Born in the wrong era? No. There is no wrong era.

something burns and there's fire.
throw coal into fire and it heats up.
eventually it may even catch fire.
take the coal out of the fire and you'll have hot coal.
take burning coal out of the fire and you'll have burning coal.
put lotsa hot coal together and you'll have a barbecue.
put lotsa burning coal together and u get a bonfire.
put a piece of hot coal among cold pieces of coal though, and you get something more complicated. the hot coal cools down and the cold coal heats up.
now if you put burning coal instead, it'll keep burning and more pieces around it will heat up.

righto.
and that's reality.
live with it chump.