I think humans are meant to be regularly challenged by solving hard problems.

There's a dopamine-reward cycle associated with the insight that unlocks a solution.

In the absence of sufficiently hard real problems, we must invent and then solve fake ones. "Run this marathon" "Hike the John Muir Trail even as you're getting pelted by rain and occasional thunderstorms" "Construct an elaborate Burning Man art installation with a giant flame-shooting serpent coiled around an egg full of pyrotechnics", "Hold a church bake sale to raise money to build a nicer church". Just about anyone who is not at survival / subsistence level engages in some degree of fake problem creation and solving.

These fake problems serve many goals. One is to do the problem-solving equivalent of exercise -- you want the "fitness" that comes from grit, coordination ability, and creativity. If you don't use it, it atrophies. Another goal is to have plenty of practice, especially practice coordinating as a group, when real problems show up. We saw this during COVID, when many Bay Area group houses rapidly coordinated to prepare for the impending pandemic in January-March 2020. Finally, it serves a social selective role -- you want friends and partners who are skilled and reliable in the face of hard problems, and in the absence of real ones it's useful to have fake ones to see how everyone does.

After the fake problem is solved, there's an intense feeling of joy, and excitement from having taken on a hard thing and persevered. You've escaped the basin of attraction of everyday life and had a truly sublime experience. You've been through something intense with your friends and some strangers, and maybe you have some new friends now.

The fake problems are generally meant to have some bounded range of hardness such that they don't turn into real problems. However, the true amount of hardness is unknown, and that unpredictability is what makes the problem-solving exciting. Sometimes the fake problems turn into real problems and you have to deal with them. It's all part of the adventure. Struggle and glory go hand in hand.

In any case, I wish everyone currently at Burning Man a safe next few days, and I salute everyone who brought way more food, water, and medicine than they really needed because you never know what could happen.