In his blog, Dr. Drang wrote a piece called “Why I like DST”. The comments are closed, so I have to present my opinion here. I missed reading the post until now because DST HAS MESSED UP MY WORLD.

First, I hate DST because once this change occurs, my kids are back to waiting for the bus in the dark. I don’t subscribe to Drang’s opinion that complaints about the “lost hour of sleep” are ridiculous. I have an internal clock, we all do. I can pretty much “feel” what time of day it is and only consult my watch for purposes of accuracy. Sunday evening feels different than Thursday evening (I don’t like Sunday evening, btw). Merlin Mann mentions the same thing in a recent Back to Work podcast (10:30 point). And I’m sorry, DST does mess this up.

Secondly, Drang’s post is “Chicago centric”. Chicago is not the center of the universe. Maybe for him, but not for the rest of us. He cites various scenarios where sunlight would stream in the windows at 4am (?). Get some room darkening blinds, dude. Or learn to set your watch because if you have sunlight streaming in your windows at 4am, YOU’RE DOING IT ALL WRONG. Seriously, Drang – move to NORTHERN ALASKA where you have an entire MONTH of sunlight or an entire MONTH of darkness. Your issue is with geographic location rather than time.

Next, the loss of productivity. I beg to differ, water cooler chit chat, people being late, crankiness – all are at their plateau the Monday after DST starts. This is over and above the average daily loss of productivity.

Lastly, I think this whole thing can be easily solved. India doesn’t observe DST. The entire nation is one time zone. Go look it up – India’s time zone has a half-hour variance in converted time. For example, when it is 10pm in NYC, it’s 7:30am in India. I say we meet in the middle – take a half-hour between DST and ST and STOP FIDDLING WITH CLOCKS. No more of this turn-it-back, turn-it-forward business, just set it once and forget it, and stop fiddling with it twice a year.

Only one problem remains. How will we be reminded to check the smoke detector batteries if DST goes away?