Rain pattered against Alan’s window as he spent yet another night alone in his room on the computer. He had been slaving away at a dead-end job and relied on games and the internet for any trace amount of joy ever since his girlfriend of five years dumped him several months ago. Her words continuously rung in his head: “ You’re almost 30 and you’re still not serious about your career or investing in anything…!” She would scold him like a mother would to her kid, but she wasn’t wrong. Alan had coasted through life up until this point, skating by with just enough money to pay rent and live reasonably well. It was difficult to feel motivated to do more than he was already doing since it had been working out for so long. Alan’s room was unusually cold that night, probably due to the storm outside. It didn’t feel too bad at first since h...