Ask Lemmy

As I said. You can use whatever units you want for yourself. I don't care about that.

The problem is when we are communicating with each other. When communicating, it's more than one party involved. And our goal should be to communicate clearly and easily so both the talker and the listener have an easy time transferring information.

This is not like language. Conversion between one unit and another is as simple as a multiplication. We can both speak in imperial and metric if we have a conversion table and a calculator.

Now, let's say you communicate in imperial. And I communicate in metric. We are allowed to have a conversion table and a calculator. Here is my cheatsheet:

Inch = 2.5cm
Foot = 12inch
Yard = 3 feet
Mile = 1760 yards
Fl oz = 28ml
Gallon = 4.5l
Oz = 28g
Pound = 16 oz
Stone = 14 lb
Ton = 2240 lb

Here is yours:

cm = 1/2.5 inch
ml = 1/28 fl oz
g = 1/28 oz
metric ton = 1000kg

k (kilo) = 1000
d (deci) = 1/10
c (centi) = 1/100
m (milli) = 1/1000

I only included the most common usages. The full cheatsheets are much larger but I believe we can agree this is a fair representation of common usage.

Your cheatsheet contains 8 entries. Meanwhile mine contains 10. Therefore, metric is objectively easier to convert in a ratio of 8/10. Furthermore, subjectively, the case is worse. Since metric ton, kilo, deci, centi and milli have an obvious pattern that is easy to remember and use. Meanwhile the only subjective "advantage" of imperial is that fl oz and oz is the same, but that goes both ways, since g is also the same as ml, so it would be 7/9, which is better for metric than 8/10. So i don't think there's any subjective advantage for imperial.

So yes, using a less efficient method of communication because "I'm more used to it" is dickish. Especially if the entire rest of the world uses the more efficient one. Especially if you already know the more efficient method. As you said, it is taught in American schools.

Do you know what is even more dickish? Defending its usage for communication.

If we go back to the language analogy: If 95% percent of the world understands only English, and English is objectively easier than Spanish and you also speak English, and you approach someone in spanish, and you keep speaking Spanish even though they are speaking in English, you are a dick.

Of course this analogy is not perfect. Since English is not objectively easier than Spanish (in fact, I subjectively believe Spanish is easier).