Quiet thoughts

```
Debt, economic decline, immigration; hippies, anti-government, freedom.
At the end of the 1980s, a wave of change encompassed a country boy from the Rust Belt.
As the gate for upward mobility was on the verge of closing, he struggled to move forward.
College, Silicon Valley, entrepreneurship; HP, Apple, Microsoft.
To become part of the 1%, or even 0.1%, he sacrificed a lot, but also gained a lot.
```

American History 1988

After quietly setting up a massive voice chat channel for a hundred people in the Stanford computer room, Dean's headphones were never quiet. He had muted several users multiple times but granting them speaking permissions again did absolutely nothing to quell the noise.


For students from various universities across California, it was as if they had discovered a new world. The previous chat rooms were text-based, but now they could ditch their keyboards and talk directly.


And so, these over-excited fools did all kinds of ridiculous things. Singing and telling jokes were the more reserved actions—some went as far as to broadcast a battle of the sexes, secure in the knowledge that no one could see.


This voice-only approach, devoid of visuals but able to satisfy some peculiar personal tastes, deeply stirred the other beasts in the chat room.


Chapter 103: Armor