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Tom Holland tweeted a date and caused confusion to many Americans
- Thread starter Arthands
- Start date
I understand YYYYMMDD - it is great for sorting files.
I also recently found out that many Americans aren't familiar with "A" format papers despite the rest of the world using the system.
What the? So what do they do?
1.24 feet by 0.7458888888888888888.. feet paper sheet please
Usually, when we are uncertain about the date, we ask those around us: "What day is it today" or "What's today's date". To which those around us will most likely respond with the day. It makes sense that the day is placed first for that reason. DD/MM/YYYY is the most sensible format, and the fact that we always give preference to the day when confirming dates speaks to that.
I believe in the US you may refer to "Letter Size" when describing paper sizes.
In Europe, (and pretty much every other international client I've worked with) we use A4, A3 etc.
A4, for example is generic printer paper that you might find in an office; being 210mm x 297mm
Yep which makes sense in a global world where "letter size" has a good chance of being different in different countries because not every country would follow the same rules for their mail.......that's why so many countries use the same system for a bunch of normal things and why I will never understand Americans trying to claim that their unique system for everything is somehow the best and only way it should be done.
And whenever anyone tries to defend the American way of these things with "it's less complicated" I just shake my damn head......dd/mm/yyyy or the A sizes for paper are things that we learn in school in our very first years.......if it's so complicated or confusing why the hell do small kids learn it all no problem in pretty much every other country?
I understand if you're raised a certain way that it will effect how you see things later in life but the level to which Americans will try and defend their way or doing things when no other country on the planet does them that way is insanity. Like do they really think the rest of the world just does it differently to be quirky? It's legit that simpsons meme "Am I wrong?....no it's the rest of the world that's wrong"
I use the proper ISO system:
Year -> Month -> Day
Not sure why Holland was referring to a date 7 years ago.
People get confused by this all the time and it's barely worth the surprise just because it happened over Tom Holland's tweet. People can stop taking dumb potshots at each other over this. Ffs.
That said...
One of the very first things I did when I took over management of my group was to establish yyyy-mm-dd as the correct date format, particularly in document titles. For this very reason.
That said...
One of the very first things I did when I took over management of my group was to establish yyyy-mm-dd as the correct date format, particularly in document titles. For this very reason.
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I doesn't bother me, I just found it curious.
A sizes have always seemed ubiquitous since school. In my experience it's pretty common for even non design folk to be familiar with "A4" etc as a concept.
Seeing Americans try and justify why they use the completely stupid month/day/year format gives me joy.
Anyone that has ever worked in an office should know it.
Now that has made me curious: what paper sizes are shown when you print something in america?
I only discovered the differences because I had a private commission from a client in LA, I figured due to the size of the artwork it would be easier to have it printed locally, rather than ship it from the UK.
The printers I used referred to their sizes in inches; e.g 11" x 17".
Oh boy another thread where a bunch of Americans try to convince the rest of the world their way of living is the correct one.
"M/D/Y just makes sense"
"Fahrenheit is more natural"
"Cut dicks are just better"
"M/D/Y just makes sense"
"Fahrenheit is more natural"
"Cut dicks are just better"
Americans as usual fucking things up for the rest of the world.
(Said in a playful way of course)
(Said in a playful way of course)
I had a nice, snide comment in the works but quoting this is easier.
I like dd/mm in Spanish, but dd/mm spoken out loud in English gives me the creeps mm/dd all the way in English. Do people really say "it's 24 January"? Ew
As a european I would say that the the best method is the japanese one in this case, I use it on my PC folders all the time.
Americans are still in the wrong here.
Also while i understand the way you write the month first and then the day makes sense in the english language, the way we speak in spanish, italian, french... it makes more sense saying first the day and then the month in a normal conversation, as we say the date in this format ex "12 of March of 2021", and at the same time, I went to an british school and they always spelled the date in the board like this "12th of March 2021"
Americans are still in the wrong here.
Also while i understand the way you write the month first and then the day makes sense in the english language, the way we speak in spanish, italian, french... it makes more sense saying first the day and then the month in a normal conversation, as we say the date in this format ex "12 of March of 2021", and at the same time, I went to an british school and they always spelled the date in the board like this "12th of March 2021"
Wait that's confusing me lol. No matter which way you say the two, you need to say both to actually know what date your talking about. Like if one person said I'm gonna eat pizza on the 18th and another person said I'm gonna drink lemonade in July, you have 0 clue as to when they're doing it, and to be fair, if you mention the date and not the month, unless you're being purposefully obtuse, you're probably talking about the month we're currently in.
This entire topic is just sad. The examples presented for the supposed superiority of MM/DD/YYYY are... wow.
It's the same debate that has happened with the metric vs. imperial system and fahrenheit vs. celsius/kelvin. There is an objectively better system and people have a personal preference, which is fine.
Terrible example. In this context, it would be much more appropriate to talk about the content of the assignment instead of the month, particularly if something happened several years ago and multiple assignments fall in a similar time frame. The only reason to even state only the month would be because assignments generally cover a longer timeframe. If anything, it would make more sense to state the relevant due date, i.e. the precise date including day, month and year.
Who decides which dates are important enough that they can be referred to as MM/DD instead of MM/YY? Why is it 9/11, instead of 9/2001? Additionally, naming something with only MM/DD usually implies a yearly recurring event (birthdays, holidays, ...).
Will the attacks last week be the 1/6 attacks or the 1/21 attacks?
Is there some kind of cut-off in the future when the 'name' of an event changes from MM/DD to MM/YY? (or, as you put it, DD/YY, which makes literally no sense whatsoever).
