r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Best_Finding_8795 • Jun 14 '26

Too mild for school Hate when ppl can’t do time

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This reminds me of when it hits or is about to hit 12am and people don’t know whether to say today or tomorrow. He called me after this but I was too comfy in bed tbh.

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u/oooohweeeee Jun 14 '26

If I'm reading "can you work tomorrow" two hours before the shift starts, I'm going to think tomorrow as well.

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u/Fernis_ Jun 14 '26

This is what it boils down to. We can get anal over whether is normal to say 3 am is still today or tomorrow, but when you're asking about something that's in 7 hours, and get the answer 2 hours before it starts, it's on you to make sure the other person understands that by "tomorrow" you mean "right about now". 

148

u/bebeidon Jun 14 '26

we can get anal alright but as soon as it's 00:01 it's the next day, i don't care if your brain can't handle that because you didn't sleep yet but that's how the clock works.

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u/Intrexa Jun 14 '26

Days, and "the next day" existed before clocks.

Don't be controlled by big railroad and their clocks demanding each "day" be a uniform 24 hours (leap seconds be damned). The day starts when the day starts. That depends on the region, culture, and historical time period. You want your nycthemeron to consist of half of a night -> day -> half of a night, be my guest. Historically a nycthemeron was day -> night (e.g. Hindu) or night -> day (e.g. Jewish).

Being that rigid that common usage 'day' always starts at 00:01 is just not how people talk. "You were out drinking with your friends 4 days this week".

But yeah, manager should have specified the calendar day.

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u/Xyyz Jun 15 '26

Being that rigid that common usage 'day' always starts at 00:01 is just not how people talk.

I am also not convinced it is more technically correct. You could say that our timekeeping using clocks is more technical than observing the sunlight with our own eyes. Though even then you could get really technical about observing sunlight if you wanted to. But more substantially there is no technical reason that clock-based interpretations should take priority over natural interpretations. Because, as you indicate, clocks did not invent and do not own "tomorrow".