Time Zones Debate

The cluster centers on debates about the utility of time zones, including arguments for abolishing them in favor of universal UTC or single national times like China's, their role in scheduling and daily life, and distinctions from daylight saving time.

📉 Falling 0.4x Politics & Society
4,484
Comments
20
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#682
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2007
2
2008
2
2009
22
2010
12
2011
169
2012
59
2013
192
2014
114
2015
202
2016
299
2017
124
2018
418
2019
301
2020
329
2021
518
2022
427
2023
545
2024
397
2025
342
2026
10

Keywords

US GlobalFriday BBC AM www.usno UTC GMT en.m BST USNO utc time zones timezones zones time zone timezone zone midnight dst offset

Sample Comments

Asooka Oct 27, 2017 View on HN

That's why we have timezones?

Raphmedia Oct 14, 2016 View on HN

Timezones can make it so. It's not necessarily their fault.

grandalf Jan 17, 2015 View on HN

Time zones make sense, daylight savings time does not.

lmm Sep 3, 2018 View on HN

Why? What China does works better - no timezone confusion, no ambiguous times. Just do that everywhere.

ajmurmann Jun 11, 2019 View on HN

That's exactly what time zones are supposed to solve. Sounds like your country has multiple time zones, but doesn't want to call them that.

pseudalopex Feb 5, 2025 View on HN

What is the relevance of a single time zone?

lucasmullens Mar 10, 2021 View on HN

Sounds great in theory, but it becomes too hard to know what times are "early" and "late" for people. When telling people what time it is, you'd also have to include where you are so they know what's early/late, and at that point you've just reinvented timezones.

madcaptenor Oct 18, 2017 View on HN

No it's not. Obligatory link to "So You Want to Abolish Time Zones": https://qntm.org/abolish

manigandham Jun 9, 2017 View on HN

Timezones are more than just an offset.

LouisSayers Sep 19, 2022 View on HN

It's called time zones, the world isn't your country. Welcome to the future.