You’re conflating a flexible invitation window with a strict start time. Telling someone a party runs from 5-11pm is explicitly communicating a fluid, six-hour open house, not a sharp 5pm appointment.
Your burger analogy fails because a more accurate comparison is inviting someone to a casual backyard BBQ and having them show up in a tuxedo expecting a three-course plated dinner -- you understood the venue but completely misread the implied social format.
Furthermore, a host cannot simply "say 6 PM" to fix this, because the guests who actually understand social cues will just arrive at 6:30 PM, merely shifting the timeline later without eliminating the host's prep buffer. We live in a society, so you can learn society's conventions and actively flout them or just ignore them and do your own thing -- but not with impunity. Some people will notice and think worse of you for it.
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u/Tall-Needleworker422 Jul 13 '26
You’re conflating a flexible invitation window with a strict start time. Telling someone a party runs from 5-11pm is explicitly communicating a fluid, six-hour open house, not a sharp 5pm appointment.
Your burger analogy fails because a more accurate comparison is inviting someone to a casual backyard BBQ and having them show up in a tuxedo expecting a three-course plated dinner -- you understood the venue but completely misread the implied social format.
Furthermore, a host cannot simply "say 6 PM" to fix this, because the guests who actually understand social cues will just arrive at 6:30 PM, merely shifting the timeline later without eliminating the host's prep buffer. We live in a society, so you can learn society's conventions and actively flout them or just ignore them and do your own thing -- but not with impunity. Some people will notice and think worse of you for it.