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Comment by js2 | Hacker News Reader

"So you want to abolish time zones": https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8902765 -> http://qntm.org/abolish

To simplify the first chunk of that webpage, all you need to know is Uncle Steve's sunrise offset from you, same as now. If his sunrise is 6 hours after yours, don't call him until you've been awake for 6+ hours.

Also, the lifestyle/local weirdness complaints towards the end are still relevant today. If Uncle Steve works the night shift I shouldn't call him at his solar noon whether there are timezones or not.

I concur with tvon that days of the week get very tricky without timezones, but I think the other complaints in that article are overblown.

Is there any argument for the abolishment of time zones that doesn't boil down to them simply being annoying for programmers and server admins to set up initially?

Right now if I travel anywhere in the world I'll have a basic idea of when the sun rises and sets, when stores are open, hottest time of the day, when people are usually working, sleeping, etc.

Going with your argument, I would not only have to keep track of the sun set and rise shift but as well as the working hours in that particular part of the world. If I ever go there I have to learn the times of everything since they are completely different from where I live.

Efficiency improvements (both in software and other areas) is the usual rationale. For example, this article[1] lays out some hypothetical economic benefits.

> I would not only have to keep track of the sun set and rise shift but as well as the working hours in that particular part of the world

The same issues exist currently when traveling. Instead of looking up the timezone offset, you would look up the sunrise offset. Any additional information (e.g. work schedule differences) are still a factor today; when visiting Spain you have to learn that dinners are late and siestas exist.

But this is not "my argument". While I think it would be an interesting experiment, I expect the transition costs of moving to a single global time to far outweigh any marginal efficiency gains for many, many years. What we have now is generally good enough (though if I had the power I would get rid of the sub-hour offsets and daylight savings time).

[1]: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/archive/changing-times...

> Is there any argument for the abolishment of time zones that doesn't boil down to them simply being annoying for programmers and server admins to set up initially?

It's not just initially. Politicians around the world tend to temper with them continuously. (Same with public holidays.)

I think that is over-complication of informercial proportions.

edit: Though the days of the week point I don't have an answer for. Religious holidays are easy, they would follow the old calendar, but I'm not sure how the days would work otherwise.

Thanks for the good read, although most of the objections seem to be based on an unwillingness to change.

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