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Comment by golangnews | Hacker News Reader

That’s exactly what DST is

No, it’s not.

Time zones and DST change clock time, this suggestion is to instead change the agreed times for work in a given place.

That seems like a distinction without a difference, though. If the government says, "Between x and y months, all work start and stop times will shift earlier by one hour", it has the same effect as moving the clock itself.

I should rephrase my comment: "That's effectively what DST is"

Not even a little bit the same; timezone are extremely crucial for communication, if people outside the state don't have to look up the current timezone to understand "3:00 PM" means exactly the same one month from now that's a win all round.

Also, now that everyone has a powerful computer in their pockets its extremely useful to register the times without changes based on regional laws.

What does "3:00 PM" mean? Serious question. If the government is shifting work hours at different times of the year, then "3:00 PM" will mean different things. It will be before school lets out sometimes, and after school lets out during other months. It'll be 2 hours before work ends, or only one hour.

I'm no fan of DST, I think we should pick a timezone and stick with it. My argument is that DST is better than having a massively coordinated change in work schedules, because that's even more complicated than just moving the hour hand twice a year.

"Massively coordinated" is just every news anchor being obligated to say "Remember today the work day starts at 9:00PM and ends at 7:00PM" (with casual reminders weeks before of course), that's it, has anybody even tried to see if that brings chaos or if is just a baseless myth?

Not all work shifts start and end at the same time, nor are they the same length. Some people work 5 days a week, 8 hours a day, others do 4/10s. Bus drivers have to be working when others are commuting.

No, again DST changes clock time, not agreed times of work (which vary by industry anyway).

I understand that. The reason clock time is changed is so the agreed times of work across society don't have to coordinate. No organization is an island. If school shifts back an hour, but the office doesn't, the disruption for parents is significant.

Suppliers aren't going to shift their hours if their clients don't. Investment banks won't shift if the stock exchanges don't. There'd be no change since nobody could go first.

It's much simpler to decree the change on the clock than try to convince everyone to change their schedules in lockstep.

Again, I don't like DST. I wish my area would stay on "summer time" all year. Basically shift to the next time zone. But DST is better than the ad hoc solution that you're suggesting.

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