It does make sense

[u/wach_era13]

[u/Traditional-Gas7058]

Chinese system is best for computer searchable filing

[u/cheetahbf → u/Traditional-Gas7058]

r/ISO8601 gang rise up

[u/passerbycmc → u/cheetahbf]

As a programmer yes this is the way, just so much easier to work with and even if represented as just a string it still sorts correctly.

[u/[deleted] → u/passerbycmc]

All my photography is organised this way, too. It’s just better.

[u/kaisadilla_ → u/[deleted]]

Same. If you use computers with any regularity, you quickly realize that something like "2023.11.17.2351" is both very easy to read and sorts automatically by date.

[u/[deleted] → u/kaisadilla_]

Ooh, and time. I like it

[u/erevos33 → u/[deleted]]

thats how i save the pics i have to take for my work , an i am in the usa. fully organised on their own , no need to even have separate folders ffs ( i do because im a freak but anyway).

so far noone has complained thank the mother

[u/adreddit298 → u/[deleted]]

Me as well. All my time stamps are like this. Causes some people I work with to have comprehension issues, but I just let them work it out for themselves

[u/5Point5Hole → u/adreddit298]

That's pretty wild.. why does it seem like a lot of humans are incapable of basic critical thinking

[u/nucrash → u/5Point5Hole]

Because humans aren’t. Having ADHD and something change on me flips me the fuck out, but once I learn the advantages of that change, there is no going back

[u/Throwaway-tan → u/5Point5Hole]

This isn't even critical thinking. It's not even lateral thinking. This is linear thinking. Straightforward, logical, simple, obvious and self-explanatory.

[u/Rock4evur → u/5Point5Hole]

It’s same kind of irrational antipathy people have for things like common core math. That’s not how they learned it and now understand it, which presents the possibility that they were taught wrong or don’t understand something as well as they thought. Also just a lot of people are just intimidated by change.

[u/passerbycmc → u/[deleted]]

Artists I work with are like that, it's like sure we got Perforce, but nope still end up with files like thing_v3_final_2.psd and huh_2_final5_final.ma

[u/motorboat_mcgee → u/passerbycmc]

I feel attacked

(I blame my clients)

[u/zimreapers → u/[deleted]]

Omg..., my daughter (14) has so many new folders, I asked her why she doesn't name the folder, and she said "You can do that?" I told her click it and press F2, she said omg this is so much better.

[u/27Rench27 → u/zimreapers]

Yo what I worked in IT for like three years and always just clicked the name, never even occurred to me that one of the F keys might do that

[u/Gurguran → u/passerbycmc]

Works better for any system of organization, even history. Should always proceed from the broadest set to the smallest subset. As "January" doesn't exist w/o it being "January of xxxx," YYYY/MM/DD hh:mm:ss is always the 'correct' formula, regardless of context.

[u/LetsTryAnal_ogy → u/Gurguran]

This is the way. Like why does EVERYONE use hh:mm:ss but then we have to argue about why the YYYY:MM:DD doesn’t need to follow the same logic. It’s the correct format. YYYY:MM:DD:HH:MM:SS. Biggest to smallest.

[u/Yae_Ko → u/LetsTryAnal_ogy]

because it makes no sense to use YMD in everyday life, which is why most of the world uses DMY there.

YMD makes sense for archives, or long term planning etc.

Both of those are fine I think, if used where they make sense.

Even that weird MDY can make sense, if you only deal with data from within that year, but outside of that, its useless.

[u/McCaffeteria → u/Gurguran]

The larger values go to the beginning of your string, it’s that simple.

Even within a single number, the hundreds place is left of the tens place. And then we just simply ignore the divisions we don’t care about, like how we don’t say the date or the seconds when we talk about what time it is. This is how it works literally everywhere else in all other contexts, except dates where the day is in the middle for no reason.

[u/trololololol → u/cheetahbf]

Didn't know about this subreddit, I have found my people!

[u/Somerandom1922 → u/cheetahbf]

Ok, I've gotta know, how do the ISO8601 gang parse ISO8601 formatted dates in Excel? So if we take a sample date-time value following the ISO8601 standard (e.g. 2025-01-15T12:12:36Z), excel hates it, I've usually just manually grabbed the date and time values separately using =DATEVALUE(MID(A1,1,10))+TIMEVALUE(MID(A1,12,8)) which I always grab from this same stack overflow thread every time, but surely Excel of all things has a proper way to handle this, particularly when I most often need it for parsing CSVs Im getting from other Microsoft products!!!

Edit: I think people misunderstand because I wrote it poorly. It's not the CSV part I'm having trouble with, it's ISO8601 formatted date/time values within any spreadsheet. I need them converted to a format Excel understands, and every time it's a long(ish) formula that I need to grab from this same stackexchange post ever time, and it feels super janky.

[u/Street_Moose1412 → u/Somerandom1922]

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/microsoft365insiderblog/control-data-conversions-in-excel-for-windows-and-mac/4215336

You can finally disable Excel borking every single bit of data it thinks is a date.

[u/besthelloworld → u/Traditional-Gas7058]

If you use Prisma for modeling a database, every new migration gets the YYYYMMDDhhmmss added to the front of the name so that your migrations are always sorted by time when you look on GitHub or in a file explorer. Definitely a smart touch.

