“Small Talk”
Lesson 16. A Student Essay
Each September, I hope that summer won’t end and that, after a little autumn chill, the warmth will return. I don’t want snowy weather and colds. My hopes are unfounded, and all my life experience tells me otherwise. But I keep hoping. When the defenders of the flat Earth appeared, I almost joined their ranks. I followed their experiments and tried to understand their reasoning. Although I have university degrees in physics, I sincerely wished them luck. Then the critics reared their heads and started bullying them. It was unbearably boring, and they proved what was known more than two thousand years ago. But all they could prove was no hope. We were trapped, forced to follow the logic of the seasons, with no way out through the Serpent’s Gate.
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When I was younger and didn’t suffer as much from bad weather, I was more interested in five-year cycles than in the changing seasons. The point is that a five-year cycle is the usual planning horizon in business. My income largely depended on it back then.
I know that in five years, most of the things in your apartment will be junk. I am also sure that by then your professional skills will need updating, and the local university will launch a new programme. Around the same time, your bank will offer you a new contract, and the company you work for will begin a radical reorganisation.
The reason for this rat race is that typical production equipment wears out over five years. There are currently no cheap ways to make it last longer. And if your equipment needs to be replaced every five years, you will set the service life of the goods you produce at five years as well. And if I am your employee, you will demand that I stay in the loop. And you are not going to train me at your own expense, because you are not sure about the next five years. A pretty picture.
And when you close your business, all that remains is small talk about the weather getting worse outside, and you want to change something. Another argument in favour of the flat Earth theory.
