Alt text:
I average out the spring and fall changes and just set my clocks 39 minutes ahead year-round.
this post was submitted on 25 Oct 2023
918 points (98.3% liked)
xkcd
8825 readers
117 users here now
A community for a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Isn't that just time zones again?
No because if you're talking to someone on the other side of the planet (thanks internet), you can schedule some sort of event with them without having to look up the time difference before hand
Yeah but you need to know when they'd be sleeping, for example, so you still need to figure something out related to time differences.
You both just have present your working or availability hours beforehand. Honestly this works better for me than someone assuming I'm available for an 8am meeting. I live on the US east coast, but my sleeping schedule is more west coast.
Ok, but businesses run about 8 to 17 local no matter where you are in the world, that's much easier to figure out with time zones than having to check the business's schedule every time you need to contact one.
Yeah I’m in the us east but work in a factory so I have to explain it anyways
I never understand the anti timezone argument... Right now I know that across the world they'll be working somewhere between 8h and 17h local like anywhere else in the world, so I do some quick math and I know when that is in relation to me. Without time zones I need to be actively informed at what time someone across the world is working in order to know when I can contact them...
But you are making assumptions which are not really true anywhere. Working hours I Spain and Germany are already white different. Main reason is of course that they share the same time zone by law, but are not geographically in the same time zone. But there are some additional differences in culture which extend this effect.
Sure, but it's still true that businesses operate during hours similar to any other places in the world. Even in Spain, ~9 to ~14 then ~17 to ~20, the day time hours are still in the "rest of the world bracket".
But if my plane lands at 9am local time, I know it's the morning at least and I can plan my day appropriately (stores will be open or opening soon instead of just closing for example)
That information won't be lost, though. It just would be expressed differently. They are no longer in a +8 hour time zone, which given your own location in a +1 hour zone would lead to a most likely open time of 8 - 8 + 1 = 1 til 17 - 8 + 1 = 10 your time, but in an area where opening hours are most likely between 0100 and 1000.
There is still a lookup, but no longer a lookup of time difference of the area, but a lookup of usual business hours in the area.
But right now business hours (which is what time zones are used for the most) are the same everywhere, that's much easier than figuring out if this part is India has its business hours from 3 to 11 or from 4 to 12.
I would say not much different from looking up whether they are in the +0530 or +0630 part of India. I guess the perception of convenience also depends on what you are used to seeing.
But no matter which one they're in, you know that by calling at 11 local (no matter if you're using the right time zone) you'll be calling during business hours, no need to check "What are normal business hours in India?"
There's always one check in that situation. Whether it's business hours or timezone difference. And you still need to check business hours even in our current system, so might as well just simplify it (which of course isn't happening any time soon).
Better yet let business hours be based on daylight, no need to wonder if things are open or not based on the sun's position in the sky.
So... Current system then?
Noon is mid day or coffee to it no matter where you are, you know businesses will be open for sure a couple hours before and after noon local time.
No? It shifts midday around. The day gets shorter on both sides of the sun's peak you know?
That's always kind of been an illusion. For lots of places, especially around the equator, it gets hot enough that expecting everyone will work the same 9-5 schedule, and businesses will all be open at the same time, is kind of stupid. Places like arizona, it would make sense if instead everyone used a siesta schedule, or if the schedule was shifted way forward in the day, from the later night to early morning, in the much cooler parts. And that's not even something that's really dependent on time zones, that's just dependent on variable climate. I see elimination of time zones, as more of an admittal that how we track that sort of thing is arbitrary anyways, so it's probably better in my mind to eliminate any pretense of it being an objective system.
I pointed out in another comment that even with a split schedule, the morning/day part matches pretty well with what we expect when thinking business hours (9 to 14 in Spain) and your suggestion to work late in the day to early morning is just stupid, that's how you get widespread health issues, depression and reduced productivity from people trying to with outside their body schedule. I know something about it, I worked evening/night shifts for 12 years.
I meant less evening/night shifts and more like. get up at 5:00 and stay up until 3:00 pm or so, with work obviously not being in the latter portion of the day, which is when it really starts to heat up ime. Seasonal depression and other related health issues we can cure with vitamin D, as they've been doing in the scandi countries since like the 70's, so I don't really understand how you'd be getting more health issues. If anything I would think that would be reduced as people working physical labor jobs would be less prone to heat stroke and exhaustion. You know, in places where you're working outdoors in 110 degree weather, hottest part of the day, after having already worked for like 5 hours. At the very least I think a siesta schedule would make more sense, which there's maybe a little bit more historical precedent for.
Look into cancer risks for people working nights, there's more to it than vitamin D and there's long term sleep issues that come with working nights for years, even after going back to a day schedule.
I thought what you meant was people switching to work from something like 2am to 10am, 5 or 6 am to 1 or 2pm is perfectly feasible and not that unusual (especially 6am to 2pm).