And by saying the month first, it could be anywhere from 28(29), 30 or even 31 points in a given month.
Just because there are fewer months than days and years doesn't mean it's the 'smaller' unit and presenting it as that is incredibly disingenuous. As a measurement of time, a month is obviously larger than a day.
The only reason people from the US use MM/DD/YYYY is because it reflects the spoken language. With certain exceptions, of course.
Similarly, DD/MM/YYYY makes more sense in germany, where people say 'vierter januar' (= 04.01.) instead of 'january 4th" (01.04.).
I'm guessing any justification beyond that is just a strawman argument.
It's the same debate that has happened with the metric vs. imperial system and fahrenheit vs. celsius/kelvin. There is an objectively better system and people have a personal preference, which is fine.
Terrible example. In this context, it would be much more appropriate to talk about the content of the assignment instead of the month, particularly if something happened several years ago and multiple assignments fall in a similar time frame. The only reason to even state only the month would be because assignments generally cover a longer timeframe. If anything, it would make more sense to state the relevant due date, i.e. the precise date including day, month and year.
Who decides which dates are important enough that they can be referred to as MM/DD instead of MM/YY? Why is it 9/11, instead of 9/2001? Additionally, naming something with only MM/DD usually implies a yearly recurring event (birthdays, holidays, ...).
Will the attacks last week be the 1/6 attacks or the 1/21 attacks?
Is there some kind of cut-off in the future when the 'name' of an event changes from MM/DD to MM/YY? (or, as you put it, DD/YY, which makes literally no sense whatsoever).
And by saying the month first, it could be anywhere from 28(29), 30 or even 31 points in a given month.
Just because there are fewer months than days and years doesn't mean it's the 'smaller' unit and presenting it as that is incredibly disingenuous. As a measurement of time, a month is obviously larger than a day.
The only reason people from the US use MM/DD/YYYY is because it reflects the spoken language. With certain exceptions, of course.
Similarly, DD/MM/YYYY makes more sense in germany, where people say 'vierter januar' (= 04.01.) instead of 'january 4th" (01.04.).
I'm guessing any justification beyond that is just a strawman argument.
Why would you put the year first? No one even says the year unless it's a year out.
Month first is best. It's much easier saying "January 13th" as opposed to saying "the 13th of January". Why write or type it any differently?
Can't lie US format seems worst of both options to me.
If I'm talking to someone I want most efficient path which is day/month/year.
I can say let's meet on the 5th and they know I mean this month. I can say 5th of June if I need to specify month too and of course add year if needed.
For coding/database I prefer year/month/day.
If I'm talking to someone I want most efficient path which is day/month/year.
I can say let's meet on the 5th and they know I mean this month. I can say 5th of June if I need to specify month too and of course add year if needed.
For coding/database I prefer year/month/day.
Wait wait wait. How is that easier? Also, you can drop the "the". I don't think an extra "of" is a noticable degree of difficulty. Just say "I prefer what I'm used to" if that's the case.
Actually nearly everyone seems to agree that's the best format. Especially computers, and let's be honest, they do pretty much everything for us these days.
This is actually you advocating for year-month-day not month-day-year. You say the month first, I could be anywhere of infinite points in an entire eternity. Say the year first and you've narrowed things down to one discrete chunk of time, then the day and month targets that exact location in the chunk of time.
Using day-month-year on the other hand, has the benefit of being the most efficient system, for the most common use case (i.e. 'what's the date today'), because unless you've just awoken from a coma, both the month and year are already implicit.
Plus with either system it is neat - i.e. small - medium - large or large -medium -small.
Month-day-year (medium-small-large) makes absolutely no logical sense. The only reason anyone advocates for it, is they are either Americans who are used to it, or non-americans who are used to it due to its prevalence on the internet.
Let's say nobody in the world had ever used the month-day-year system and some public figure decided to advocate for switching to it. Would most of the people, who claim it's the best system right now, have agreed it's the best system? I seriously doubt it.
How come snobby programmers keep bringing up how much better YYYYMMDD is better but they actually never use it in everyday's life because it's dumb?
Yeah it's good for sorting on computers. Use it to sort on computers. It's shit IRL.
Yeah it's good for sorting on computers. Use it to sort on computers. It's shit IRL.
So when you're asked for a date on messenger or in a text, you reply with the full YYYY-MM-DD? Alright
I think it's more of a "you don't know what you don't know" situation.
Until I saw it on the internet (gaf I think), I had no idea there was a different date format the rest of the world uses. It wasn't taught in school like the metric system so that I would at least be aware of the difference. I was probably 30 or so when I found out it was different elsewhere.
Until I saw it on the internet (gaf I think), I had no idea there was a different date format the rest of the world uses. It wasn't taught in school like the metric system so that I would at least be aware of the difference. I was probably 30 or so when I found out it was different elsewhere.
Professionally, I use YYYMMDD (yes, my line of work only uses THREE numbers for year).
Casually, I use MM/DD (optionally /YYYY). This is only because of the way we speak here though where we SAY the month before the day typically. It's just the lazy way to write it down when we hear it or say it in our heads. It's not some magical "best" way, but it's just OUR way just like it can be anybody else's comfortable way...there is no right and wrong.
...unless you're talking about ISO in which case Holland's wrong too.
Casually, I use MM/DD (optionally /YYYY). This is only because of the way we speak here though where we SAY the month before the day typically. It's just the lazy way to write it down when we hear it or say it in our heads. It's not some magical "best" way, but it's just OUR way just like it can be anybody else's comfortable way...there is no right and wrong.
...unless you're talking about ISO in which case Holland's wrong too.