This segment from CNN Money is worth the 3 minutes or so of your time.
Mike Judge created the satirical show Silicon Valley, as well as Beavis and Butthead and Idiocracy. He says that people in Silicon Valley don’t quite know how to enjoy themselves…hmmmm. He hadn’t been to Burning Man when he launched his new show. Billionaire Burner Elon Musk invited him, saying at the after party “it’s like the best party in LA times a thousand”:
“How Much is Elon Like Iron Man?” (Modern Luxury)
“I really feel like Mike Judge has never been to Burning Man, which is Silicon Valley. If you haven’t been, you just don’t get it. You could take the craziest L.A. party and multiply it by a thousand, and it doesn’t even get fucking close to what’s in Silicon Valley. The show didn’t have any of that.”
[Source: Re/code]
Larry Harvey shared his opinion with Techcrunch:
“You can make a lot of money and do good with it. Elon Musk has made a lot of money.”
Later episodes in Silicon Valley’s first season showed a Burning Man poster in the coder house where the main characters live and work.
Anybody know if Mike Judge made it out to Burning Man in 2014?
Also, maybe I’m hanging out with too “middle-level” a crowd, but not once did I ever hear a person express “you know what…. I’m thinking about my office and how great it will be to return to it with all my new knowledge”. However, I HAVE sat through numerous conversations along the lines of “oh my god, I really hate my Silicon Valley life and job and Bman really brought it home for me… fuck it, maybe I’ll cash in my stock and live in my van” or “goddam it, after seeing all this beauty, how can I ever spend another fucking day in a cubicle in Milpitas?” Now THAT is a burning man conversation… but my campmates aren’t Musks or Zuckerburgs.
See, you need to start hanging out with the job creators, the contributors, the visionaries, man. Not us takers.
Yeah, the whole “Bman really helped my business model” thing is really mystifying for me. What is less “libertarian” than a place where the vast majority of people are forbidden from financial transactions while a tiny minority of “more equal” farm animals are allowed to cash in? Also, as someone who went to 9 burns, not once did I barter for a thing. Not one damn thing. Barter economy? Not so much. GIFT economy? Absolutely. Gave away many things and received many things without a hint of obligation to return the favor which is the beautiful thing about Bman.
The business model people are those that look for ways to monetize whatever is in front of them. They are useful to society (for the most part) but I usually want to punch them whenever I meet one. I can’t say I’ve ever met one on the playa, so I must be doing something right.
Defaultification(tm), another awesome word, Nomad, in the manner of your Tin Principles, and Commodification Camps.
burnersxxx, I sent updated text this evening for the 990 post to your z… address, much obliged in advance.
Yes, I thought that was rather clever myself, worthy of a web domain, don’t you think?, as is TinPrinciples.com. The question is, what should they be used for? Anyway, it’s fun. Maybe we should form Defaultification LLC to start a class-action lawsuit against the BMP for not following Article 1 of their bylaws.
wow….. I was expecting something thought provoking. Fail.
2-3 weeks? Don’t you mean 3-4 months? He made it sound like it all just gets cleaned up as opposed to everyone is supposed to leave no trace. It’s ideas like that i think is the reason so many people leave stuff behind. Abandoning 2000 bikes every year is NOT leave no trace.
“Nothing there but sand?” There’s no sand there. Where’d they find that guy?
Seeing Burning Man as an entrepreneurial paradigm is really missing most of the Tin Principles(tm). It also explains the commodification and Defaultification(tm) of the experience. Glad these lemmings are all going someplace I won’t be.