I can’t get over this – I’ll never get over this:

People say “I moved the meeting back a week” (or “a day” or “an hour” or whatever) and I guess that they mean that they moved the meeting to a time later than it was originally scheduled for, but I’m never sure. Maybe they mean earlier? To me the latter would be a more intuitive interpretation of “back”, but experience has taught me that most people nevertheless mean the former.

In user interfaces, the UI-wise back and forward directions, to the extent they exist at all, are typically the text direction for whatever writing system you’re operating in. Thus moving “back” in the interface would feel like moving “back” in text, which means (e.g., for calendar interfaces localized to English) moving leftward and/or upward – which is the opposite of the direction a meeting actually moves in the interface when someone moves it “back”!

I always just say that I moved things “earlier” or “later” and avoid the ambiguity. But APPARENTLY I am the only person who ever gets confused by this, or even thinks that there’s a question here at all, and no one else cares and this whole post is just an anguished cry in the wilderness.

I will always be alone in this.

It’s okay. You all just keep doing what you do; I’ll adjust.