Consider showering

post by bohaska (Bohaska) · 2025-04-01T23:54:26.714Z · LW · GW · 13 comments

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I think rationalists should consider taking more showers.

As Eliezer Yudkowsky once said, boredom makes us human [LW · GW]. The childhoods of exceptional people [LW · GW] often include excessive boredom as a trait that helped cultivate their genius:

A common theme in the biographies is that the area of study which would eventually give them fame came to them almost like a wild hallucination induced by overdosing on boredom. They would be overcome by an obsession arising from within.

Unfortunately, most people don't like boredom, and we now have little metal boxes and big metal boxes filled with bright displays that help distract us all the time, but there is still an effective way to induce boredom in a modern population: showering.

When you shower (or bathe, that also works), you usually are cut off from most digital distractions and don't have much to do, giving you tons of free time to think about what you want, which is hard to find today. People from various places and cultures report having flashes of insight while in the bathroom. This phenomenon is so common that we even have a name for it: shower thoughts. 

So next time, please consider thinking about Friendly AI while you relax in a bathtub. The future of humanity might depend on it.

1. ^{^}

   showers also help keep you clean, but I guess if that was persuasive enough, you wouldn't need to read this post in the first place

2. ^{^}

   although written on April Fool's Day, this is more of a weakly-held belief than a joke

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