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Comment by davidw | Hacker News Reader

His words are pretty moving, but it's a jarring contrast with the... uh, 'influencer' vibe I get from the people hanging out with them.

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Yeah, Bezos struggling to keep his attention on Shatner's apparently-sincere attempt to express his feelings about the experience, because he was distracted by all the celebration crap around and didn't actually seem to be trying that hard to be present with Shatner, was really gross. I believe the kids call it "cringe", and this video had so much of it I had to turn it off.

The clip [1] was kind of gross. Shatner is standing there, trying to make a thoughtful, serious, genuine statement about his feelings, and Bezos is repeatedly turning his head away, looking at everything else, like a kid distracted by an iPad. The champaign popping and the women in the big sunglasses yelling "wooooooo" like they're at a dance club was just icing on the cake. Finally, after all the horseplay was done, he turned back and gave the guy a chance to articulate.

1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSNXBvpLb9o

wow it sounds bad, but then you watch it and it's even worse lol. Poor Shatner.

How did you feel about the bit after the champagne when Jeff was giving Bill his undivided attention?

to me, it seems like bezos did exactly the right thing. he got the champagne out the way, then listened to what shatner had to say. and then, when shatner got overwhelmed by emotions, bezos took off his sunglasses and hugged shatner, which was a really touching moment. it's really hard to listen to someone monologuing and not interrupt or distract them, probably more so if you're like bezos and used to being the centre of attention, but he does it and let's shatner have his say. good for both of them!

Well to be fair, his team is celebrating a successful (and safe) launch and recovery, as their boss it would be weird if he didn’t take a moment to participate in it.

Exactly, 100%. Shatner and what he's trying to convey is the So What of commercial space, and the influencer vibe on display is what so many sense about it as a reality.

there's a certain kind of person who is so hooked on attention and external signals they're almost zombie like.

The exact same reaction I suspect you had to this I had at the Holocaust memorial in Berlin, the big concrete block one that is really jarring in person, yet you have people running around spilling their drinks over it while they take selfies. People who are legit dead behind the eyes, they can't take in where they are any more. Realizing that scared the crap out of me

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