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Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
All display of time should follow this format:
Chronon.PlanckTime.Yottayear.Zettayear.Exayear.Petayear.Terayear.Gigayear.Megayear.Kiloyear.CosmicAge.GalacticYear.Epoch.Eon.YourMom.Era.Aeon.Megaannum.Millennium.Century.Decade.Year.Month.Day.Hour.Minute.Second
I much prefer:
Milliseconds.Second.Minute.Hour.Day.Month.Year.Decade.Century.Millennium.Megaannum.Aeon.Era.Ligma.Eon.Epoch.GalacticYear.CosmicAge.Kiloyear.Megayear.Gigayear.Terayear.Petayear.Exayear.Zettayear.Yottayear.PlanckTime.Chronon.
Context clues.
For no other reason than to be different and contrary. Metric system anyone?
The month first is best because consider what happens if a message gets cut off. You might get: "You'll be flying to New York on the first of ..." or "You'll be flying to New York on June..."
The first message doesn't tell you anything useful. Do you need to buy shorts or a parka? Do you have months to prepare or are you leaving in a few hours? Could this be an april fools joke? It's a 1/12 chance. Totally useless.
Second message, sure the details are unclear but at least you know what to pack and that you need to hurry about getting the rest of the message.
Historically, I don't know, but personally, I prefer YYYY-MM-DD style dates since they sort naturally in basically all computer software without having to think about it.
Free sorting is always the way to go.
There are plenty of other scenarios with a similar pattern of starting at the larger scale and then the specific.
TV shows: Season 2 Episode 9
Theatre: Act one, scene 3
Biblical: Book of John 3:16
Other books: Chapter 9, page 125.
Address: 123 Main St, Apt #2
Phone numbers: country code (area code) locality-individual
I'm not saying either is right or wrong, but there are precedents for either way.
Perhaps the most relevant of all: time of day. 9:30. Hours first, then minutes. I'm not from a location that does month-day ordering, but I think largest to smallest works excellently for time measurement, hence ISO 8601.
9:30 and 21:30, please
I'm surprised I didn't even think of that. It's so obvious!
I'm guessing, but it's likely because the spoken form for a date is normally, 'May 31st, 2025" vs "The 31st of May, 2025", hence 05/31/25 v 31/05/25.
I once did some research on this exact topic, and my findings pretty much mirror your guess.
Not for me, e.g. "remember, remember the fifth of November" is how we remember the date of Guy Fawkes Night in the UK. "Fourth of July", "14th of February", "First of April", etc.
I guess you mean in the States, but perhaps they say it that way because they write their dates M-D-Y.
So, by the time someone in the UK has finished saying the day and "of," an American has said the month and day.
The US is finally more efficient!
I'm sure the history is that, for most daily purposes, it was useful to know both. Knowing the larger element (the month) first sets the context for the smaller detail. For instance, saying I met someone for dinner on December 12 gives you the broader context (e.g. the season, possible relevant events) before the smaller detail of the day.
I think of it as, if you got shot halfway through telling me the date of something, "December" on its own is more useful information than "12". Technically, "12" narrows it down to fewer possible dates, but it could be at any time of year, while December only happens once a year, in March or whatever.
Because the month tells me more about how far in the future something is. If I have an appointment on the 12th of July, there's not much information in knowing it's on the 12th. 12th of what? But it's in July, so between 1 and 2 months in the future. If I need more info, then I'll pay attention to the day. So in order of information given.
Historical dates are similar, except I really just need (roughly) the year, and then a month if that's relevant. Knowing the exact date of a historical event is just showing off. But if you know the month, you know what season it was, what the weather was probably like. Was it planting/growing/harvest time? You can guess at a lot of things with just the month.
Why do you use 60 seconds in a minute and not an even 100? Why use randomly sized calendar months? Why do you say doce instead of diecidos?
Why do you use 60 seconds in a minute and not an even 100? Why use randomly sized calendar months?
Because 60 evenly divides into halves, thirds, fifths, sixths, etc, and because it's impossible to divide 365.2425 days into 12 months of equal length.
I'm a fan of 12 months of 30 with a 5 day new years in between
It's inherited from a historic convention from the UK. Historically the rationale was that the month was more important than the year, so they put it first, although this has no useful consistency or order to it.
Unfortunately, kind of dumb decisions from the past tend to stick and keep existing for an unnecessary long time because people get used to them and then never change them. Popularity or habit can beat reason, objectivity etc...
Typewriter-optimized means it’s intentionally made to slow down your typing because the old typewriters couldn’t deal with too fast typing.
I wish that myth would die. If that was the case then E and R would be furthER away from each othER because being right next to each othER would make it likely for the two lettERs to bump into each othER.
Contrary to popular belief, the QWERTY layout was not designed to slow the typist down, but rather to speed up typing. Indeed, there is evidence that, aside from the issue of jamming, placing often-used keys farther apart increases typing speed, because it encourages alternation between the hands.
Because fuck you, that’s why
When you speak it, do you say July 3rd or 3rd of July? Both are fine.
In America we only say July third or FOURTH OF JULY
I find that just to be because we are emphasizing the day over the month there. It isn't independence month, it's independence day.
It just comes from the UK like most of our shit does. The papers that were coming from there in the 1700s when we gained our independence said month, day, year. We stuck with it. The Units came from there as well and we only modified them to keep a standard. Then we tried to go full metric, and Ronald Reagan killed it.
That said if people are talking nonsense at a table at the bar or lunch and someone asks when you were born, they are usually expecting you to say "September" or "1949". If they ask how old are you, they are expecting "47.". Everything usually has context. Because usually someone only asks those questions if one they are talking about Astrological signs, or they are thinking that one age is better than another. To old to young nonsense.
My reply was only silly nonsense kicked off when I said Third of July in my head.
I speak speak Spanish, so we just say "Primero de Julio" (1st of July)" an then "Dos/tres/quince de Julio" (Two/three/fifteen of July). An of course, all are perfectly fine.