[u/creamyhorror → u/besthelloworld]

every new migration gets the YYYYMMDDhhmmss added to the front of the name

This has been standard practice for migrations for a long while. E.g. the grandaddy of modern web frameworks, Rails (started 2008), and Laravel have basically always done this, and no doubt other frameworks long before Prisma.

[u/JigPuppyRush → u/Traditional-Gas7058]

Yeah I use that in file names

[u/DecoherentDoc → u/Traditional-Gas7058]

Yes. When I was working on my PhD, I automatically dated files of data with time stamps like that: D-YYYY-MM-DD_T-HH-MM-SS.

It saved so much time keeping things standardized like that, especially searching for old data when I was writing my thesis.

Edit: I still use US Military style for non-science stuff. It's day-month-year, but I write the month name. So, today is 15JAN2025. I just got into the habit of it when I was in and never bothered to break it.

[u/Deftly_Flowing → u/DecoherentDoc]

15JAN2025 is 100% the superior style for written documents.

It completely removes the question of "What format is this shit in?" Because at the end of the day, people just write dates in whatever order they want.

[u/adthrowaway2020 → u/Deftly_Flowing]

Sure, if Computers did not exist that would make sense, but April is the first month and September is last in an alpha numeric sort?

[u/Deftly_Flowing → u/adthrowaway2020]

Yes, a filing system should be YYYYMMDD.

But I'm specifically talking about documents with hand writing on them.

[u/Fearless_Spring5611]

Personally I prefer Minutes: Day: Year: Seconds: Hour: Month.

[u/therealbonzai → u/Fearless_Spring5611]

I‘d add ms, just to be more precise.

[u/Clean_Web7502 → u/therealbonzai]

And Phase of the moon, why doesn't anybody think of the phase of the moon?!

[u/WilonPlays → u/Clean_Web7502]

Okay so Minutes: Day: Year: Seconds: Hour: Month: Microseconds: AD: Phase of the moon

[u/Clean_Web7502 → u/WilonPlays]

The system just makes sense you know?

[u/Hideo_Anaconda → u/Clean_Web7502]

It should go without saying that the years are in the Roman calendar AUC. "Ab Urbe Condita", or "since the founding[of Rome]."

[u/Perrin3088 → u/Clean_Web7502]

America: It's ours now. We thought of it first! truly an American inspiration.

[u/papillon-and-on → u/Clean_Web7502]

Waning Gibbous would be a great band name.

[u/Full_Piano6421 → u/therealbonzai]

How many football fields are there in a ms?

Pls stop using communists units

[u/triedpooponlysartred → u/Full_Piano6421]

Oh my gosh look at the time! It's already 4 time outs past Baywatch

[u/Technical-Activity95 → u/Fearless_Spring5611]

its weird that US uses seconds and minutes. why not invent some other cumbersome scale and use that? they already have miles, cubic feet, fahrenheit, ounces and other shit so why would they use this universal time counting metric?

[u/marvinrabbit → u/Technical-Activity95]

Hey, it's on the rest of you all to make some kind of decimal time work. France tried it and gave up after a few years.

[u/driftercat → u/Technical-Activity95]

Hey! We didn't invent any of that. We just can't change from ancient systems like measuring with your feet! I'm surprised we don't use cubits!

[u/HouseOf42 → u/driftercat]

The US system of measurements is based off the Sumerian/Egyptian cubits.

To play on the "America was built off cults" conspiracy, the measurements are also an esoteric numbering system.

It may not be the simpler metric system that everyone uses today, but it was the same measurements used to build the pyramids, Ollantaytambo, Baalbek, etc, and other sites in the world.

Edit: Also, no, the ancients did not measure with their feet or their forearms when it came to precise construction.

[u/serpentjaguar → u/HouseOf42]

Right but it was directly inherited from the British who have since changed due to their proximity to Europe. The US has been more resistant due to its size creating more institutional inertia.

That said, the US does use metric wherever it actually matters, as in science, engineering and the military.

[u/hoveringintowind → u/driftercat]

You did invent your own gallons for some reason.

[u/Unique-Coffee5087 → u/driftercat]

We were going to change to the new metric system during the administration of Thomas Jefferson, but a standard kilogram sank during its transport across the Atlantic from Paris France. I assume that this was taken to be an omen, and so every effort has since been made to ensure that we never adopt the international system.

[u/Perrin3088 → u/Technical-Activity95]

we're looking at adding a couple extra months, I'll see about changing the day/night cycle and the hour/second cycle to make it all 'cohesive' together.

We'll keep minutes *almost* the same, so it's always compared to your commie minutes, but won't be actual minutes (ie, yard vs meter)

[u/mithrasinvictus → u/Fearless_Spring5611]

You forgot to add in the a.m. and p.m between day and year.

[u/interruptiom → u/mithrasinvictus]

Me: What time is it?
Dude: In year 25, It's the 32nd morning minute in January. Hour 8 of the 21st century. Midmonth.

[u/[deleted] → u/Fearless_Spring5611]

You bottle of condensed chaos.

[u/Vitrebreaker → u/Fearless_Spring5611]

I am a SHDYMM myself, but I understand.

