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Probably because a clock is an easily changeable thing, but a schedule or an announcement is less so. Putting a "Opens at 8:00" on sign on your door involves a

Probably because a clock is an easily changeable thing, but a schedule or an announcement is less so. Putting a "Opens at 8:00" on sign on your door involves a fair amount of effort of buying a physical piece of equipment. Changing an appointment may have required walking somewhere and talking to the right person. Before modern luxuries a million of such tiny adjustments would have required a lot of time and effort.

Karellen 3y ago
One clock may be an easily changeable thing, but is it really that much easier than changing one sign? Besides, if you knew you'd be changing your opening times throughout the year, then when you ordered a sign you'd just order both signs at the same time, or maybe get a sign with replaceable numbers, or a sign with washable/writeable numbers for your opening times. Or you could just not bother, and pick a time that was "good enough" all year round. Why would you need to change an appointment? You'd just make it for the time you wanted on the day you intended to start with. But changing all the clocks, in a whole country (or on a whole continent), on the same day? You think that's easy? You've never got that wrong, or known anyone who got that wrong?
- benj111 3y ago
  Have a look round at how many social distancing signs there still are. Signs don't get updated, so is that 8am opening the actual opening time or have they not updated the sign? And if you make an appointment for 8am at the other side of a (not) time change. Does that appointment change, or do you need to attend an hour earlier or later?
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- dale_glass 3y ago
  > One clock may be an easily changeable thing, but is it really that much easier than changing one sign? Mechanical clocks are imprecise and so need periodic adjustment. If you need good timing, then adjusting your clock periodically would be already baked in. Adjusting it differently would be essentially free. Communicating that you've changed your schedule though, that's a lot more work. Phones are a new tech not everyone has. Telegrams and letters cost money and labor. Plus there's an issue of synchronization. Imagine a whole bunch of people changing their schedules at different times. The barber changes schedule one day, the bakery the next, and the post office decides to wait until next Monday. It'd be pretty rough. > But changing all the clocks, in a whole country (or on a whole continent), on the same day? You think that's easy? You've never got that wrong, or known anyone who got that wrong? It's far easier and more reliable for a government to make a big announcement (radio, newspapers) and make a single, global change than for a lot of people to communicate with everyone else. In modern times this is a lot more practical, but communication used to be a lot harder.
- lazide 3y ago
  Cascading scheduling is really hard, especially when some of the things won’t need to change and others will. Which is inevitable. It can take months for things to stabilize again.
dfxm12 3y ago
I wonder, what business/appointment would even need the extra hour of daylight? Not many. Many businesses already have seasonal hours that aren't affixed to the clocks changing. Compare this to the deaths due to the confusion, loss of sleep, deer not realizing way more cars are going to be on the road, etc. Changing the clocks has a serious price. The benefits are not apparent though.
- jimnotgym 3y ago
  Wasn't it to do with factory workers in ww1? It seems easier to change the start time of a few factory shifts than it would to mess around with clocks.

Karellen 3y ago

One clock may be an easily changeable thing, but is it really that much easier than changing one sign? Besides, if you knew you'd be changing your opening times throughout the year, then when you ordered a sign you'd just order both signs at the same time, or maybe get a sign with replaceable numbers, or a sign with washable/writeable numbers for your opening times. Or you could just not bother, and pick a time that was "good enough" all year round. Why would you need to change an appointment? You'd just make it for the time you wanted on the day you intended to start with. But changing all the clocks, in a whole country (or on a whole continent), on the same day? You think that's easy? You've never got that wrong, or known anyone who got that wrong?

benj111 3y ago
Have a look round at how many social distancing signs there still are. Signs don't get updated, so is that 8am opening the actual opening time or have they not updated the sign? And if you make an appointment for 8am at the other side of a (not) time change. Does that appointment change, or do you need to attend an hour earlier or later?
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
dale_glass 3y ago
> One clock may be an easily changeable thing, but is it really that much easier than changing one sign? Mechanical clocks are imprecise and so need periodic adjustment. If you need good timing, then adjusting your clock periodically would be already baked in. Adjusting it differently would be essentially free. Communicating that you've changed your schedule though, that's a lot more work. Phones are a new tech not everyone has. Telegrams and letters cost money and labor. Plus there's an issue of synchronization. Imagine a whole bunch of people changing their schedules at different times. The barber changes schedule one day, the bakery the next, and the post office decides to wait until next Monday. It'd be pretty rough. > But changing all the clocks, in a whole country (or on a whole continent), on the same day? You think that's easy? You've never got that wrong, or known anyone who got that wrong? It's far easier and more reliable for a government to make a big announcement (radio, newspapers) and make a single, global change than for a lot of people to communicate with everyone else. In modern times this is a lot more practical, but communication used to be a lot harder.
lazide 3y ago
Cascading scheduling is really hard, especially when some of the things won’t need to change and others will. Which is inevitable. It can take months for things to stabilize again.

dfxm12 3y ago

I wonder, what business/appointment would even need the extra hour of daylight? Not many. Many businesses already have seasonal hours that aren't affixed to the clocks changing. Compare this to the deaths due to the confusion, loss of sleep, deer not realizing way more cars are going to be on the road, etc. Changing the clocks has a serious price. The benefits are not apparent though.

jimnotgym 3y ago
Wasn't it to do with factory workers in ww1? It seems easier to change the start time of a few factory shifts than it would to mess around with clocks.