So you want to abolish time zones (2015)

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Daylight Saving Time vs. Standard Time

  • Many consider abolishing DST “very safe” and beneficial for health and simplicity; several regions that dropped it report few issues.
  • Debate over permanent standard vs permanent summer time:
    • Scientists are said to strongly favor year‑round standard time.
    • Some at higher latitudes value summer time for light evenings; others argue early morning light and safety (school/commute) matter more.
    • Prior experiments with permanent summer time quickly became unpopular.

Arguments For a Single Global Time (UTC Only)

  • Proponents say:
    • It removes timezone math for events, flights, and cross‑border coordination.
    • One universal timestamp avoids “is this Eastern/Central/local?” ambiguity.
    • People already adapt to UTC in some online games and technical work.
    • Tools could answer “when is a good time to call?” directly, factoring in culture, daylight, and business hours.
  • Some argue timezones mostly rephrase an underlying problem (availability) and that simplifying the model benefits everyone, not just programmers.

Arguments Against Abolishing Time Zones

  • Critics say it just relocates complexity:
    • You still must learn “awake/business hours” for each place instead of offsets.
    • People reason about time relative to the Sun; decoupling clocks from day/night would push them to informal local times, effectively creating countless ad‑hoc “shadow timezones.”
  • Concerns about splitting local days across calendar dates, complicating language like “today,” religious/secular law, and everyday scheduling.
  • Real‑world resistance is expected: examples include unofficial local time in western China and factory staff rejecting visible UTC clocks.

Alternative Schemes

  • Proposals include infinite/local solar time zones, per‑person “published hours,” or smoothly varying “continuous time.”
  • Opponents argue highly granular local time is worse: small distance ≈ minutes of difference, buses and events need minute‑level precision, and would rely heavily on GPS and software.

Software and Data Engineering Practices

  • Broad agreement on technical best practices:
    • Run servers on UTC; store timestamps as UTC plus a timezone identifier.
    • Use standard libraries and up‑to‑date zoneinfo; avoid homegrown date math.
    • Distinguish exact timestamps (store in UTC) from recurring/local events (store in local civil time).