7 ms·
The reality is the time the sun rises changes throughout the year. To fix reality, we adjust the definition of time. If an activity depends on the sunrise, an
by snarfy 8y ago
The reality is the time the sun rises changes throughout the year. To fix reality, we adjust the definition of time.
If an activity depends on the sunrise, and not the position of the hands on the clock, then maybe they should, I dunno, schedule around the sun instead of the clock. I know, seems like crazy talk. Farmers should have farming clocks, not break everybody else's clock to align with the sun.
- Asooka 8y agoFarmers have always hated having to switch because doing everything an hour earlier messes with the animals. They can't simply roll everything one hour forward in the summer, because their produce has to be loaded on trucks and then transported to markets quickly, so the entire food distribution chain would have to switch to one hour later in summer.
- azurezyq 8y agoThis made my day. We've assumed that animals can adapt changes as fast as we can.
- kerng 8y agoI never thought about that - farm animals also have to adjust twice a year!
- GrinningFool 8y agoHousehold pets that get fed on a schedule too :/
- irrational 8y agoFarm animals don’t adjust. They can’t tell time. The cows get milked when they are ready to get milked regardless of what DST says the time is. The farmers are the only ones who’s schedule gets messed up by DST.
- kerng 8y agoI think you missed the point on why they have to adjust - because the entire industry's schedule changes.
- irrational 8y agoHow would they adjust? Are you suggesting they will have their milk ready an hour earlier or be willing to hold the milk in their udder for an hour later just because DST is turning on/off? That's now how these things work.
- kerng 8y agoYou are pointing out the problem actually. E.g. being woken up an hour earlier/later for instance to get fed and milked isn't fun and quite arbitrary out of the blue.
- saagarjha 8y ago> Farm animals don’t adjust. They can’t tell time. I'm no farmer, but I'm pretty sure that they have a general idea of what time it is.
- Guvante 8y agoFarmers rise with the sun. Daylight savings time is supposed to save energy by having more of the day during daylight.
- azurezyq 8y agoWhen I was a kid in China, we have winter and summer school schedules separately. It's not only a time shift. To deal with the shorter day time in winter, the winter schedule is tighter overall like shorter noon breaks. Companies usually don't do that. For me, DST is more like a too simple solution for a much complex problem and too inflexible.
- thomastjeffery 8y agoThere's no need to change time itself. All you need to do is change your schedule.
- sonnyblarney 8y ago"There's no need to change time itself. All you need to do is change your schedule." I think changing the time is probably a lot easier.
- thomastjeffery 8y agoSure, it's an easier way to compel others to have a different schedule, making it more likely for others to give you that schedule. I personally don't think that is enough to make it better.
- spookthesunset 8y ago> All you need to do is change your schedule. Easy for you to say. Not so easy when you work in an industry with shifts (nursing, doctors, retail, manufacturing, etc). Not everybody gets the luxury of a flex schedule.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- v_lisivka 8y agoAnd schedule of public transport.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- mitchty 8y ago> Farmers should have farming clocks, not break everybody else's clock to align with the sun. Growing up on a farm, nobody hates DST MORE than farmers. DST was not setup for farmers, it was an energy saving device from WW1. Please stop spreading that DST is for Farmers, its plain wrong.
- lainga 8y agoIt was so successful, in fact, that Britain was on "Double British Summer Time" for the 2nd half of WWII - two hours ahead.
- supermatt 8y agoFarmer here. Daylight savings time isn't for farmers. We aim to wake before daylight and that time changes daily. I always thought it was to give 9-5ers more daylight.
- bwanab 8y agoYou're right, but specifically, more daylight at the end of the day. I've never figured out how an extra hour of artificial light in the morning is more than offset by one less hour of artificial light in the afternoon.
- kemitche 8y agoIt's a win for those who want to have more time to spend outside after work, during recreational hours. Extra daylight in the morning helps my commute, which doesn't care about artificial light. Extra daylight in the evening can be spent biking, at the pool, etc.
- buboard 8y agoi can't think of a reason why DST is relevant to farmers. Farmers wake up with the sun , regardless what the clock says
- mabbo 8y agoFarmers have nothing to do with daylight savings (country-raised person here!). They hate it. They live and work by the sun, not by the clock. The entire concept is only kept alive today thanks to the golf industry, imho. The upper crust- politicians, bankers, the wealthy generally- like golfing. Poor people don't golf and often are unable to pay whatever fees are needed to even enter golf clubs or buy the needed equipment. What does that have to do with golf? If the sun sets later, relative to the time you get off work, you can get more rounds of golf in. Now, you might ask "why not just leave work earlier?". Because then you look like a slacker who leaves work early to go golfing! But if all of society is told to get to and leave work early by an hour (relative to the sun's actual rise and set) then you're leaving at the same time as everyone else.
- spookthesunset 8y ago> Now, you might ask "why not just leave work earlier?". Because most people aren't a SV engineer living in a bubble. They are shift workers (nurse, cashier, police officer, etc) and your hours are 8am -> 4pm. I have no stats to back this up, but a hell of a lot of people are shift workers and can't just roll in an hour later because they wanted to optimize around the sunrise. They get in when they are scheduled. You think an employer is gonna implement DST? Much better to just level the playing field and shift the whole clock an hour forward or backwards so everybody can get the benefits of additional daylight. There are winners and losers to doing this, but on a whole society has determined it to be beneficial to shift the clock back and forward based on time-of-year. PS: If it were me, I'd perma-shift the clock towards DST. Durning the winter months in the northern latitudes it gets pretty fscking dark and nothing is worse than leaving work and having no daylight.
- foepys 8y ago> but on a whole society has determined it to be beneficial to shift the clock back and forward based on time-of-year. You are mistaken if you think that society decided this. At least in Europe there wasn't a special referendum for it. It was just decided by politicians because of the oil crisis in the 70s and lingered around. The EU only standardized the date of the switches in 1996.
- e12e 8y agoYeah. Growing up [1] with 2 month polar day/polar night - and rapid week-to-week changes in-between - I never felt dst made much sense... We have accurate clocks - have had for a long time. If you need to shift football practice or construction work or something... Just start at nine in the darkest period, eight in between and seven when there's light at seven. Or vice-versa for the evenings. [1] https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/norway/tromso https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/norway/tromso