The Y2K problem was a classic case of the prophet’s dilemma: warning about a catastrophe inspires efforts to avert it so people then claim the warnings were overblown all along
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My 12YO begged for a copy of this book when in our local bookshop the other day. Thought it would be over his head but gosh darn if he isn't reading it! 😄
I worked for Reuters as a senior programmer during that period before 2000. The company spent a fortune looking for potential problems. We found very little, and certainly nothing serious. But we did all sleep a bit easier on new year's eve!
Millennial superstition plus early stage tech infatuation made it so interesting. It was the perfect scenario for quacks on all sides. It would be interesting to see what it would have been like if it didn’t appeal so much to our pattern seeking biases.
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