Falsehoods programmers believe about time zones
She loves joining Zoom meetings, but they're all hosted in different time zones. It's hard to remember if she should add 4 hours, subtract 3, or what. She's not the most technical person, so google isn't an option. She has to ask for help.
What if event organizers could share a link that would do the work for you? If someone clicked on mytime.at/5pm/EST, they would see their local version of that time. It sounded simple enough.
I knew trying to manage time is a fool's errand, but that's what datetime libraries are for. I would merely build an extra time zone conversion layer on top.
I soon discovered just how wrong I was. One after another, I kept learning the falsehood of yet another "fact" that had seemed obviously true. Eventually my original vision became literally impossible to pull off without making serious compromises (more about that in a future blog post).
Hopefully this list will help you avoid the landmines I stepped on. All the falsehoods below are ones I'd considered true at some point in my adult life.
