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Playa Phone

playaphone.com

141–150 of 248 posts

Re: Playa Phone

#141
post #121
post #24

Our first time out on the playa together, my girlfriend and I stopped by this phone booth and made a couple of calls. And because we stopped, we saw the FSM camp next door, and a giant sign saying "Weddings Here", so we inquired. They offered us free rings and then announced our wedding over a loudspeaker. In 2 minutes we had an entire wedding party, complete with best man, an elder to give away the bride, 25+ guests…

What's the point if not to make it official? Otherwise there are no stakes, no benefit, and the whole thing would amount to cosplay, right?

What's the point of going to a murder mystery diner party, if no one gets arrested at the end?

Re: Playa Phone

#142

Is Burning Man fun? I got the rather cynical impression that it's mostly very well off tech people and even better off finance/political people. Not trying to be flippant, genuinely curious if my impression is based on reality or am I making things up.

I’ve been going for a decade. There are some of those because they have the disposable income and job freedom to go but it’s not something you think about because no one talks about work or networking there

Re: Playa Phone

#143

Is Burning Man fun? I got the rather cynical impression that it's mostly very well off tech people and even better off finance/political people. Not trying to be flippant, genuinely curious if my impression is based on reality or am I making things up.

I've been twice and I really enjoyed myself. Tech, finance, and political people definitely don't make up close to the majority. You'd get sort of laughed at if you tried networking earnestly about like tech stocks or LLMs. Generally I don't prefer socializing with techie types from SF, the folks I met at Burning Man were nothing of the sort. It's mostly just adults who really like dressing up, building stuff, and st…

Can you just smoke weed, enjoy the music and not talk to anybody? Is that sort of experience possible?

Re: Playa Phone

#144
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like there’s a non-zero chance you’re getting downvoted because HN doesn’t understand sarcastic burner humor.

It's funny because his argumentis self-defeating. It's people that make it what it is.

It's participants that make it what it is, and not everyone participates. Quite a lot that come are purely spectators.

Re: Playa Phone

#145

Is Burning Man fun? I got the rather cynical impression that it's mostly very well off tech people and even better off finance/political people. Not trying to be flippant, genuinely curious if my impression is based on reality or am I making things up.

I can confidently say that burning man is fun. What type of fun it ends up being for you is the question - the fun scale: https://kellycordes.com/2009/11/02/the-fun-scale/

In my experience, Burning Man is all 3 types of fun at the same time.

Re: Playa Phone

#146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been twice and I really enjoyed myself. Tech, finance, and political people definitely don't make up close to the majority. You'd get sort of laughed at if you tried networking earnestly about like tech stocks or LLMs. Generally I don't prefer socializing with techie types from SF, the folks I met at Burning Man were nothing of the sort. It's mostly just adults who really like dressing up, building stuff, and st…

Can you just smoke weed, enjoy the music and not talk to anybody? Is that sort of experience possible?

Sure, but you can do that at home too.

Re: Playa Phone

#147

What do you even talk about on a phone call like this? I have both intense social anxiety and FOMO. Knowing that this thing exists for a week and then no more is torture.

Anything or nothing.

One of my favorites is to ask the person what's the most amazing thing they've seen that day, and you'll likely get widely varying answers given where they are.

But you could also call and try to sell someone an extended warranty for their couch without breaking. It doesn't matter as long as you (and hopefully they) have fun with it.

Re: Playa Phone

#148
In Australia, Telstra is required to keep the payphone network up and running. You can make free outgoing calls to landlines and mobile phones. And I just read that you can call inbound as well (which I did not know). Now the fun begins.

Re: Playa Phone

#149
post #121
post #24

Our first time out on the playa together, my girlfriend and I stopped by this phone booth and made a couple of calls. And because we stopped, we saw the FSM camp next door, and a giant sign saying "Weddings Here", so we inquired. They offered us free rings and then announced our wedding over a loudspeaker. In 2 minutes we had an entire wedding party, complete with best man, an elder to give away the bride, 25+ guests…

What's the point if not to make it official? Otherwise there are no stakes, no benefit, and the whole thing would amount to cosplay, right?

[deleted]

Re: Playa Phone

#150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been twice and I really enjoyed myself. Tech, finance, and political people definitely don't make up close to the majority. You'd get sort of laughed at if you tried networking earnestly about like tech stocks or LLMs. Generally I don't prefer socializing with techie types from SF, the folks I met at Burning Man were nothing of the sort. It's mostly just adults who really like dressing up, building stuff, and st…

Can you just smoke weed, enjoy the music and not talk to anybody? Is that sort of experience possible?

You can, but a big part of the marvel is in walking around (er, biking) and seeing the spectacle. If it's your first year, that's your job: be the audience.
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