Re:The world nearly adopted a calendar with 13 months of 28 ...
by anon84873628 on Sunday November 05, 2023 @07:11PM
(#38157203)
Yes, it's a coordination problem where the incentives for a single individual don't match the optimal global solution. Aka trapped by network effects. You don't see this problem with cars or smartphones because the benefit to the individual is obvious and independent of other people's choices.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordination_failure_(econom...
I was amused to learn that there are societies dedicated to the cause of dozenal system who write papers and books urging everyone to switch. On the other hand, I don't know if it is exaggerated but French revolutionist had grand ideas of creating decimal based systems even for time. But better sense prevailed in the long run!
It is interesting to think how can changes of the form "if we can align everyone to change and adopt this new way" can be brought about at any scale beyond a few thousand folks. I think large mass adopted switches (horses to cars, smart phones) have been about incentives and convenience demonstrated by some early adopters. But for basic arithmetic this seems impossible to pull off!