Y2K myths, discussed in my Y2K Management Briefing of August 23rd, 1998.

1. "With so little time and so much left to fix, there are bound to be significant disruptions, malfunctions, and crashes in computer systems, including some very vital ones."
2. "All systems that fail will do so at the same time."
3. "The Alarmists know something we don't."
4. "If you don't finish testing in time, you (and we) are sunk!"
5. "The older the system, the more likely it is to fail."
6. "The people who got rich and powerful by paying attention to reality and by managing risk better than most people--are all asleep at the wheel!"
7. "We are only testing the Software; not the building devices etc."
8. "Nobody's checking the work for ACCURACY!"
9. "Information is being withheld, due to fear of litigation."
10. "If a main supplier goes down, it will sink YOU (and us)."
11. "People are hoarding the info, for competitive reasons."
12. "All testing is stand-alone so far; I'm worrying about when we hook it all up together!"
13. "Critical systems were built lean (for cost reasons); we have no fault-tolerance!"
14. "The more complex the system, the more likely to fail."
15. "We keep uncovering problems--they will bury us by Y2K."
16. "The systems that are the most important are the ones they won't get fixed."
17. "The evil manufacturers are charging us for upgrades to their systems."
18. "The evil manufacturers are hiding the bad news from us."
19. "IT management cannot devote time to embedded systems issues."
20. "Y2K remediation projects are being run by powerless nerds."
21. "We don't even know WHERE all the problems are!"
22. "There are just too many constraints to get this done in time."
23. "We cannot possibly fix everything--esp. with a labor shortage."
24. "Everyone is having to test all of their own equipment--its simply too much."
25. "Bad data will corrupt the whole information system."
26. "If we lose ALL power, the Power Grid cannot be restarted."
27. "Planes have so many systems, they will just die in mid-air, and crash to the ground."
28. "At midnight, elevators will either crash to the ground, lock up on the first floor, or freeze wherever they are."
29. "The Nuclear Power Plants will explode/meltdown, since the control systems will malfunction."
30. "When all the control systems go haywire, we won't be able to run or control ANYTHING!"
31. "At midnight, my house will shut down, and I won't be able to 'reboot it'!"
32. "If it caves in, nobody will be able to 'take charge'!"
33. "We are gonna lose the phones!"
34. "If it happened today, we would be without power forever!"
35. "The Russian missile systems might malfunction and fire one at us."
36. "My credit cards won't work."
37. "Any small, rural electric utility can bring the whole power industry to its knees."
38. "There is no redundancy in the power grid."
39. "This costs each firm too much money to fix--they will go under."
40. "This is all remedial work--we get nothing for it!"
41. "The Global Cost of this--$200B to $400B--will drive the economy into the pits."
42. "The Economists who know the most, predict the worst."
43. "This huge cost will hit us all around the date-change; we will plunge into a depression."
44. "The banks will run out of money, as people withdraw cash before."
45. "Embedded chips use clocks that will malfunction at Y2K."
46. "All embedded chips with year-fields will fail."
47. "We only started checking these last year/this year! We are too late."
48. "Some of the manufacturers are out of business--we're dead!"
49. "Many medical systems will fail, with life-threatening implications."
50. "Sure, the big companies are gonna make it, but the data looks bad for the small business. No one is helping THEM."
51. "The rural areas will lose all power, electricity, etc..."
52. "Small companies don't have the resources to fix their systems."
53. "Small companies are unaware of the problem."
54. "The rest of the world is asleep."
55. "No one is helping foreign countries."
56. "Their overseas power plants will fail."
57. "Overseas phone companies are doing nothing."