this post was submitted on 27 May 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:

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If LLM users donated the same amount they paid to make LLM PR instead of submitting, FOSS projects could secure years of budget (lemmy.ca)
submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by inconel@lemmy.ca to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
29 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

They don't, so this stays in my shower

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[–] psycotica0@lemmy.ca 39 points 1 day ago (2 children)

To devil's advocate in a different direction, most projects aren't setup to actually do anything with donations. They could be, like if they had a stable income source they could hire people full time as a job rather then relying on volunteer time. And some of the larger projects are already at that point, and so maybe having more money would allow them to expand the team further. And some projects have a particular goal they're trying to fund, like an external security audit, or some kind of certification process.

But for most projects, sporadic donations are like "hey cool, I guess. I'll go out to dinner tonight" gifts of appreciation, because up until they become a solid full time wage, they're not a solid full time wage. And once they are a solid full time wage, any further donations are like "hey cool, I'll go out to dinner tonight" until they're big enough to be a second wage 😛

I'm not saying we shouldn't donate stuff, gifts of appreciation are still appreciated, I'm sure. But they don't produce output.

[–] Azzu@leminal.space 17 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

But they don't produce output

I would argue that this is not even close to true.

As an open source developer myself, my contribution to open source is pretty much exactly proportional to how well I'm feeling. Getting a donation makes me feel appreciated, using the money makes me feel better, all leading to me being more motivated to spend time on some open-source.

Obviously, being able to only work on open-source would generate more output, but the psychological impact of feeling appreciated to output can't be dismissed and is huge.

[–] psycotica0@lemmy.ca 3 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

Huh, that's some fun psychology. Donations make me feel guilty and uncomfortable 😛

Good to know someone enjoys them!

[–] Azzu@leminal.space 3 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

Well, this is in the context of people choosing to accept donations as an open-source developer. Taking donations requires opt-in, I would assume someone like you just wouldn't take them in the first place.

However, I'm sorry that they make you uncomfortable or even guilty, because that sounds to me like you think you don't deserve them. Which to me, is sad, because the other person making the donation definitely thinks you deserved it.

[–] morto@piefed.social 5 points 1 day ago

Smaller projects don't have structure for managing donations in part because they're not used to receiving donations. There's a chicken and egg problem in here

[–] cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 42 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The Pope literally just gave a speech about AI, saying it needs to serve humanity first and foremost — so the Pope would agree with you (if he understood FOSS; he might, but I'm not sure). While it's not always the best position to be in agreement with the Pope, apparently he also quoted or paraphrased Gandalf, so apparently it was a pretty good speech.

[–] jumponboard@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

A pope is never late. Nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.

[–] a4ng3l@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Is there like a meta-subscription somewhere to do that? I honestly don’t have time to look into this structurally but if there was a simple « humble bundle » style app I would use it over when I stumble on a button somewhere on GitHub.

It would be nice to have it curated - I personally don’t track FOSS projects that support my life.

[–] Barbarian@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If you're an EU citizen, just paying taxes does a lot.

[–] a4ng3l@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Ho TIL… that’s a nice one. I still stand by my « let’s have a way to participate more » but this is definitely nice to know that my taxes are at least supporting some.

[–] neo2478@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)
[–] a4ng3l@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Interesting one. Not a "bouquet" but clearly a dedicated one I align with.

[–] fubbernuckin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 hour ago

The FSF are the creators of the GPL license and the GNU project and arguably invented open source as a concept. The GNU project is essentially what makes up what we know as Linux (except for the kernel itself) as well as tons of other software including every GNOME application, GIMP, Emacs*, Bash, and plenty of others I can't think of. They also offer assistance to developers when the GPL is violated.

I'd argue they are a little bit of a bouquet.

[–] Blip6338@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I'm going to play devil's advocate here.

Paying a contribution will not give me the feature I want or need from a project, most project explicitly say so. Paying for a LLM to create a PR or a fork that will contain that feature is often a lot easier and a pretty good guarantee I will get it.

I am not diving into the code quality or maintainability of such PR/forks which is a whole thing in itself.

[–] midribbon_action@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 1 day ago

I am not diving into the code quality or maintainability of such PR/forks which is a whole thing in itself.

Is it a whole separate thing though? Maintainability of open source projects seems like the main concern for OP. Creating a fork that is impossible to maintain or merge is rot. The only people that benefit from it are you, temporarily, but mostly just Anthropic.

[–] Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 day ago

I mainly just make my own projects or fork and add to existing stuff, I figure as long as it's MIT FOSS meh it kinda equals out.

I also only spend about 30 a month for two services and run a local one.

[–] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

They are not because the point isn't to contribute to the software, the point is to make their GitHub page look better to get more work

[–] bridgeenjoyer@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

Ive thought the same thing.