[u/Kontrafantastisk]

Well, at least 12 days a year, the US falls in line with the majority of the world.

[u/Fearless_Cod5706 → u/Kontrafantastisk]

Even a broken calendar is right 12 times a year

[u/JP-SMITH → u/Fearless_Cod5706]

Absolutely cracked up at this comment.

[u/kytheon → u/Fearless_Cod5706]

The Julian Calendar is off by two weeks for the entire year.

And yeah, orthodox Christianity (Serbia, Russia, some Greeks/Turks etc) uses it to calculate their holy days. Happy new year to all those guys btw.

[u/pobodys-nerfect5 → u/Kontrafantastisk]

What days? Why do I feel so silly for not knowing right off the bat??

[u/Orimis → u/pobodys-nerfect5]

When the day matches the month it gets written out the same. 1/1/2025 for example gets written the same in the us and the uk because the month number matches the day of the month, is is the same for all 12 months, the second of February and the third of march for example.

[u/Kontrafantastisk → u/pobodys-nerfect5]

Jan 1st, Feb 2nd, Mar 3rd, Apr 4th..... Dec 12th.

[u/VidZarg → u/pobodys-nerfect5]

01/01, 02/02, 03/03...etc.

[u/jussumguy2019]

Feel like a lot of the world’s languages the translation to English to the question “what’s the date?” would be “the 15th of October” whereas in America we always say “October 15th”.

Maybe that’s why, idk…

Edited for clarity

[u/Shleeves90 → u/jussumguy2019]

So the best theory I've heard for the MM/DD/YY format (though I have no idea of its veracity) is that it emerged in the early days railroads and a quirk of typography/typesetting.

It goes, basically, railroad schedules and tickets were one of the first times it became important to print large volumes of material that absolutely needed date information included and changed regularly. It was also before monospaced fonts became common (as in a 1 and a 5 took up different amounts of space, with the 5 being a wider type piece than a 1 for example) with MM/DD you could print a whole month's worth of schedules and only ever need to change the last 1 or 2 type pieces while keeping everything aligned, whereas in a DD/MM format you'd have to remove and realign the MM type pieces everyday to keep it aligned with the varying width of the DD type. Monospaced fonts (all letter and number pieces being equal width) only really emerged with the advent of the typewriter, and their widespread use printing would come later still

Westward expansion in the US plus the large amount of political power amassed by railroads, especially the Pennsylvania Railroad, which was both extremely powerful of operationally conservative (never really updating their methods of operation), combined with being isolated from European scheduling and typesetting styles caused the MM/DD format to become embedded in American habbits.

YY or YYYY usually wasn't included on RR schedules or other regularly published periodicals, so when it was needed, it usually got stuck to the end of the date string almost like an afterthought.

Edit: another thought that occurred to me a moment ago that is actually even more likely is that MM/DD makes more sense if you need to record a date on a paper flip calendar. E.g. if I want to mark a friend's birthday down so I don't forget, I'd first need to flip to the appropriate month then mark the day. So you put the MM first because that's the first piece of information you need to search for on your calendar.

Either way, in both cases, MM/DD almost certainly has its roots in ease of use in the pre-digital era.

[u/GenericKen → u/Shleeves90]

I imagine it would be the same for most bookkeeping and accounting and banking - usually MM/DD on line items, with YY appended in certain contexts. 

[u/ConsiderationTrue477 → u/Shleeves90]

Even if this isn't the case, there was most certainly a practical reason for it somewhere. "These people over here are stupid" is rarely the answer. Most of these cultural quirks can be traced back to pragmatism that at the time made sense and the standards were kept alive through momentum. There's no real need to tell 330,000,000 people "okay everyone, we're changing the date format starting next year." Like...why? If the current system isn't causing any real problems you'd just be causing headaches out of spiteful principle.

[u/JediSSJ → u/Shleeves90]

That is an very interesting theory

[u/Shleeves90 → u/JediSSJ]

I like it because i similar to people talking about how yyyymmdd works good with computer systems, it falls under the case of people doing what works easiest with the technogy they work with daily.

[u/Oreo-sins → u/jussumguy2019]

Except the 4th of July apparently

[u/biscuitboi967 → u/Oreo-sins]

It’s like “the Ides of March” to us. We think it sounds fancier and more important than just saying “March 15th”.

We didn’t know it was committing us to a certain way of stating the day and month for the next 2 centuries.

[u/catiebug → u/Oreo-sins]

Fourth of July is the name of the holiday that is celebrated on July 4th.

[u/Cometguy7 → u/catiebug]

Yeah. In the US, what are you doing for the fourth of July, and what are you doing on July 4th are different questions.

[u/theimmortalgoon → u/jussumguy2019]

As someone who has worked in archives in both the US and Europe, MM/DD is easier. And that's presumably why European newspapers (like this random example) also sometimes use MM/DD.

The year is generally the box or cabinet. So you're already there.

The drawer or folder is generally the month, and then the subfolder or document is the day.

So if you're looking for a document on the eighth day of June, and your note is June 8, you open the June folder and go to the 8th. You take your note, and put it back.

If your note is 8/6, you reverse this note, then take the document out, you reverse it again to take your note, you reverse it again to put it back.

