3 ms·
This is always such an annoying problem: 1. Shine light on problem and make sure people hear about it 2. People respond and fix it 3. Outcome not as bad as y
by joshstrange 7y ago
This is always such an annoying problem:
1. Shine light on problem and make sure people hear about it
2. People respond and fix it
3. Outcome not as bad as you said it could be /because it was fixed/
4. Some time later "That wasn't a big deal"
No, it wasn't that big of a deal because we worked hard to fix it!
- mcswell 7y agoI have a vivid recollection of reading a Scientific American article in late '98 or early '99 that claimed that no matter how much time and $ was put into fixing Y2K before 1 Jan 2000, there was going to be a disaster; it was just a question of having a bigger or smaller disaster, but even with best effort months. I have recently looked for that article, without success. Does anyone recall it/ have a PDF (image) of it?
- protomyth 7y agoMight be the October 1998 article "Y2K: The End of the World as We Know It", but its behind a paywall and I don't subscribe.
- umanwizard 7y agoMark my words, if the containment measures work and Covid-19 goes away, this is exactly what people will be saying. Drives me crazy.
- joshstrange 7y agoTo be honest I'd choose that timeline in a heartbeat over what I think we are barrelling to... But yes, it will drive me crazy if that happens.
- gregmac 7y agoYeah, I'm not sure if the original question was asked because of this, but I've had a couple conversations where we've compared the COVID-19 situation to Y2K. Even in this case, we have evidence of what happens from delaying response (eg: China, Italy) yet if proactive steps like shutting down schools, events and gatherings are effective you'll get people complaining it was all an overreaction.