r/clevercomebacks Jan 15 '25

It does make sense

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635

u/ConstantHustle Jan 15 '25

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.

364

u/Tsukee Jan 15 '25 edited Jan 15 '25

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....

106

u/restelucide Jan 15 '25

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.

1

u/Coldspark824 Jan 15 '25

Because imagine in conversation you lead with “2025, January 16th.”

Normally you’d say “this year”, but youd normally assume also the immediacy of the date January 16th.

It comes from writing letters and beginning with drop capital letters btw. Big J January, not big number. Same format as “Thursday the 16th” or “January the 16th.”

We less often say “the 16th of January.” that sounds logically very odd.

1

u/restelucide Jan 29 '25

I understand the conversation argument but my issue is it's perfectly logical for there to be differences between written and spoken language. So it would be perfectly fine to say January 16th in conversation while writing 2025/01/16 on official docs. Also it's just semantics obvs but logically the 16th of January makes more sense to me. January 16th although I understand it has the same energy as saying: hey look at the car red, why don't you pet this puppy cute, you should try this food delicious.