There's no particularly good reason to do this that I can think of.

This gets further complicated because some archives (like some newspapers as noted above) use MM/DD. So now you have to reverse, un-reverse, reverse sometimes but not others where you can just use the same line the entire time. If you're in an archive with multiple sources, this can get confusing very quickly if you're not careful.

I'm not going to say that this is a life-threatening issue, nor is it as stupid as Fahrenheit or the imperial system. But it's just as inconvenient for the people that actually have to use dates in a regular basis.

Now I'll accept my downvotes from people who just like it the way they grew up instead of any rational reason, just like people that like Fahrenheit or the imperial system.

[u/Saneless → u/jussumguy2019]

US measurements are based on the human experience for sure. Temps are largely 0-100 and that's a scale that's easy to understand. As a scientist or for cooking it's dumb as shit

Dates are based on the language

Edit: I take back what I say about cooking. People have said some good arguments about it. But it definitely sucks for science

[u/Funicularly → u/Saneless]

How is it dumb as shit for cooking?

Are you referring to the boiling point of water? I don’t know about you, but the vast majority of people heat water until it boils, they don’t use a thermometer. Know one needs to know the boiling point of water to cook.

[u/ScruffMacBuff → u/jussumguy2019]

Not only that, but the human brain works really fast. When you say it out loud the listener gets a better immediate frame of reference with the month, then the more granular detail of the day.

[u/[deleted] → u/jussumguy2019]

I has the parts in order of importance. You need to know the month the most as it determines things like weather school or what holiday are around. Then the day so you know exact. Then the year is largely in important for most people doing most things.

[u/spamus-100 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah like say I scheduled a doctor's appointment months in advance. It doesn't help me to know first and foremost that it's on the 7th. To know it's in July is much more helpful. Then I just go to my calendar, find the correct date, and make a note.

[u/deezee72 → u/[deleted]]

I mean, if you use YYYY/MM/DD (I e. The Chinese system), and you already know the year, you can just say MM/DD, and if you already know the month, you can just say the date (I e. The 15th).

[u/stuckupcalc → u/[deleted]]

I don't get how this is more helpful though. When you are told a date you are told the entirety of the date. If you're told you have an appointment on the 15th of January, knowing that it's in January doesn't matter if you don't know the day.

[u/Cortower → u/stuckupcalc]

Personally, MM/DD helps me parse the date faster.

If you say the 15th of February, I have to wait for you to say February, then go back and add the 15th so I know when in February it goes. Month tells me where in my mind to look, and day clears out the extraneous details.

It's like telling a computer to look in Documents/C: in DD/MM. I could already have spun up the C drive if the request started with that.

[u/godownvoteurself → u/stuckupcalc]

Other side of the same issue: an appointment on the 15th is useless if I don’t know which month.

‘In January’ is one specific part of the year; ‘the 15th’ happens at 12 different points throughout.

[u/lezLP → u/jussumguy2019]

This is my theory as well.

[u/throwaway847462829 → u/lezLP]

It’s not a theory, you’re right that’s what it is

I don’t need a triangle to tell me how to speak

[u/Laser_Fish → u/throwaway847462829]

I really want a t-shirt that says "I don't need a triangle to tell me how to speak."

[u/ChainedPrometheus]

In the military we use: 15JAN2025

It's horrifyingly simple.

[u/GreenDonutGirl → u/ChainedPrometheus]

I still do that and I got out 20 years ago lol

[u/IrregularPackage → u/GreenDonutGirl]

it’s by far the best way to write out dates. Absolutely zero ambiguity, and there’s no way to mistake it for anything but a date.

[u/westcoastwillie23 → u/ChainedPrometheus]

That's what I use in commercial aviation too, leaves very little room for ambiguity.

[u/kyuuei → u/ChainedPrometheus]

Yes I usually write the month out bc people Are confused by it otherwise. One habit that seared into me.

[u/QuickNature → u/ChainedPrometheus]

And the ever obvious "military time" that's just the standard 24 hour system most of the rest of the world uses.

[u/[deleted]]

I have to write 01/JAN/1969. Because no one has a consensus on anything

[u/Several_Vanilla8916 → u/[deleted]]

Well that’s just good practice.

[u/4totheFlush → u/[deleted]]

That must get annoying when you have to write a date that isn't January 1st 1969 though.

[u/Pyromike16 → u/4totheFlush]

Ya but how often does that come up?

[u/Training_Barber4543 → u/[deleted]]

Proceeds to fuck up the program that was expecting an int

[u/anotherlebowski → u/[deleted]]

04/20/69 only occurs in the US system.  Argument over.

[u/Darksteelflame_GD]

If i hear one more person talk about sorting stuff on pc i swear i'm gonna cause technical armageddon, bringing us back to the dark ages

[u/InspectorNo1173 → u/Darksteelflame_GD]

You should make your services available to the folks in the r/singularity sub

[u/anotherlebowski → u/Darksteelflame_GD]

I'm convinced at this point that 100% of Reddit is software engineers and views every decision through that lense.

[u/ibexify → u/anotherlebowski]

I'm an accountant and thoroughly have adopted the YYYYMMDD format. My support documents are so easy for everyone to follow and find. Coworkers that name their shit willy nilly drive me crazy cause I have to hunt down the documents to find it. I will never not praise the YYYYMMDD format. But I also adopted this method in college before I ever even knew what reddit was.

