By the time I had read "naloxone was patented in 01961" I thought it was some sort of patent identifier, so I was really confused when they said that it was "kn

By the time I had read "naloxone was patented in 01961" I thought it was some sort of patent identifier, so I was really confused when they said that it was "known to prevent death from opiate" in some other patent. I was thinking, patents don't have anything to do with researc- oh, it's a date. I remember seeing someone else on HN use a five digit date years ago, giving the reasoning that it gives us a bigger perspective on our timeline and society. I like the idea, but it muddies the message since we use standards for a reason. For example, if someone writes "In 13 I tried..." it's a bit confusing, but if they write "In '13 I tried..." it makes immediate sense since we have expectations about communicating dates.