Some people are just insufficiently hoopy.
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granted, but as a person whose job it is to talk about burning man, i would think that one of the requirements for the job is a passion for the burn and a willingness to talk to anyone about it, anytime, anywhere. i mean, i am on a nodding acquaintance with Danger Ranger, and that’s his full time mode, it seems. he’s always ready to discuss all things burning man with anyone who’s curious, you know?
i get it – everyone needs time away. it just seems like shutting down talk about your job and what you do when you are in an exact place where people are going to be asking you about your job and what you’re doing is just not very nice. why bother going to the reunion at all, you know?
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Now that I’m rather older myself, I certainly hear what you’re saying. I went to a college reunion last summer, and the same guy who I’d known slightly in school, who had spent earlier reunions going about with his thumbs thrust through his suspenders (his suit jacket was carefully stashed somewhere) and exuding cigar smoke, was now a retired financier, and seemed rather humbled. “I don’t ordinarily spend my life in this sort of rarefied circle,” I told him at a party hosted by a Fortune 500 CEO, “I’m an engineer, not a tycoon.”
“Don’t sell yourself short,” he told me. “You’ve spent your life making stuff, while all we ever made was deals. People will still use your stuff long after all our deals are forgotten.”
This from a guy who in his working life could or would not distinguish “I created,” from “I sold,” and would happily claim credit for anything done by anyone who worked for the organizations that he was buying, selling, and squeezing. But he really did seem truly to be having second thoughts.
I nearly felt vindicated.
Then again, I was never really motivated to become filthy rich. If I can have enough amassed to enjoy a retirement in a modicum of comfort, that’s surely enough. Sure, he’s got a much more imposing house than mine, but he has to deal with the staff to maintain it. That sounds like too much work to me. So I’m not going to join the guys comparing the size of their … fortunes.
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Well, ok, but I was viewing this little pamphlet as a piece of concept art, not an actual briefing for a reunion. If I were to see it on, say, a classmate’s blog, I’d think it was hilarious. (And then ask at the reunion a question like, “do you think the Burning Man gift economy can ever penetrate into a world with a pervasive unemployment problem that still seems to need to use the threat of starvation and disease to motivate people to clean the toilets or pick the strawberries?” and we’d wind up going off into a geeky corner by ourselves, and wind up never meeting the “important” people.)
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My parents just went to their fiftieth and they agree with this assessment.
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yeah, that could be its intent, i don’t know. it came off to me as a sort of half tongue-in-cheek, half-serious reunion briefing thing. i like the recommendation by @zfirphdn’s relative – don’t go until your 50th. that’s the plan i’m working on.
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Don’t a lot of high school reunions publish a website or a newsletter or something like that to let people share this sort of thing ahead of time? Even I f not, this flip book is wayyy too long to read at a party. I could understand a short one with just the facts though.
Although now I’m wishing I had put together a quick sheet to hand to people to explain our family’s current living situation because I am really tired of explaining it over and over again to my daughter’s teachers, coaches, friends’ parents, etc…
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It’s really none of their business. Come up with a generic line that politely tells them to bug off - “Our family is very happy, thanks.”
A clever way around high school reunion small talk
Staying in contact with your friends from high school, so you don’t have to go to a reunion?
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Yes, it’s the exact counterpart of that. They’re both equally obnoxious. As a computer geek, I’m perfectly happy to help anyone out with their computer problems whenever they ask. I’ve had the benefit of an amazing education, and so the least I can do is to share what I learnt with others who haven’t been so fortunate. Plus it sometimes gets me out situations where I’m expected to make small talk.
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But really, how long would it take him to say “It’s a big crazy party in the desert where people dress up crazy and build weird stuff”?
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Well my goal is currently more on the side of seeking help and support, so getting people to bug off is kinda the opposite of that. 
Except for those precious few who have made judgemental statements along the lines of “okay but how much do you value your marriage” at which point I don’t even bother anymore, I just walk away
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They all have husbands and wives and children and houses and dogs, and, you know, they’ve all made themselves a part of something and they can talk about what they do. What am I gonna say? “I killed the president of Paraguay with a fork. How’ve you been?”
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I don’t think you have to be particularly clever to just not go.
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By the way, the T-shirt says I won’t fix your computer. I say something different…
I actually do often try to help people with their problems. Really. I recognize that giving help is a responsibility. But, for the most part, troubleshooting, say, a messed-up Windows install is tough, since I don’t ordinarily do Windows. Except for the general knowledge, I might not actually know more than the person I’m helping. I can boot from a Linux live DVD, get their files off on an external medium, and tell them that everything recoverable is backed up, go ahead and reinstall from a clean image - and they won’t generally get any better than that from paid support, but I still feel bad that I can’t offer a shortcut.
But I never do repairs twice for the sort of person (about half my relatives) who subsequently blames me for everything else that goes wrong with it, including the fact that the display panel cracked when they dropped it - and expect me to select and pay for the replacement machine, reinstall all their software (perhaps paying for fresh licenses), do the data recovery on the old one, and so on because, “you worked on it and it broke.”
For those people, I wind up limiting my tech support to, “gee, sorry, I really don’t have time right this minute. I hear that Chris at (…) is pretty good, and the rates are pretty reasonable, why don’t you give them a call?”
If your friends and family are less into passive-aggressive games, I salute you!
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I want this guy to go to my reunions and pretend to be me, and talk about his work incessantly.
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knowing when to hold em, fold em, walk away or run is a great life skill.
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It’s kind of a fair point though, given that that is literally his job. It’d be like asking a plumber to unclog the drains, a painter to touch up the hallway, or a mechanic to nip out to the carpark at the reunion venue to fix that weird knocking noise that started up a few months ago.
People often like to talk about their jobs with people who’re essentially strangers, bu they’re much less keen to provide a free sample of their work for the sake of a few minutes idle chit chat.
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But isn’t that the point of a high school reunion?
I have never been to a high school reunion.
My reunion is this year in May or June. I’m so happy I live about as far away as humanly possible and so have an excellent excuse for not going. Win!
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