---
title: "Time Is Broken"
description: "We're 2026 years into what, exactly? One religious event. The only honest unit is the day. So stop counting years and count days. You're not 27. You're day 9,866, and it moves every morning."
canonical: https://www.askgib.com/articles/time-is-broken
last-updated: 2026-06-13
lang: en
---
# Time Is Broken
> We're 2026 years into what, exactly? One religious event. The only honest unit is the day. So stop counting years and count days. You're not 27. You're day 9,866, and it moves every morning.
By Gibril Bachouchi. Filed 2026-05-25, last edited 2026-06-13. 2 min read. Web page: https://www.askgib.com/articles/time-is-broken
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We're 2026 years into... what, exactly?
One religious event. That's the whole reason for the number.
We measure the age of the universe with a calendar that started at a guy's birthday.
Think about how dumb the units are.
A *year*, one lap around the sun.
A *month*, roughly the moon, except not really, so we faked it.
A *week*, completely invented. Seven for no reason.
Stacked on top of each other. None of them line up. That's why we need leap days to duct-tape the whole thing together.
Here's the only honest unit.
The **day.**
One rotation of the Earth on its axis. That's it. That's real. You can feel it.
Everything else is a story we agreed to.
So here's the proposal.
Stop counting years. Count **days.**
Pick a real zero. The Big Bang. Or the start of human history. Doesn't matter, pick one, lock it, count forward.
You're not "27 years old."
You're **day 9,866.**
Make it concrete.
I was born June 9, 1999.
In years, I'm 27. A number that means nothing and updates once a year.
In days? I'm **9,866 days old.** And that number moves every single morning. It's alive. You watch yourself add up.
Even better, I'm about to cross **10,000 days.** That's a real milestone. "27" is a shrug. "10,000 days" is a party.
Now, the obvious objection. What about the huge numbers?
Count from the Big Bang and you're sitting somewhere in the *trillions* of days. Nobody memorizes a trillion.
So you do exactly what we already do with years.
We don't say "the year two thousand and twenty-six." We say "twenty-six." We chop the front off and keep the part that moves.
Same here. Lop off the cosmic prefix nobody needs. Keep the tail. The end of the number is the only part that actually changes in a human lifetime, so the end of the number is the only part you carry.
Memorable. Personal. Yours.
And the birthdays get *better.*
365 isn't sacred. It's one lap. Why throw a party for a lap?
Pick real milestones instead. Every **1,000 days.** Every **500.** Every **100** if you're feeling generous.
You'd celebrate way more often.
Which, let's be honest, is a goldmine for everyone who sells cake, candles, dinners, and gifts. The entire birthday economy quietly triples overnight.
So if you want this to actually happen? Don't pitch the philosophers. Pitch the party industry. Capitalism is going to *love* day-counting. It might be the one reform that actually passes.
*(This is the part I want people to land on.)*
The reason this matters isn't the math. It's the **mindset.**
A year ties you to a season, a tax deadline, a birthday you didn't choose. A day ties you to nothing but the planet turning. Count days and you stop living on the calendar's schedule and start living on your own.
Out at the poles there's barely a "day" at all. No clean sunrise, no lap that means anything. Time was never universal. We just pretended it was because it was convenient.
We don't need the year.
We needed it when farmers needed to know when to plant.
We're not farmers anymore.
You're not getting older.
You're just adding days.
Day 9,866. Still counting.