<story><title>Please don’t let anyone Americanise it (1992)</title><url>https://news.lettersofnote.com/p/please-dont-let-anyone-americanise</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jawns</author><text>His argument about digital watches did not age well.&lt;p&gt;My kids have known how to understand a digital clock since they were toddlers, but even now, in elementary school, they require entire lesson units in school on telling time from a clock face.&lt;p&gt;Beyond that, he argues that pie charts tell us more about the relationship between things than tables of numbers, and a clock face is &amp;quot;the world&amp;#x27;s most perfect pie chart.&amp;quot;  But a clock face is not really a pie chart.  It does not indicate distribution among categories, as a pie chart does.  The arms are not delimiters; they merely indicate position.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>eadmund</author><text>&amp;gt; His argument about digital watches did not age well.&lt;p&gt;Didn&amp;#x27;t it?  I think it remains true.  Time is a continuum, not discrete; analogue watches demonstrate that, while digital ones do not.&lt;p&gt;And yes, schools have to teach one how to use a clock, but at the end of the process one actually has enhanced one&amp;#x27;s understanding of time.  Much like using a slide rule teaches one far more about numbers and maths than using a calculator.</text></comment>
<story><title>Please don’t let anyone Americanise it (1992)</title><url>https://news.lettersofnote.com/p/please-dont-let-anyone-americanise</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jawns</author><text>His argument about digital watches did not age well.&lt;p&gt;My kids have known how to understand a digital clock since they were toddlers, but even now, in elementary school, they require entire lesson units in school on telling time from a clock face.&lt;p&gt;Beyond that, he argues that pie charts tell us more about the relationship between things than tables of numbers, and a clock face is &amp;quot;the world&amp;#x27;s most perfect pie chart.&amp;quot;  But a clock face is not really a pie chart.  It does not indicate distribution among categories, as a pie chart does.  The arms are not delimiters; they merely indicate position.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>boesboes</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m 37 and have a hard time parsing clock faces, I remember having a hard time with it in kindergarten and they basicaly wrote it of as me being a little prick and refusing to do it right</text></comment>