Thread by @thornae

I heard someone dismissing looming Brexit problems by comparing it to Y2K - "A big fuss over nothing."
Not the first time I've heard this comparison, either.
If I may rant for a moment...

I am thoroughly sick of people using Y2K as an example of groundless worries - Brexit, climate change, et al.
If you're going to compare to Y2K for problems, you should be holding it up as gold standard to aspire to.

Y2K was a massive, looming problem, caused by short-sighted practices in the previous decades - and the usual excuse for those practices was "technology will fix it later." (Sound familiar?)

People in the industry recognized the seriousness of the problem more than a decade before it was due to hit, and began working to resolve it.

A huge number of very smart people put a great deal of work into mitigating the impending crisis.
As it grew closer, the scale of the work meant that the general public became aware of the problem.

At that point, pundits and fear-mongers had a field day with "worst case" scenarios, many of which were predicated on system failures that were already fixed, or in the process of being fixed.

Finally, when Y2K arrived, nearly all of the fixes that had been put in place were effective. Very little went wrong, and when it did, there were usually plans in place to resolve it.

However, after the media scare campaign, without the awareness of the work that had gone on to mitigate the damage, the public just saw "a big fuss over nothing."

So, in summary - Y2K: There was a huge, looming problem.
Very smart people quietly worked very hard, and fixed the problem.
And popular media had a field day with it.

Other thoughts: For all its wide ranging potential consequences, Y2K was an industry specific problem, and there was no financial or political gain to be had by ignoring it.
Nobody claimed it would be good for us.

Y2K was a problem solely of technology, and thus could be solved with technology, and the work of those in the industry.

Comparing Y2K to problems that are inherently sociopolitical is entirely misleading and unhelpful.
Technology may help with them, but they require social and political will to resolve. Y2K did not.

The point being, please stop using Y2K as an example of "a big fuss over nothing."
Especially if you're comparing it to large problems that are anything but purely technological.

If Y2K is a negative example of anything, it is of the power of popular media, and its irresponsible use of fear and outrage to drive sales.
/end thread

This is an important point. Industry people are rightfully proud of what they achieved, and it's something the rest of the world should be aware of.

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