[mongol]

All attempts to optimize society by changing time zones and adjusting for daylight savings time time should be abandoned. Let society set the schedule after a static time. With this I mean ordinary time zones and the same time throughout the year. Which approximately should correspond with the sun at its highest at noon.

If someone prefers brighter mornings and darker afternoons, and someone else the opposite, the solution is easy. Adapt your life to follow that. Don't expect the time to suit you, it is keeping track over the sun's trajectory over the sky, not your life.

[pilsetnieks]

> the solution is easy. Adapt your life to follow that

Those pesky employers are such traditionalists, though.

[chrisBob]

My employer might be flexible, but I am sure my daughter's school wouldn't let me just pick when her bus picks her up and drops her off.

[rlpb]

I agree with this in principle but I also acknowledge that in practice it's not so easy. Changing the "official" local time means that every interaction is changed in a coordinated way. Otherwise you have times specified in contracts (eg. employment contracts), official school timetable hours, rush hour train schedules and a million other things that have settled together so that they coordinate, that is a huge social challenge to adapt in a coordinated way without huge disruption while that happens.

[mongol]

Yes, but I think that only makes sense when it is obvious that a very large part of society benefits of that way. I don't think that benefit is sufficiently clear, some people prefer one way, and others another. Then society should not interfer.

[maicro]

Honestly I would prefer to go even further - UTC for the entire planet, no offsets. Unfortunately I know most people won't go for that...

[Johnny555]

I don't see how that solves the problem.

When you travel (or call) somewhere new, instead of consulting a timezone map to set your watch or know if it's safe to call someone, you'll consult a guide to local "time equivalents" and set your expectations based on that. "Let's see, it's 08:00UTC now and my time guide says locals at that location usually each lunch around 17:00UTC, so if I call Bob there now, it's the middle of the night for him"

[turboponyy]

My ideal world would have no timezones and be entirely Anglophone (English is not my first language, so I'm not even biased in that regard). This is probably an extremely controversial take, considering how much interesting culture and history would be wiped out, but the thought makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

[almostnormal]

> Honestly I would prefer to go even further - UTC for the entire planet, no offsets.

The use of "tomorrow" and "yesterday" will be confusing in parts of the world where at 24/00 o'clock it isn't night. Convincing people will be difficult.

But for just the the EU it would work nicely.

[maicro]

That actually is a good point I hadn't considered; I think it would still make enough sense in the local context ("tomorrow" is "the next time most of us will wake up"), but yeah, it adds a lot of confusion for short term relative terms...

I could maybe argue "well, 'yesterday' and 'tomorrow' aren't very precise anyway - you need the entire context of the conversation to understand what they're referring to", but they're well established and understood... Darn.

[SllX]

Why not go just one step further and adopt Swatch Internet Time? I mean if we’re just going to go the mass upheaval route, we might as well ride that train as far as it will go.

[Galacta7]

Let's take it to its logical end: Unix time for the whole planet.

[candiddevmike]

I'd rather go all the way, decimal time and dates. Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité

[SllX]

I see Monsieur prefers a bloodier revolution.

[camkego]

This!

It really seems the simplest way to go. But I guess because of history it's hard for people to conceptualize how it would work. (Outside of HNers that is)