How quickly we forget

Some Perspective 5 Years After Y2K
By Larry Seltzer
January 3, 2005

Opinion: Did Richard Clarke and all those Y2K remediation efforts avert a disaster? No. Let's keep this experience in mind as we evaluate expert advice.

Jan. 1 was the five-year anniversary of the Y2K "event." It seems so long ago and so supplanted by more recent events as to be irrelevant. But it's not. Y2K taught us lessons that will always be applicable: Don't believe everything the experts tell you, and be especially skeptical of worst-case predictions for technology.