3 ms·

because all of them need not be changed? daylight savings matter only when you are on certain distance away from equator, and even then an hour shift can have i

by rk06 6y ago

because all of them need not be changed? daylight savings matter only when you are on certain distance away from equator, and even then an hour shift can have issues. by making decisions on local level, it is possible to change timings more finely, (i.e. changing one timing by an hour, other by half an hour etc), and without the usual time conversion shenanigans

cameldrv 6y ago
Countries close to the equator generally don't observe DST. Countries in the southern hemisphere observe DST on an opposite schedule. You could make these decisions on all sorts of different levels. An individual business could change times for this, individual cities could have their own timezone, etc etc. Similarly, you can have a country the size of a city with its own laws and borders and currency, or you can have giant countries like China or India or the U.S. They each have advantages. On one hand, the law or the timezone or the currency could have characteristics special to a particular place, like say a 43 minute daylight savings time for a particular city. Having different timezones makes it slightly more optimized for a particular location, but makes it slightly less optimized for operating between locations. It's simpler to say "I'll call you at 9:00" if you're in the same timezone. If every person you called had a slightly different timezone, this would become a hassle. Other types of coordination also become more difficult if everyone makes the summer switchover at different times. Suppose I need to have fresh bread delivered a half hour before my cafe opens in the morning. I open at 7:00 so I contract to have the bread delivered at 6:30 every morning. If I switch my opening time to 6:00 for the summer, now the bread has to come at 5:30. Maybe the bread driver already had someone he was delivering to at 5:30 though that doesn't want to change his opening hours until two weeks later. Now there's a problem to be solved. If everyone made up their own daylight savings time, the massive web of coordinated actions that constitutes society becomes much more complicated. If we simply all agree to start doing everything an hour earlier every day on the same day, the problem almost entirely disappears. If you're interested in this type of tension, I highly recommend the book "Seeing Like a State."

by rk06 6y ago

cameldrv 6y ago

Countries close to the equator generally don't observe DST. Countries in the southern hemisphere observe DST on an opposite schedule. You could make these decisions on all sorts of different levels. An individual business could change times for this, individual cities could have their own timezone, etc etc. Similarly, you can have a country the size of a city with its own laws and borders and currency, or you can have giant countries like China or India or the U.S. They each have advantages. On one hand, the law or the timezone or the currency could have characteristics special to a particular place, like say a 43 minute daylight savings time for a particular city. Having different timezones makes it slightly more optimized for a particular location, but makes it slightly less optimized for operating between locations. It's simpler to say "I'll call you at 9:00" if you're in the same timezone. If every person you called had a slightly different timezone, this would become a hassle. Other types of coordination also become more difficult if everyone makes the summer switchover at different times. Suppose I need to have fresh bread delivered a half hour before my cafe opens in the morning. I open at 7:00 so I contract to have the bread delivered at 6:30 every morning. If I switch my opening time to 6:00 for the summer, now the bread has to come at 5:30. Maybe the bread driver already had someone he was delivering to at 5:30 though that doesn't want to change his opening hours until two weeks later. Now there's a problem to be solved. If everyone made up their own daylight savings time, the massive web of coordinated actions that constitutes society becomes much more complicated. If we simply all agree to start doing everything an hour earlier every day on the same day, the problem almost entirely disappears. If you're interested in this type of tension, I highly recommend the book "Seeing Like a State."