Computer Guru Ed Yourdon: '...visceral "emotional" acceptance of Y2K'
'What kind of responses have you gotten ?
asked in the TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) Q&A Forum
Howdy all,
I am curious and wish to compare notes. What kind of
responses from people are YOU getting when you
discuss the big Y2K ?
As for me, it runs about 75% "So What", about 20 %
"THEY'LL Fix it", another 4.8% "Boy,that sounds
serious" and about .2% "We are in trouble, how do I
get ready?".
Asked by Art Welling (artw@lancnews.infi.net) on March 26, 1998.
Answers
The responses below are fairly consistent ... the
overwhelming majority (probably at the 99% level)
believe that (a) it's not a serious problem, or (b) if it IS
a serious problem, then 'they' will fix it somehow.
Hollywood has influenced all of in this area: we're
used to movies like "Independence Day", where Jeff
Goldblum used his Macintosh Powerbook to zap a
virus into the alien spaceship, and thus help save
mankind at the last possible moment. Alas, it won't
work that way with Y2K, but most of society doesn't
want to hear that.
Something for all of us to consider: if you got worried
about Y2K relatively early, you probably went through
a period of several weeks or months of near-paralysis,
as you changed from "intellectual" acceptance of Y2K
to a visceral "emotional" acceptance of Y2K. I'm
particularly guilty of this, as are many computer
professionals; in my case, I used Y2K as an example
of bad programming in some courses I taught as far
back as 1972, and I began actively writing and
consulting about the technical/managerial aspects of
Y2K in 1995. But I didn't REALLY make the
connection to my personal life until early 1997, and it
then took another several months for me to begin
acting on the problem (e.g., by actually purchasing
emergency food, gold, etc.). I suspect that several of
you have gone through a similar transition.
But you need to keep in mind that when the great
mass of society finally starts paying attention to Y2K,
they're likely to "flip" overnight from denial to panic.
Thus, we may not have the luxury of watching the
stock market and saying, "Hmmm... looks like we've
finally reached the top. Looks like the last train may be
leaving the station. Looks like this is a good time to
start selling our stocks." I think it could happen as
quickly as the collapse that took place in Asia a few
months ago... that's why I decided to liquidate my
holdings in stocks and bonds last year, so that I was
completely out of the market by the end of 1997. I've
missed the last few hundred points of the DJI bull
market, but I sleep better at night (though I still have
nightmares about my IRA/Keogh funds being locked
up)
Ed
Answered by Ed Yourdon (yourdon@worldnet.att.net) on March
27, 1998.
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