Y2K wasn't hype: if we hadn't done the work, the outcome would have been moderately gruesome. (Not world-ending-apocalyptic gruesome, but not-getting-paid-for-a-month-and-the-stock-market-crashed gruesome.)
Indeed, it was largely due to Y2K resilience preparations that the Federal Reserve managed to keep running on 9/11:
Upshot: it might look like hype, but sometimes it's actually the symptom of a bullet dodged just in time. (Which is why I hope that this time next year, when we look back at the Ebola outbreak, there will be plenty of folks saying "nope, it was overhyped fear-mongering".)
