REGENT’S PARK – LONDON ZOO – APRIL 14th 1831
The sky turns bright yellow from an approaching thunder storm, but one can hardly call the weather chilly. On a bench across from the albino kangaroos, we find Erik – our story’s hero? Next to him there’s a man in an oversized suit, who’s just introduced himself as Ford. Now, in those days smoking cigars was far from being forbidden or being considered utterly ludicrous, or even called hipster, so smoking was exactly what they did. Ford explained he was working on the development of a gargantuan steam powered computer. He’d just been granted a governmental subsidy of £ 470 billion and back in those days an amount like that was quite some. While Ford just waffled along about valves, gears and polynomial functions, Erik had some time to think. It’s easy to foresee mankind can and will build a more portable version of a concept like this in, let’s say, a 175 years. And as soon as that’s invented, applications will be needed to be installed on these new devices. Because without apps, a device would just exist without purpose or indeed functionality, which is not a pleasant thought. Now someone must develop all those apps and besides that, you need someone extra who’s able to find this person. Because, let’s just be honest here: folks like that don’t often leave their house now, do they? An idea is born and as soon as Ford is done talking and the sun is nearly down, Erik suggests that he should work for him as a recruiter. And on that deal being made, Working Class Heroes finds his genesis.