Y2K and Atlas

[Matthew James Gering <mgering@ecosystems.net>]

-----Original Message-----
From: [somebody]
Sent: Tuesday, December 01, 1998 5:04 PM
To: philosophy of objectivism
Subject: For the ARF


Ed Yourdon is name known to aging geeks as the developer of structured 
systems analysis & design.  His text on the subject is still in use in 
C.S. courses around the country.  He's also the author of a dozen or so 
books about programming, particularly mainframe programming.

In early 1998 Yourdon and his daughter Jennifer co-authored "Time Bomb 
2000: What the Year 2000 Computer Crisis Means to You."  (As you might 
infer from the title, the Yourdons aren't exactly sanguine about the 
potential impact of the Y2K problem.)  (Nor am I.)

Yourdon maintains a web site featuring, among many other things, reading 
list both technical and non-technical about programming and Y2K.

Introducing his non-technical list of Y2K books, he recommends Atlas 
Shrugged with the following comment:

>As for Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged ... well, you probably read it in 
>college, but you've probably forgotten all about it. You probably don't 
>remember John Galt's famous line, "I will stop the engine of the world."   
>Well, read the book again now, with Y2K-colored glasses, and remember that 
>computer programmers are reading it, too.   The question you need to ask 
>them is whether they intend to stay on the job if the lights go out on 
>January 1, 2000, and whether they feel sufficiently motivated to re-start 
>the engines of the world. If you don't think that's a question worth 
>asking, then you haven't read Atlas Shrugged.

So I guess I'm not the only person to have made that connection... 

http://www.yourdon.com/books/coolbooks/coolby2kother.html