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Because timezones require conversion/coordination by either you or the other party every time. Conversely learning when your Australian co-worker or uncle gets

Because timezones require conversion/coordination by either you or the other party every time. Conversely learning when your Australian co-worker or uncle gets off work (in UTC) must only be done once. e.g. You learn that Uncle Steve in Melbourne gets off work around 07:00 UTC. So a reasonable time to call him and chat about life is 08:00 UTC. You text him and say "hey, long time no chat, want to catch up at 08:00?". He doesn't have to look anything up because he is also using UTC (or whatever). He says "actually I have a dinner thing, what about 11:00 instead?". Know confusion can be created, because this is the same time frame of reference for you too.

maxbond 1y ago
Yep, you have to be explicit when coordinating across timezones. I never say "how about 11" in that context, I say "how about 11ET." If you want to do that by using UTC as a lingua franca and everyone does their own conversion, that makes a lot of sense. If you want to abolish timezones, that's just brushing the problem under the rug. People keeping different hours in different locales is inherent complexity. This is the crux of it. If you want to abolish timezones, you need to explain why it isn't a problem that people keep different hours in different locales. If you can't, then it boils down to timezones being annoying. They are annoying, but that's not sufficient reason to eliminate them.
wpm 1y ago
Couldn’t I just learn that Uncle Steve gets off work at 01:00 CST, by figuring out his offset from UTC and combining it with mine? Your solution doesn’t change that I have to figure out some “how many hours different is Uncle Steve”, just that somehow I’ll magically figure that out without using the simple UTC offsets we use to denote those differences now. It just papers over them.
- fastball 1y ago
  Both scenarios require learning, only one scenario requires constant back-and-forth conversion, which in turn introduces opportunities for mistakes and confusion. Here is another example: I schedule a meeting with my co-worker in London. I say "how about 10am your time?" This is because I know he is X hours behind my timezone because I've learned that fact. He agrees and I show up an hour late because I forgot about DST and that he is only X-1 hours behind now. If we both coordinated around UTC, he would've said "actually 11 is better for me" and I would've showed up an hour earlier.

maxbond 1y ago

Yep, you have to be explicit when coordinating across timezones. I never say "how about 11" in that context, I say "how about 11ET." If you want to do that by using UTC as a lingua franca and everyone does their own conversion, that makes a lot of sense. If you want to abolish timezones, that's just brushing the problem under the rug. People keeping different hours in different locales is inherent complexity. This is the crux of it. If you want to abolish timezones, you need to explain why it isn't a problem that people keep different hours in different locales. If you can't, then it boils down to timezones being annoying. They are annoying, but that's not sufficient reason to eliminate them.

wpm 1y ago

Couldn’t I just learn that Uncle Steve gets off work at 01:00 CST, by figuring out his offset from UTC and combining it with mine? Your solution doesn’t change that I have to figure out some “how many hours different is Uncle Steve”, just that somehow I’ll magically figure that out without using the simple UTC offsets we use to denote those differences now. It just papers over them.

fastball 1y ago
Both scenarios require learning, only one scenario requires constant back-and-forth conversion, which in turn introduces opportunities for mistakes and confusion. Here is another example: I schedule a meeting with my co-worker in London. I say "how about 10am your time?" This is because I know he is X hours behind my timezone because I've learned that fact. He agrees and I show up an hour late because I forgot about DST and that he is only X-1 hours behind now. If we both coordinated around UTC, he would've said "actually 11 is better for me" and I would've showed up an hour earlier.