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 staying up really late dancing and partying.
This is exactly the right answer for people asking about BM on hacker news. 100% agreed
How long did it take you to leave (get out) at the end? I've heard they often have massive backups in the exit line.
It depends what time you try to exodus. If you wait until the end, it's 50k+ people trying to leave a campground at the same time.
You can also stay an extra day. Help clean up and leave with zero traffic. I’ve done it myself.
Can you just smoke weed, enjoy the music and not talk to anybody? Is that sort of experience possible?
Smoking weed is iffy; lots of federal cops out here looking for it, since pot is still illegal on federal lands.
Just chilling and doing your own thing is certainly doable.
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.
Sure, but you can do that at home too.
Earth is home.