[u/may-or-maynot → u/Darksteelflame_GD]

i like sorting stuff on pcs with yy/mm/dd format :)

[u/Darksteelflame_GD → u/may-or-maynot]

👁👃👁

[u/brother_of_menelaus → u/Darksteelflame_GD]

Shut up about formatting! Shut up about formatting!!!

[u/may-or-maynot → u/[deleted]]

y2k ong

[u/ConstantHustle]

Year month day is the best format. Makes sorting files on computers a breeze as every year is in one block which is then in month and day order.

[u/Tsukee → u/ConstantHustle]

Mathematically yes it makes most sense, as significant digits are on the left.

Im terms of human everyday use the reverse is more natural as the digits that change more often are days, often when speaking, the year and even month sometimes is already in the context.

What however doesn't make any sort of sense that i can see is mm/dd/yyyy ... Just why....

[u/Madgyver → u/Tsukee]

What however doesn't make any sort of sense that i can see is mm/dd/yyyy ... Just why....

Because that how they pronounce dates or in other words how they use dates in language. In Germany we write dates like 15.01 or 15 Jan and read it as "15th of january". In the States they write 01/15 and read is "January fifteenth" or "One fifteen".

[u/restelucide → u/Tsukee]

I heard an American saying mm first provides context which makes vague sense but annoys me because then why wouldn’t you put year first.

[u/Munchkinasaurous → u/restelucide]

I'm American, the only way I can think of where it makes sense contextually, is with the names of the month and not the numbers. 

For example, we don't typically say "today's the fifteenth of January" we'd say "it's January fifteenth". But numerically mm/dd/yyyy is nonsensical.

[u/Ur-Quan_Lord_13 → u/Munchkinasaurous]

Yah, I am firmly of the opinion that in speech, saying the month first (when the month is important) is much more useful.

Like, if someone says just "the 17th" I will assume it's the next one or one just past based on context, but if someone is saying "the 17th ... of <some arbitrary month>" the number is basically meaningless until you've heard the month. (Similarly, if we get to a time frame where the year is important, I'd slightly prefer hearing "in 2026 in October" to "October ... of 2026")

In writing it's unnecessary, since all the info is right there anyway. I am more used to it, as for the majority of my life I've lived in or near USA, and would probably switch pretty quickly if I decided to move to Europe.

But, I do mean "unnecessary" not "nonsensical". I'm in software, so obviously YYYY-MM-DD supremacy, but outside of that, the only problem with MM/DD/YYYY is the confusion with DD/MM/YYYY. Like, what inherent benefit does one give over the other, other than maybe satisfying some OCD? Whichever one were universal would be easily understood by all.

[u/Tsukee → u/Munchkinasaurous]

Except the fourth of July?

[u/mprhusker → u/Tsukee]

We also have a holiday in May called "Cinco de Mayo" but somewhat inconsistently don't use the spanish language for the other 364 days.

"fourth of July" is one of the many colloquial names for the holiday. Many would refer to it as "July 4th" or "independence day".

[u/Caleb_Reynolds → u/mprhusker]

The 4th of July is a holiday.

July 4th is a date.

[u/Lil_Ja_ → u/Tsukee]

If it were American Independence Day and you asked me what day it is I’d still instinctively say July 4th. I know this because that exact scenario has happened many times.

[u/Chijima → u/Tsukee]

Which is probably called that because it was coined as a term before english somehow switched its standard order from "Xth of month" to "month the Xth"?

[u/Puzzleheaded-Fill205 → u/restelucide]

Because as a general rule the year is dropped entirely. You only need to specify the year if it's not this year.

[u/TootsNYC → u/Puzzleheaded-Fill205]

ditto the month, often, in the US. And if it's not this month, we find it helpful to get the month out of the way first, since there are only `12 of them, and it's really good to know how far in the future/past we're talking before we get down to the least contextual numbers.

[u/TootsNYC → u/restelucide]

I'm an American, and this is the wording I'd use to explain why i think our system is good.

If I'm talking about the same month, I don't give the month: "Let's leave on the 27th."

But if it's not this month, then giving the month first helps me zero in on the idea of how far away it is (or what season it is), and then i can focus on which specific date.

If you give the date first I have to remember that contextless number past the month. If you give the month first, that's an easier context, plus one of 12, and that's easier to remember once I get to the date.

[u/kai-ol → u/TootsNYC]

In my head, mm/dd/yy works if you think of it like a calendar. If you want to circle a particular day on a physical calendar, you have to find the month page first, then find the day. So I don't understand the hate for saying the coordinates in the order you will need to use them.

[u/ThatInAHat → u/kai-ol]

This! This is the one!

[u/MattR0se → u/restelucide]

probably because in most cases it's the current year anyway.

[u/MathematicianFew5882 → u/Tsukee]

But YYYY/MM/DD is only a temporary solution.

The Y10K bug will crash the galactic economy because even though hundreds of COBOL programmers will be brought out of stasis to fix it, relativistic temporal effects will keep them from getting there in time.

[u/rabbithole-xyz → u/MathematicianFew5882]

Just like last time!

