Reluctant To Face The Music

(I work in a radio station, where one of my jobs is adding new music to our database. When we add new music to the database, we give it an expiry date of 25 years in the future. One day, one of our announcers is watching me do this, and decides he has a problem with it.)

Announcer: “I can’t believe you’re setting the music to expire in 25 years. You’re going to completely screw over this station in 25 years.”

Me: “I don’t think so. I highly doubt we’ll be using these same computers in 25 years. When we upgrade computers, we’ll upgrade the database, and everything gets a new expiry date.”

Announcer: “But what if we don’t upgrade our computers, huh? WHAT IF WE DON’T?”

Me: “Well, a bunch of other things could happen. In 25 years, this music will probably be considered ‘oldies’ and get purged from our system. Or we could change formats, in which case we won’t be playing any of this music anymore. Worst case scenario, with the way media is changing, we’ll be out of business in 25 years.”

Announcer: “You think we’ll be out of business in 25 years? Wow, aren’t you pessimistic?!”

Me: “Actually, I think you’re the pessimistic one. You seem to think you’ll be working this same job in 25 years.”

Announcer: “I won’t be working this job in 25 years! In 25 years I’ll be running [well-known radio network].”

Me: “Exactly. So stop worrying about this.”