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Timezones make reasoning about time harder, not easier

Source: every discussion I've ever had about how to deal with storing dates in databases, date comparisons, etc

I’m fairly sold on abolishing time zones, but arguing that they make a programmer’s job harder is not a compelling argument when we’re a small percentage of the population. Yeah, it’s annoying, but that’s just part of our job. What’s really important is the impact on the general population.

Programmers are not the only people who deal with timezone problems daily, and as the world becomes more connected, more and more people will have to deal with them

If Timezones are difficult for programmers to model into our systems, then they are likely difficult for everyone to model in their brains

Simplifying the model benefits everyone, not just programmers

Does it really simplify the model? It rephrases my google query if I want to call a colleague in the Philippines. That's it. It does not make it better, easier, harder. It rephrases the question, it does not abolish the question.

It replaces two questions

"what time is my colleague available" and "what time is that in my timezone"

With just the first one

Reply on news.ycombinator.com