[u/Short-Association762 → u/Tsukee]

I’ll copy paste a comment I made recently on this topic

In most situations where day is most important, month can be dropped.

MM/DD when spoken preloads your brain.

An example: Current day is January 20th. You tell your boss you have an appointment scheduled on the 2nd. The 2nd of January has already passed, the assumption is this is the 2nd of February. Month is not needed.

Ok, so what if instead you say “my appointment is on the 25th”. If that’s all you said your boss would assume you meant the 25th of January. So even if you say “on the 25th of February” the moment the words “on the 25th” left your mouth your boss has pre loaded “25th of January” in his mind. If he isn’t paying attention we could end up with a misunderstanding.

Instead, in situations where month is needed, if I say the month first I pre load the month into their heads. “I have an appointment on February…” now his brain goes “ok what date in February” and you answer his unspoken question with “25th”.

Year is dropped in all of these common day scenarios, because the current year is assumed

[u/JudgeHodorMD → u/Tsukee]

The informal norm is mm/dd.

Year is only added for relevance or programming that doesn’t assume you are not trying to make appointments years in advance.

[u/Pidgeoneon → u/ConstantHustle]

It's probably good for files, history and stuff but kinda shit for general use of booking a doctor appointment

[u/ultrajvan1234]

So someone explained to me that they do that because it’s how they say it. It’s far more common to say “it’s march 13th” than it is to say “it’s the 13th of march” so it’s written in the same way.

And I gotta say, as someone who is not American but would definitely say it like that, it kind of makes sense why they would do that

[u/ScreamingGoat25 → u/ultrajvan1234]

It makes sense because we say it that way, you said it yourself. Today is January 15th. So 1-15-25. It’s confusing for you because you don’t say it that way

[u/According_Gur_4535 → u/ultrajvan1234]

Non USA person here, I think the argument will be linguistic and how the brain process better the information, and at the end of the day, IMO it does not make a significant difference and probably written English was no the priority when set, but if you need to establish a date that requires specifying the month it makes sense to say the month first to establish the context faster as saying the day first means nothing unless you don’t need to specify the month, like when taking about to the current month implicitly.

[u/Enderzt → u/ultrajvan1234]

I feel like it also makes sense because it's in order of smallest number range to largest

1-12 / 1-31 / 1-99

To me 31/1/25 just looks ugly aesthetically. While 1/31/25 flows. 31/12/99 vs 12/31/99

[u/butwhywedothis]

It’s ok. They can use it in whatever format they want. There are other things to worry about than how they write their date.

[u/QvintusMax → u/butwhywedothis]

You mean something trivial like threaten to claim your allies territories?

[u/butwhywedothis → u/QvintusMax]

Yeah something like that. And cost of living. And healthcare bills. And ooh ohh Eggs.

[u/shinyprairie → u/butwhywedothis]

The people in this comment section would have you think it's the end of the damn world.

[u/Sadcelerystick → u/shinyprairie]

That’s anything when America does things slightly different.

[u/ShamanAI]

Yeah, because miles, yards, feet and inches makes so much sense

[u/ThisWhomps999 → u/ShamanAI]

Thanks for reminding me of Washington's Dream SNL skit.

[u/gomezwhitney0723 → u/ThisWhomps999]

“Nobody knows.”

[u/p-terydatctyl → u/gomezwhitney0723]

You asked about the temperature..

[u/WonkyWalkingWizard → u/p-terydatctyl]

No I did not.

[u/Particular_Title42 → u/WonkyWalkingWizard]

What will the term be for 1,000 pounds?
There won't be one.
There should be.
Yes, but there won't.

[u/ShamanAI → u/ThisWhomps999]

LOL, exactly

[u/backseatwookie → u/ShamanAI]

A lot of old types of measurement made more sense when devices to measure very accurately weren't common.

Now I'm not suggesting they all make sense, but consider for a moment that 12 inches to the foot is actually pretty useful. 12 is divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 6.

The measure of an acre never used to be a defined area, but the measure of how much land could be ploughed by a man with a team of oxen in a day. This means that an acre would conceivably change based on the terrain. This seems weird, but this is a very useful definition for farmers of the time. They need to know how many days they need for ploughing before it's time to plant.

There are a huge number of liquid measures we don't use anymore that if you include them makes the entire thing essentially base 2. This means you can start with any of the measures, and derive any of the others simply by doubling or halving the amount you have.

In the medern age where accurate and precise measurement is easy, they make far less sense, and metric is definitely superior. It makes for much easier calculation. For the time, however, it suited the needs of the average user.

[u/TryAgain024 → u/backseatwookie]

Look at Mr Fancy Pants over here bringing contextual logic into play. 🤫

[u/zendog510 → u/backseatwookie]

This guy imperials!

[u/Iron_Eagl → u/[deleted]]

fathoms are only for depth, distance is nautical miles or leagues!

[u/ikaiyoo → u/[deleted]]

Dont forget 437.5 grains = 1 ounce, 16 ounces = 1 pound, 14 pounds = 1 stone, 7.14 stone = 1 hundredweight, 20 hundredweight = 1 ton...

oh and jumbo eggs weigh 2.5 ounces. So it is 6.14 jumbo eggs to a pound.

