By Jayson Jarmon, CEO, Lux Worldwide
As we all know, the millennial fears associated with the Y2K "bug" never materialized, but that didn't stop Y2K consultants from making billions of dollars by playing on the public's anxiety. Y2K consultants were little better than snake oil salesmen, and their legacy has damaged the Internet service sector's reputation.
Not surprisingly, many of these same consultants have re-emerged as proponents of the so-called Web 2.0 movement, once again panning for gold in a river of woeful consumer ignorance. My advice to potential employers in the tech sector is to scan resumes for references to Y2K consulting, and to deposit those resumes in the garbage can accordingly.
Because many consumers feel they were misled, when problems do arise in the future you will hear them say ... "this is just another Y2K scare." It's necessary to have a healthy skepticism of any doomsday talk, and, like Chicken Little, prophets of disaster will go ignored. I suppose that's because of the profits of disaster.
So here's the newest disaster scenario for you. It will probably have more effect than Y2K ever did, but even if it's twice as bad, two times zero is still zero.
About five years ago, the US Congress ordained that daylight saving time would be extended by a month starting in 2007 in order to conserve energy. In other words, this year we'll be "springing ahead" about a month early. The problem is, banks, airports, government, and the entire corporate business structure has pre-programmed the change to occur a month later-the results, we are told, will send the entire world into confusion … time itself will be set out of joint. Appointments missed! TIVOs recording the wrong program! People arriving early for work! One extra hour of interest paid to bank customers! Half of the people will have to reset their alarm clocks! Panic in the streets!
The fact is, this will have little or no affect whatsoever. As the late Douglas Adams said, "Don't Panic." Whenever you see someone hyping a technical concern like this, ask yourself who stands to gain from it. Somewhere back behind the scenes you will find the same old snake-oil salesmen pushing their new unctions and remedies.
So, watch out for this new ploy and anyone who would profit by its promulgation (sorry, my alliteration key was stuck).
