Y2K: An Autobiography

“If architects built buildings like software engineers designed software, the first woodpecker that came along would destroy Western Civilization” This quote (from Gerald Weinberg) is mentioned in one of the earlier episodes alongside Ted Nelson’s famous term “Intertwinglement”, which describes a new kind complexity the world has been facing since the 1970s. Peter explains how the world came to be dangerously “intertwingled” to the point where public safety became a genuine risk. Ever wonder why to know why “X” cannot easily change its domain from Twitter.com? Or why Britain is struggling to implement Brexit (not to mention upgrade its postal system)?
Or why Microsoft still dominates the IT landscape? You will be able to answer those questions on your own after listening to Peter provide in depth answers and explanations to these seven highly important questions: 1. Why did the Y2K problem arise to begin with? 2. What was the scope of the problem? 3. Why were certain countries like Japan and Italy not as impacted? 4. What motivated companies to address the problem? (there are multiple answers to this question) 5. What problems did occur? 6. How hard was it to fix the problem and what solutions were used? 7. Are there future issues we should be concerned about? 
The world runs on software, and it’s only a matter of time before another crisis like Y2K reappears (possibly by way of a Carrington event, or through another cascading software error, like the UNIX epoch limit).
Could you imagine if we all had to go back to pen and paper? Peter de Jager not only made history but carefully documented it, here in this podcast.
If you are curious about the intersection of history, computer science, and business, this podcast serves as the ideal example of why in our current age we are so stuck in IT quagmires. I enjoyed every episode of this podcast, and continue to reflect on it to this day.

Good beginning, Peter. There’s some profound observations here that go far beyond Y2K as well. Paying attention to the warning bells and questioning authorities — managers or experts — is important. I was also surprised that we’re still turning up date data problems twenty years on.