attend burning man

once a year, seventy thousand people drive into the nevada desert, build a temporary city from nothing, live by a completely different set of social rules for a week, and then disappear — leaving no trace behind.

it sounds insane. that's kind of the point.

why this matters (even if you never go)

burning man isn't for everyone. the dust, the heat, the radical self-reliance — it's genuinely harsh. but the underlying principle applies to everyone: deliberately place yourself in a social environment that operates on completely different rules than what you're used to.

at burning man, there's no money. no advertising. no spectators — everyone participates. people express themselves in ways that would get them stared at anywhere else. and somehow, in the middle of a hostile desert, a functioning community emerges based on gifting, art, and connection.

the default world problem

you live in what burners call "the default world" — the one with traffic, cubicles, social hierarchies, and the constant pressure to be normal. you follow rules you never agreed to. you suppress parts of yourself that don't fit the template.

you might not even realize how constrained you are until you step into an environment where those constraints don't exist.

radical self-expression isn't just a slogan

it means showing up as whoever you actually are — not the curated version you present at work or on social media. the weird parts. the creative parts. the parts you keep hidden because they might not be "appropriate."

when thousands of people do this simultaneously, something magical happens: you realize that "normal" is just a story everyone agreed to tell. and you don't have to keep telling it.

you don't need the desert

can't make it to burning man? fine. the lesson is portable. seek out communities, events, and environments that operate differently from your daily life. festivals, retreats, subcultures, artistic communities — anywhere the social script gets rewritten.

expose yourself to different ways of being human. you'll come back to the default world seeing it — and yourself — with fresh eyes.

if this resonated, share it with someone who needs to hear it.