Wow, you are angry.
Granted - but we are not talking about time itself moving forward or backward, we are talking about the meeting moving forward or backward (because of somebody rescheduling it) from its previously set date. When it moves, it doesn’t really move through time as we do, because the meeting hasn’t happened yet. It’s not a thing that can move forward (as we do) or backward through time. It’s also not sentient and therefore can’t experience the passage of time itself.
Only the point at which we intersect the meeting can move. So when us Monday people hear that the meeting has been moved forward, we are seeing the meeting moved closer/nearer to us (it happens sooner in time). “Pushed back” would mean the meeting is moved further away from us (it happens later in time).
Slightly different approach: Let’s say nobody reschedules the meeting at all. As you move through the week and time passes you by, don’t you see the meeting moving forward (approaching) you at a natural rate of 1 day per day?
Yeah, I know that.
Did you seriously need to explain that?
This is nonsensical.
I’m aware it’s a reschedule of a meeting. If canceled on Wednesday, and moved forward 2 days, the meeting is on Friday. If this intellectual play on words, I can see your reasoning (actually that’s a lie, I cannot fathom what you or related people mean at all in this thread), but seriously… 2 days ahead, forward, later… to most people, mean the meeting is on Friday if was canceled on Wednesday.
I think of it like a calendar. Forward two days on the calendar is Friday. I so poorly grasped the concept of the meeting being Monday, that I couldn’t even understand the OP until I had read several responses.
The answer should be self-evident. I wouldn’t have explained it if I hadn’t felt the need to do so.
And this really isn’t a time perception issue, it’s a word comprehension issue.
Is anyone keeping track of the poll results? I’m curious, but not enough to do it myself 
But, you cannot have the meeting on a Monday before the Wednesday cancellation. And if you think about it, you’re just playing with the meaning of the words, any 2 days after any Wednesday is Friday, every single time.
Exactly.
I’ve tried to think of how I would word this myself and all I can come up with is that when I move a meeting/training/whatever I say “The Wednesday, August 25 meeting has been cancelled. We will be meeting Monday, August 23 instead.” Because I’m frequently a detail freak like that.
Thanks, Patty O’Furniture! I was just about to post the exact *opposite *of your post, using basically the same wording. Now all I have to do is rebut!
Exactly, because “time” doesn’t move - we move through it.
Yep - we’re talking about moving it forward or backward through time.
Yes, it does. As long as it hasn’t happened yet, it can move around through the future.
Yes, that’s exactly what it is. It’s an event on a timeline, as **Mean Old Lady **said. The timeline is static, and events are placed at various points along it, and as we move along it, we encounter them.
Well… I can interpret “back” two ways:
“Back” as opposed to “forward” means “in time”.
“Back” as opposed to “up” means “in the queue of events stretching away from me into the future”.
Precisely bass-ackwards. The meeting is sitting out there ahead of me, like a pit stop on the Road of Time. I get a day closer to it each day.
So that would make me a “Friday” person. I can be angry, I guess, but not about this; I find it hilarious.
Not sure if I get your point here, but why can’t I? Say I have a meeting for the 19th, next Wednesday. I can cancel it and move it two days forward (sooner/closer to me/whatever) to Monday the 17th.
Reading through the linked article, I see a lot of good examples for Monday-thinking:
So given that “pushed back” means delayed or postponed, wouldn’t “moved forward” be the opposite of pushed back? Or are we not even in agreement that pushed back means postponed?
That’s it. I give up and defer to the usage panel.
We’re insane because we choose the correct interpretation? You know, how it’s actually used in real life. Here’s google for “moved forward.” Find a link that shows that the use is for something occuring later, instead of earlier. Don’t bother with the first ten hits, because they’re used thusly:
Yeah, but ‘pushed back’ is an established phrase that means ‘delayed’.
People don’t say ‘pull forward’ the meeting when they mean it will be sooner than planned, so that example doesn’t really mean anything to me.
In the business world, they also like to use the term ‘going forward’ which of course always means ‘in the future’. Again, that is a catch phrase that has nothing to do with what we are discussing here, I don’t think. I’m just using it as an example of why established business catch phrases don’t really count in context of this discussion.
But, yeah, I didn’t read this thread, because I was busy working when I started posting to it, but I think I skimmed something the Fridayers being angry? What the hell has that to do with the price of tea… I guess I will read the thread and the linked article.
ETA: Oh, shit. Just read Elfkin’s post above me, and I’m being swayed to the Mondayers, hard and fast! Let me read the damn thread and article before posting again. I promise!
Yep, looks like Shag has a bad case of the 'Fridays".
This thread is starting to mess me up onsome this type shit.
“Moved forward” = Monday. I prefer “brought forward” because I find it less ambiguous.
“Moved forward” means “earlier than previously scheduled” because it has been shifted closer to me and I will reach it sooner. Moved back means it has been moved further away from me.
Past—>--->—>--->—>--->—>--->Me—>--->—>--->Meeting—>--->Future
Past—>--->—>--->—>--->—>--->Me—>Meeting—>--->—>--->—>Future
Of course once the meeting is done, it will be ever further back in the past as I move away from it toward the future.
If the Queen is walking South towards a waiting line of subjects and one of them is brought forward to meet her, the subject doesn’t move South to match the direction the Queen is walking. They move North to encounter her sooner. “Brought forward” and “moved forward” mean the same thing.
And it cracks me up. Here’s the best part:
To be kind about it! I’d hate to see the guy be mean. But seriously, you Monday people are crazy.
Grr! Five minute window, be damned!
Anyway, I want to address what **Cazzle **said. I don’t think of time as something that is relative to me. Yes, if someone wants me to inspect something from a mile away, I will tell the person to bring it forward. I am the target, and now whatever he wants me to look at needs to be brought forward (towards me) so I can see it. Here’s time:
<—Past—Monday------Meeting------Friday—Future—>
I have nothing to do with it. There’s no “me” on the timeline.
So is this meeting today or not?!
Ahem. I’m a professional person. Part of my job involves scheduling meetings, and not infrequently rescheduling them. **Everyone **else I talk to uses “move foward” in the “move sooner” sense. So it is, in fact, the Fridays who would cause rampant confusion in a professional setting.
ETA: And this isn’t some rinky-dink company, either. I’m talking well over 20,000 employees worldwide.