Time Inflation

August 10th, 2012
ideas, time
On average the sun is up 6am to 6pm, but people's schedules are later. [1] We try to fix this with Daylight Savings Time, moving solar noon to ~1pm. Britain has considered a Single-Double system where solar noon would be ~1pm in the winter (like DST) and ~2pm in the summer (double DST). We can take this further, and match our society better to the daylight hours: every year survey people to find out the middle time point of the average day. If that's more than an hour away from solar noon, add or remove an hour to move us closer to matching the sun.

(Why do people stay up later than the sun? What happens when you try to fight that? Do people just stay up later? Do we like it to be dark out? Do we have trouble getting ourselves to go to bed?)


[1] If you surveyed Americans my guess is you'd get something like 7am to midnight.

Comment via: google plus, facebook, substack

Recent posts on blogs I like:

Ozy at LessOnline!

I will once again be a guest at LessOnline, alongside many other writers whom you no doubt like less than you like me: Scott Alexander, dynomight, Georgia Ray, David Friedman, Nicholas Decker, Jacob Falkovich, Kelsey Piper, Alicorn, Aella, etc.

via Thing of Things March 23, 2026

Daycares and the Brown School

As someone in Somerville I notice that there are quite high prices regarding childcare. The average family in Somerville pays $1,100 to $3,500 for daycare per month, and I want to make the costs more affordable. I have also noticed that housing is quite …

via Lily Wise's Blog Posts March 22, 2026

2025-26 New Year review

This is an annual post reviewing the last year and setting intentions for next year. I look over different life areas (work, health, parenting, effectiveness, etc) and analyze my life tracking data. Highlights include a minimal group house, the usefulness…

via Victoria Krakovna January 19, 2026

more     (via openring)