this post was submitted on 31 May 2025
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Why isn't this a popular thing?

(page 2) 50 comments
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[–] olafurp@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It's because a lot of the way humans go about their life is based on traditions. Getting everybody to switch from a system that already works pretty well is just a hassle.

Examples:

  • English spelling is faaar from phonetic and children take longer to learn how to spell than in Spanish for example. (though, cough, enough, plough instead of something like thouğ, koff, enaf and the US plow)
  • Metric system adopted globally would streamline a lot of global industries that have no cater to each system.
  • Driving right side everywhere. Sweden switched but asking India to switch makes way less sense.
  • Date formats. Arguably the best if everyone uses ISO 8601 but nobody does.
[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 5 points 2 weeks ago

I do use ISO 8601

[–] lgsp@feddit.it 6 points 2 weeks ago

TL:DR -> https://thelemmy.club/comment/19143233

Examples:

  • The year doesn't start at the shortest day (Persian calendar is better in that regard).

  • month length is not evenly distributed. Why is February shorter?

  • time is almost never power of 10: there is 12, 60, 24

  • time zones are used to follow alliances: see al the nations that went to CET after fall of URSS

  • you can easily estimate your local time by looking at the sun

  • Holidays tend to happen on the same approximate dates even when major cultural changes happen. See how Christianity took over a lot of things from Romans.

[–] pastermil@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

because despite all the technological advancement, we still live enclosed in these self-ambulatory lumps of flesh that crave the sun.

[–] Allero@lemmy.today 2 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

Living in the same timezone doesn't mean waking up and going to bed at the same time.

You can still consider whatever time the sun gets up in your area as morning and the dusk will tell you when it's evening.

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[–] BeardedGingerWonder@feddit.uk 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

This is a surprisingly divisive topic every time I see it or suggest it. I reckon the divisor is "people who use and work across timezones a lot" and "people who don't". Fuck I hate timezones.

[–] Quibblekrust@thelemmy.club 2 points 2 weeks ago

You know who hates time zones the most? Programmers.

[–] omxxi@feddit.org 4 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

That would be shifting from timezone to "workzone" or "noonzone". At this moment you need to setup a meeting with people, then you ask which is their timezone. With global UTC timezone, then you need to ask, which are your work hours? (workzone).

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[–] HatchetHaro@pawb.social 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

because we sleep at night and are active during the day, and so we need to track that in a way that is universal. if i mention 12:00, people understand that it is noon where i am, and if i mention 22:00, they know it's bedtime.

the whole point of time zones is to have time cohesion in a wider region within margin of error of solar noon, so people on the far east and far west of a time zone are close enough to solar noon at 12:00. you can take a train to a neighbouring city without having to worry about needing to adjust your timekeeping devices by a few minutes.

to put your scenario into perspective, china has already done what you suggested on a smaller scale: the entire country is on UTC+8 for the sake of "unity" and "national cohesion". beijing loves it; 12:00 is still noon there! except it ain't in xinjiang and tibet. xinjiang has its own unofficial xinjiang time zone of UTC+6, and so people have to specify which time zone they're talking about and convert times between the two time zones in conversation because the uyghers use xinjiang time and the han chinese use beijing time, and you can imagine the confusion and also technical issues that has arisen from that.

imagine that, but 12 times worse. no thanks, i'll do the simple math of converting time zones if i ever need to communicate internationally.

fuck daylight savings. take that shit out back.

[–] LanguageIsCool@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago

On the other hand, we could refine time zones so they’re continuous instead of discrete chunks. Then every step you take adjusts the time. Would be more “accurate.”

[–] Valmond@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (4 children)

We should also all work 9am-5pm of course.

Edit: it would be wild because in the USA the shops would open in the middle of the night etc.

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[–] hendrik@palaver.p3x.de 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Long discussion here. I feel I'd like to add two things. First: we already do. If you coordinate international video calls or conference live streams, you'll say it starts 14:00 UTC. That is something we can do and regularly do. Some companies will use the timezone of their headquarters, though.

Furthermore: Once you're already in the process of changing how time works, don't do a half-assed job. Go all the way and make it metric. Do away with all the 12/24 and 60s. And make things divisible by 1000.

[–] invertedspear@lemm.ee 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Base 10/100 is inferior to 12/60 when it comes to splitting.

10 can only be divided by 10,5,2, and 1. 100 only adds 4, 25, and 50 to that.

12 is divisible by 12,6,4,3,2, and 1. 60 adds 5,10,15,20, and 30.

What is time other than measuring the movements of circles and spheres? The rotation of the earth, the revolution around the sun. It makes sense for us to use the same basic 12/60/360 tools we use for circles, degrees. The “metric” measurement of circles is radians, which would require factoring pi into our measurement of time, and that would be way more complicated.

[–] hendrik@palaver.p3x.de 2 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

That is correct. We'd gain a few things though. For example I could easily tell how much time passed between 8:47am and 3:22pm without doing all the gymnastics. Or maybe how many days it is until a certain date. As of now that's just a lot of irregular 30s and 31s and then the last of February and you almost need a look-up table for that with all the extra rules and exceptions.

Main thing I wanted to say, once you decouple time from the timezones, you're somewhat on the way of making earth's spin meaningless. You'd end up going to work at 14:50 and returning home at 23:20 anyway (for example). Maybe you'll advance into a new day randomly while at it. I don't see how that's fundamentally different to just working from 250 until 600. And I think I can as easily remember to pick up the kids at 2am or at 100 ticks. Also some calculations wirh the 60 are really annoying. Netflix will show a movie is 155 minutes, it's now x o clock and do I get to bed at 10:30pm? That'd also be easier with metric. And once I look at kids these days, they don't know how to read those circular clocks in the first place. So drawing time on a circle might be an arcane, old concept to them, and we don't need to bother with the circle for much longer...

(There is some sarcasm hidden in these words.)

(Edit: And dividing the circle is another thing. Why not use radians, or better tau? I mean I get that 360 has a lot of divisors. But why do I need to remember that 3/4 of a circle is 270 degrees, why can't I just say three quarters of the circle? Or store a concept of how much 200 degrees is in my brain if the calculator returns this? I think it'd be far easier if it gave that to me in fractions of the whole circle. I have a rough concept of what 55% and a bit is...)

[–] Wispy2891@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Almost a century ago, the fascist dictator of Spain wanted to appease Hitler and decided to move the timezone from the UK one to the German one. With daylight savings the situation in summer was a bit ridiculous: dark until 9 am and sun until 10 pm, it was very confusing as a tourist to have all the stores to open so late in morning and go out to eat dinner so late

I can't imagine what kind of mess would be going to Japan as a tourist on UTC+0

[–] omxxi@feddit.org 2 points 2 weeks ago

Maybe it would be easier if the earth would be flat :)

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