I’m sorry but it doesn’t make sense TO ME. Based on what I was taught, regardless of the month, I think what matters first is to know what day of the month you are in, if at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of said month. After you know that, you can find out the month to know where you are in the year.

What is the benefit of doing it the other way around?

EDIT: To avoid misunderstandings:

  • I am NOT making fun OF ANYONE.
  • I am NOT negatively judging ANYTHING.
  • I am totally open to being corrected and LEARN.
  • This post is out of pure and honest CURIOSITY.

So PLEASE, don’t take it the wrong way.

  • @kyub@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    9•3 days ago

    It’s inherited from a historic convention from the UK. Historically the rationale was that the month was more important than the year, so they put it first, although this has no useful consistency or order to it.

    Unfortunately, kind of dumb decisions from the past tend to stick and keep existing for an unnecessary long time because people get used to them and then never change them. Popularity or habit can beat reason, objectivity etc…

    • snooggumsEnglish
      7•4 days ago

      Typewriter-optimized means it’s intentionally made to slow down your typing because the old typewriters couldn’t deal with too fast typing.

      I wish that myth would die. If that was the case then E and R would be furthER away from each othER because being right next to each othER would make it likely for the two lettERs to bump into each othER.

      Contrary to popular belief, the QWERTY layout was not designed to slow the typist down,  but rather to speed up typing. Indeed, there is evidence that, aside from the issue of jamming, placing often-used keys farther apart increases typing speed, because it encourages alternation between the hands.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY

      • Aatube
        1•4 days ago

        sauce?

        some studies on keyboard layout have suggested that, for a skilled typist, layout is largely irrelevant – even randomized and alphabetical keyboards allow for similar typing speeds to QWERTY and Dvorak keyboards – and that switching costs always outweigh the benefits of further training with a keyboard layout a person has already learned

        • @protist@mander.xyzEnglish
          4•4 days ago

          Here’s just one, and there are many. What you cited above doesn’t contradict what I said either…my point is it wasn’t created to intentionally slow typing down

          • Aatube
            1•4 days ago

            that just says there’s no evidence for the apocryphal theory of it slowing typing down, not what you said about speeding it up. plus “slows it down” is a corruption of the original apocryphal idea that it speeds up typewriting by preventing jams due to neighboring keys being pressed

    • Aatube
      2•4 days ago

      That’s an apocryphal explanation for QWERTY’s design. I personally doubt it since “a” and “s” are placed right next to each other. Additionally, placing keys further apart doesn’t mean they’re slower to type. (In fact, anecdotally, it can be the opposite. In piano, incorrect fingering disproportionately affects playing keys that are right next to each other.)

    • NONEOP
      2•4 days ago

      Damn you’re right. In many respects, habit overcomes reason.

    • Rhaedas
      1•4 days ago

      That seems to suggest that the American style is a preservation of the older English format, much like we kept spelling of some words like the original English at colonization while the UK gradually changed with other influences around them.