book. It's not a book that teaches you how to fix motorcycles it's a book that teaches you how to find mindfulness while doing work that is familiar to you.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

nope, totally genuine! the book explicitly states that actually

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago

I was an efficiency whore while working management at a big software company.

It sucked in some very specific ways. I didn’t even realize the impact until after I left that environment.

There were some good things from corporate America, too, but they didn’t bring real ultimate ~~power~~ happiness.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago

But they only mean that we need to relax and enjoy hustling and being the best

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 weeks ago

Depressing and true.

I have been in the corporate desk jockey world for too long. So much of what people do every day in the white collar world is just performative bullshit. David Graeber wrote about it better than I can describe it.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

To me, this says that your workplace has acknowledged and accepted that the way they do business is leading to burnout, at least for some people. But rather than using that as evidence that their business practices need to change, they've instead opted to individualize the problem. Our growth projections aren't unreasonably ambitious, you just need to do more deep breathing.

It's like how I'm told to take a vacation to relax, only to return to the same (or an even larger) pile of to-dos that I left behind.

Edit: If this resonates with you, check out the book "McMindfulness" by Ronald Purser.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 3 weeks ago

No, it's just stupid Americans falling for their next hype.

Instead of jerking balance they just jump from thing to thing, absolutely menta, honestly

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

As a generally chill guy that doesn't give a fuck about being a cog in the grind machine, I feel like Bane in The Dark Knight Rises.

"You merely adopted the chill. I was born in it, molded by it!"

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

Related: Connor O’Malley has a great (nsfw) stand up special on YouTube called “Stand Up Solutions” satirizing start-up VC hustle culture.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

What exactly was topic of discussion? I mean how the speaker was able to motivate.

Was it just like usual " work hard " etc.?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

No, it was how to relax and live in the moment and find joy.

I spent most of it typing out a tutorial for how to eat a taco without getting shit all over yourself. It's in my comment history if you're interested.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

"First step, don't shit where you eat."

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

Second step: get an apron and a giant sized toddler chair

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

The fun thing: If they're not paying you, you don't have to go. If they are paying you, take a nap.

[–] [email protected] 57 points 3 weeks ago

teach us how to relax, enjoy the moment and be happy again.

That's not what they're paying the motivational speaker to do. They're paying them to make you more productive and trick you in to thinking they care about you so that you might stay loyal and work harder to make them money.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago

speed up, slow down, make us more monies, never stop, until you can't anymore, then we'll find a younger model, cheaper

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