Weekly Seeds | August 18, 2024 | Didn't See It Coming
Published by Noa Elan on
ONE year of Weekly Seeds
Today marks a year since I published my first Weekly Seeds newsletter. These weekly write-ups have been a source of creative expression and connection with the community. You can read all past 51 newsletters on our website.
I am grateful for the people who write back and share how my words impacted them, whether it’s inspiration, knowledge, hurt, or disagreement. Thank you for reading and participating in whatever capacity works for you.
Burning Man is called out for owning what it has already become
ICYMI Burning Man is being judged for asking Sound Camps to post their DJ lineup and tag @burningman in their posts. Here’s one solidly great perspective from ITAI: ”it feels like instead of doing a deep dive to understand where things got off track, and where you lost touch with the core community who has been holding Burning Man together for idk how many years, you are trying to put quick bandaid on a fatal wound. Even if say you get now an influx of 10,000 tickets due to the lineups, it will just be another step in the direction of becoming more and more like a festival and less and less like a community.”
I mostly agree with ITAI's perspective. Yes, leaning into DJ lineups right now feels less than strategic and will potentially make Burning Man more of a music-centric festival than the magical ephemeral participatory art event co-created by a bunch of weirdos.
And, also- in my eyes, this announcement is merely making official what is already a reality. Behavior, not guidelines, drives culture. And in the past decade, Burning Man has become a festival, with many people coming for the DJs, and with Sound Camps posting lineups pre event. Sound Camps potentially thought their (outside of the community agreements) behavior would not impact the culture, until their behaviors became so wide spread that it became The Culture. And now it receives the official stamp!
Context FYIs:
I worked for the Burning Man org for a short moment in 2013. I don’t have any intel about how the org thinks about this topic.
I haven’t been to a Burning Man event since 2019.
So you're not into the culture you built?
I had a big ouch seeing Robot Heart’s lineup announcement, where they poked at the org’s request, and instead published an empty lineup, calling out the ten principles. Given the amount of backlash the Burning Man org has already received in the past week, it feels like the wrong type of opportunistic move, and fairly unkind. Especially given the that Robot Heart has built its business on top of Burning Man events, and through releasing its lineups ahead of past event (when it was not welcomed by the org).
)'(
If you're going to the Playa- safe travels, friends. Hope you have an incredible adventure, and please check out the new and fresh Center Camp, now operating a 24/7 teahouse.
If you're not going to the Playa, check out SPARK: A Burning Man Movie, for more insight into the cultural and organizational transformation that Burning Man went through in the late 1990s, when they decided to ban firearms, give more power to rangers, and limit when and how participants could burn things.
Bank Run, Circa 2024
One more note on Burning Man. Last year was the first year that Burning Man didn’t sell out, which led to a ticket firesale. This experience broke people’s assumptions on the marketplace dynamics. Before 2023, people understood the system as “Tickets always sell out, it's easier to sell a ticket than get a ticket. if you can get a ticket to the burn- get it! Buy the ticket first, and decide if you want to go later. No risk”. In 2023, and now, 2024, people are no longer able to sell their tickets, leading to price cuts, and personal financial losses. This is building the exact opposite narrative in the community’s mind- “Tickets are always available in the last minute! Don’t worry about buying tickets to the burn. Figure out if you want to go first, and buy the tickets later. No risk.” I project that this recent narrative will drive last-minute ticket purchase behavior, which could have devastating impact on the org, both from a cashflow perspective and a preparation perspective.
Is everyone on board with the story? Economic and societal systems work similarly. We put money in the bank because we assume we’ll be able to pull it out if we need. We go to collage because we assume that companies will compensate us with more money based on how many degrees we completed. We put money in our 401k when we are young with the assumption that we will get money from the government when we retire. But what if people stop believing these societal narratives?
This is a core discussion point when it comes to childbirth rates. When rates decline, concerns about societal ability to sustain itself financially bubble up. New data from the Pew Research Center signals that we should expect continued decline in US births: 47% of U.S. adults 50 years or younger without children say they are unlikely to ever have kids (10 percentage points above 2018 rates). Of them 57% say a major reason is they just don’t want to. I believe we should evaluate if this is a positive trend for humans, on the individual and societal level.
Note: This newsletter represents my personal opinions and thoughts. I understand I may have unexamined views and I appreciate when people point them out so that I am made aware and can start thinking about them. When I make mistakes I am committed to learning about my impact on others and repairing.