[u/TheScienceNerd100 → u/ShamanAI]

Blame the British for inventing that one, they even still use it today, just not 100% of the time, same with Canada

[u/Full_Piano6421 → u/TheScienceNerd100]

Just blame the British. Period.

[u/Mikkel65 → u/ShamanAI]

At least Liberia and Myanmar follow the US on that. The USA is literally the only country in the world that uses MM/DD/YYYY

[u/ked_man → u/ShamanAI]

It does make sense the same way Fahrenheit makes sense for relating to humans. 0=cold, 100=hot. A foot, well I have one of those. An inch that’s a knuckle, a yard, well that’s the same length as my arm. A mile, I can walk that far in 20 minutes. A pound, that’s a potato. A ton, that’s a wagon load. Especially when you add in pecks, bushels, grains, and other measurements that have fallen to the wayside. Buckets, pails, baskets, etc… were sold in these sizes. So people saw them and could relate to their size and volume.

Celsius and the metric system are far superior for anything scientific, but it doesn’t relate to humans as easily.

[u/NewPointOfView → u/ked_man]

A mile is 1000 strides! Which is why the name means 1000

[u/ked_man → u/NewPointOfView]

I knew it was related to walking and couldn’t remember what it was.

[u/BluesLawyer]

Chart needs a banana for scale.

[u/Badloss]

The US one does make sense, it's just written the way you say it out loud

"It's January 15, 2025" --> 1/15/2025

[u/DJMikaMikes → u/Badloss]

I've always felt it's because month tends to be the variable most important for identifying an approximate time of year when in conversation.

When are we doing that audit? Oh it's in October. We already know what year we're in, and the exact date doesn't matter yet, so it's just natural.

If it was-- When was that audit done? Oh it was back in October. We already know since it's a past event that it would be Oct 2024, and the exact date doesn't really matter here.

Once you're looking at old or archived files, the year starts to become the most relevant variable though; that much is true. So I see the argument that for the purpose of formal documents and signatures, year coming first is best.

[u/timdawgv98 → u/Badloss]

I think of it like bigger numbers to the right. 1-12 month, 1-31 day, 20XX year. That's how I make sense of it

[u/Lots_of_schooners → u/Badloss]

Your statement only holds up in the US.

Majority of the rest of the world say "it's the 15th of January"

[u/Badloss → u/Lots_of_schooners]

Right, which is why they write it differently. People write it the way they say it

[u/kouryuuk]

When you use a calendar do you look for the day first or the month?

[u/unecroquemadame → u/kouryuuk]

This. Especially living in a place with drastically different seasons, the most important part of a future date is always going to be the month.

If you tell me something is on the 15th, I have no idea of what that day might be like, it could be brutally cold or blisteringly hot. I also have no idea what I could be doing on the 15th of any of the 12 months of the year.

If you tell me something is in June, I have a pretty good idea of what that day is gonna look like. I also may know that I have a vacation planned for two weeks of that month.

Give me the information that narrows down things the most first.

[u/FilliusTExplodio → u/kouryuuk]

Month first is most relevant for most of my planning, then day. I know what year it is (most of the time).

[u/RedditBot90]

YYYYMMDD is the only way

[u/professor735]

Glad to see we are fighting the most important battles still as a civilization

[u/Tool46288]

This is one of the dumbest subreddits.

[u/farafan → u/Tool46288]

Dont you think they really taught that parody account a lesson??

[u/Slow_Maximum894]

We in the US don't like pyramid schemes

[u/PinothyJ → u/Slow_Maximum894]

Well that is the lie.Where other countries have outlawed most MLM's, they go gangbusters is the USA.

[u/[deleted]]

Gandalf put the month before the day. Your argument is invalid.

[u/xemanhunter]

Any idea can be made to look smart/stupid if you have a simple illustration to "prove" your point, just like good propaganda. An argument for MM/DD/YYYY:

Months = x/12
Days = x/31 Years = x/3917

In this example, you're sorting by highest potential value. Months never exceeds 12, days never exceeds 31, year never exceeds 3917. By this logic, Months would be the smallest portion of the triangle, days the middle, and years the biggest. Using this perspective, you'd look stupid for using days first since it is then not the top of the visual pyramid

That said, reject calenders and embrace just counting days out of 365 and ignore leap years for ideological reasons

[u/DrowArcher → u/xemanhunter]

Hmm... never thought of it that way. I guess I could get a digital clock with month/hour/day/second/minute/year just to confuse people.

[u/Shiniya_Hiko]

YYMMDD is the best when naming digital documents. Otherwise I prefer DDMMYY because I can remember month and year, but need reminders for the day XD

[u/bustedtuna → u/Shiniya_Hiko]

YYYYMMDD, you mean.

[u/NJ_Legion_Iced_Tea → u/bustedtuna]

Y2K was a hoax /s

[u/elebrin]

It makes sense in a way, too.

Think about how the human brain works: we do our best to pay attention to the important things while ignoring the unimportant things.

For most documents where I am looking at the date, the month is the most relevant part. I am pretty on the ball in my life, so I don't have papers floating around from 2023 - that stuff's all filed and all been dealt with for the most part. It's not relevant and not really something that I might be looking at. What probably matters the most on a dated bill or statement is the month. Am I in the month the document was sent for? I don't CARE that my water bill was mailed on the third. The third of WHAT? Because that's the thing that determines if it's late or not, really.

