They are difficult to read for humans. Without using a computer can you tell me when this timestamp was taken? 1453383978

Ultimately that was the point of the article, but the tone of the article about how they got it right and everyone else is wrong bugged me.

My approach has been to store everything in epoch form, do all of my calculations and manipulations from there, then build tools that make converting back to a human readable representation when and where it is needed. I think the idea that you have a problem completely solved though just prevents the search for any improvements.