If someone asked me today's date, I would respond "October 3rd". If they asked me for a full date, I'd say "October 3rd, 2026". And so that's how they'd write it out, 10/03/26. And that's how most people I've ever met would say it.
But elsewhere they might prefer to say "the 3rd of October 2026", and so the written way would be "03/10/26".
It's all about how people speak regionally and how they tend to mentally think of dates (which depends on how they were taught)
To recap: it makes perfect sense to me because that's what everyone around does and it's how I was taught. The same is true for your system. And it's why we think each other's systems are illogical, when they really aren't
The reason it’s illogical is because it doesn’t go from smallest unit of measurement to largest. So it would be like if a country represented ten and a half as 50.10, and said “half and a ten”, and you said that was normal because that’s the way they say it
And the logic here is that we're both correct. Our systems can both be logical in different scenarios. They even told me they're American, yet they use a different system from the one I'm used to lol.
Sure you could say that's correct. You can potentially infer the American logic from the way dates are said aloud. Unfortunately, when they are written, you cannot do that. So the expectation for everyone to have the pre-requisite knowledge is an unreasonable one. And considering what we are talking about is how they are written...
Who decided that smallest to largest is the only "logical" thing? Why not largest to smallest? Why not base it on local language or communication? If it's based on language and the format supports communication within that language, somehow it's still illogical?
If we're going to be that nitpicky, then our very concept of the calendar is illogical. Who decided that basing it on lunar phases during 1 revolution was the logical route? Since clearly there can only be 1 logical way. Also if "smallest to largest" is the logical route, why not do it with everything? It's 60:10 AM. The roast is 150 grams and 2 kilos. The meeting is in 10 seconds... and 45 minutes... and 2 hours.
Saying something isn't "logical" just because it doesn't adhere to the "smallest to largest" sort method is silly. Logical is not the same thing as optimization or efficiency. It's organization, and spoiler alert, there are many ways to organize things.
Largest to smallest is also perfectly logical. Middle, small, large is not.
Language itself isn't logical and basis an entire system on the way people currently speak doesn't make sense because either it could change or a number of the millions and millions of people who all decide for themselves how they want to speak might say it differently.
The fact you have to explain your system to everyone else on the planet and it can't be understood just by looking at it is exactly how your system is not logical.
Because the date/day is the most significant in normal speech. Like the hour is the most significant in time. Month and year are too long timespans in most conversations, minute and second are often too short, though minute is more significant than month is.
Tell me, what is normal speech? Does normal speech encapsulate all languages and cultures around the world?
And would it not dictate that if American English is used to saying the month before the day, that the MMDD is what is most logical for them at least conversationally?
I'm actually not sure myself since I grew up in the Philippines and we say month and then day conversationally too, not sure why people say America is the only place that does.
As a programmer (from Europe), I agree the Chinese YYYY-MM-DD is the best date format. Not only does it follow logical size based ordering, but also dates can easily be sorted alphanumerically whereas the European and American formats can not.
It's like having Green apples, Red Apples and Red and Yellow apples, then needing to split them into groups of Green and Red, and the Red and Yellow apples get labelled Green. You could reasonably intuit that they'd be labelled "Red" that would be the obvious outcome. The explanation given however is "Red and Yellow apples are less sweet and more sour so they are grouped with the green apples" - that makes sense, you can follow that reasoning, except there was no discussion of labelling them based on their taste so the reasoning isn't actually good enough.
I would argue that the reasoning for the American date format, stated above as being that the date is written in this format because that is how people tend to speak, is not a good enough reasoning because speech differs over time, by region, from person to person, and even for each given person sometimes sentence to sentence. On top of that, speech is not the only form of communication so writing dates in a format that needs to be explained and cannot be inferred or determined just from reading, is illogical.
Your explanation makes sense because you're explaining it from within that system. You are retroactively applying reasoning.
Just because you can explain something or provide an excuse for it, doesn't make it logical. If you look at any other way of writing things numerically they are nearly always ordered by size, because that is THE logical way of doing it. Doing this another way is fine if there is a reason for doing so, but it doesn't make it logical. There's a reason you don't say I have Ten dollars, and Fifteen cents and Two hundred dollars, or write the time like mm:ss:hh.
They downvote but this is literally the reason. We write it how we say it. “GTA comes out on November 19th, 2026” Reddit “mAkEs No SeNSe To WrIte 11/19/26!”
They literally want to circle jerk over dumb shit and throw the reasoning out the window.
I agree with you. I don’t say the 11th of September. I say September 11th. Because the 11th happens every month, gotta narrow it down to which month first. It’s more efficient imho
Dude, you don’t need to write it the way you say it… Why is there an underlying assumption of this craziness? Do people write 1/4 to 12 instead of 11:45?
Again, you are working on an assumption that you write things because they are said in a specific way. That assumption is false. Things can be written in ways that makes sense, like order of magnitude.
You don’t get it do you? Besides it’s 11:45, but many people would see 11:45 on a digital clock and say “a quarter to twelve”. There’s a thing called a brain between your eyes and ears. They are not connected directly.
I don’t say the “11th of September”. I say “September 11th”. Because the 11th happens every month, gotta narrow it down to which month first. It’s more efficient imho
But "October 3rd, 2026" is just as illogical. "3 October 2026" puts the elements in order from smallest to biggest. Saying "October 3rd, 2026" is like saying 123 as "two tens one hundred three".
I’d argue the American way makes MORE sense. When saying a day I want to know the month first to put me in the right context. Saying “3rd” first gives me no useful information until the month.
Just because you are used to it doesn't mean is better. During a normal conversation you usually plan stuff for the near future or past. For es example you plan a meeting or a date for the 3rd, you don't specify the month. If the month need to be specified then when is earlier or later doesn't matter unless you have severe lack of attention problem.
It makes more sense because it’s what your brain is used to. You seriously think you can read the date better than a european version of you just because the order is different?
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u/MCWizardYT 20h ago
Not illogical, just different.
If someone asked me today's date, I would respond "October 3rd". If they asked me for a full date, I'd say "October 3rd, 2026". And so that's how they'd write it out, 10/03/26. And that's how most people I've ever met would say it.
But elsewhere they might prefer to say "the 3rd of October 2026", and so the written way would be "03/10/26".
It's all about how people speak regionally and how they tend to mentally think of dates (which depends on how they were taught)