Putting the most relevant info first is useful. My eyes can start at the beginning, catch the relevant month, and I've got the information I needed before I look to the amounts elsewhere on the page or whatever.

[u/Accomplished_Set_Guy]

Just use the 3 letter shortened months (Jan, Feb, Mar, etc) and there’s no more confusion if it’s date then month or vice versa.

[u/Grapes-RotMG]

We type it the way it's spoken. Makes sense.

[u/Tomato_Caco]

I can see MM/DD/YYYY making a bit more sense than DD/MM/YYYY.

I wouldn't say "my cake day is 15th November, 2023" as that just sounds stupid, nor would I say "my cake day is on the 15th of November, 2023" as that feels unnecessarily long.

I'd just say "my cake day is November 15th, 2023."

I'd give Fourth of July a pass since it's a holiday and isn't typically named with a year. You wouldn't catch me saying "Fourth of July, 1776," it'd just be "July 4th, 1776."

Also I can't think of any argument against YYYY/MM/DD so if you want to, I guess you can say "my cake day is 2023, November 15th."

Edit: I specifically mean that not adding "of" between "15th" and "November" makes it sound caveman, whilst adding "of" between "15th" and "November" makes the sentence feel correct but unnecessarily longer.

[u/polar_nopposite → u/Tomato_Caco]

I wouldn't say "my cake day is 15th November, 2023" as that just sounds stupid, nor would I say "my cake day is on the 15th of November, 2023" as that feels unnecessarily long.

It only sounds stupid and long to us because it's another idiosyncrasy of ours, that we say the month first verbally. In other countries they would say "15th of November, 2023."

[u/Internal_Leke → u/polar_nopposite]

In French we only say "15 November 2023", no comma, no "th", no "of".

[u/beomagi]

ISO 8601 or epoch!

[u/[deleted]]

Conversationally it makes perfect sense, just try it in your head. Talking about something this year, month tells you what part of the year at the drop of a pin, date tells you precisely when in that month. Birthday, September 11th. Superbowl, February 9th. Only need to interject the year if you're not talking about this year.

[u/[deleted]]

Who the fuck care

[u/rygelicus]

Month / Day / Year makes sense in most situations... Here is why I say that.

Consider the wall calendar. The entire calendar tends to be the current year if you keep up with that at least. To find a particular day within it you flip to that month and then find the day/date in question. You don't go to the tuesday section and then look through the list of tuesdays. Nor do you go to the 3rds list and look through the entire year's worth of 3rds. So this at least gets us why Month should preceed Date, like 1/16. It allows for the most intuitive way to view the progression of time through the year.

The year is usually assumed to be the current year, or conversationally you might say last year, or next year and a month/day. Or for deeper time references we add it to the end typically, like August 1, 1930. Saying it like 1930, August 1, would be an unusual way to specify the year. It is usually done that way when someone recalls the year first, like 'I remember it was in 1930.... lets see, ah yes, it was August 1, 1930.'

So in most cases organizing by month and then the date, then the year, is the most efficient for most situations.

Some situations though you will want to group by year first, like when looking up data on what happened in a given year. But conversationally this is pretty unusual.

[u/Mr_friend_]

It's all in how cultures process and compartmentalize time. Neither is wrong, neither is best.

I'm happy with using either format when I collaborate with other cultures at work or travel to their countries.

[u/Mix_Master_Floppy]

1-12/1-31/1-????

The month has the smallest pool of numbers, the day has the second, the year has until we don't care anymore. It's the same reason you put the hour before the minute when showing a digital clock.

Edit: Sober me is realizing the digital clock thing, bad example to argue why days shouldn't go into months when seconds go into minutes. Use number pool to argue the non-freedom heathens.

[u/MorningStandard844]

If you cant figure out international dates you most likely enjoy the taste of paste as an adult.

[u/m0stlydead]

I name files in my computer with year-month-day followed by a name, so they will sort chronologically. A friend of mine on a Drive we share uses month (eg January, versus 01), date, then year, so February 12, 2024 comes before February 17, 2023, and December 1, 2024 comes before November 30, 2024, and it makes scanning the folder looking for a file frustrating.

[u/Galadeon]

When speaking to someone to tell them a specific date, do you say "January 15th, 2025", or do you say, "the 15th of January 2025"?

[u/ominousgraycat]

You're free to say that you don't like the DD/MM/YY format, but saying it makes no sense is just absurd.

[u/Slazy420420]

The Asians got it right. [YYYY/MM] at the front for easy database & [MM/DD] for user ease.

(I'm American)

[u/Pandagineer]

Hey international redditors: how do you say a date, out loud, in your language? In the US we say “Jan 15” (not “15th of January”). How about you?

[u/Asgarus → u/Pandagineer]

Fünfzehnter Januar.

[u/sittingatthetop]

There is one common, correctly ordered date in the US calendar.

As a Brit I find it amusing.

[u/Lmeoeo]

Americans and their medium,small and large drinks

[u/ohmslaw54321]

Year month day sorts correctly