Worth watching is the moment Shatner tries to explain his experience to Bezos, and Bezos barely listens. A portrait of two very different men.
Yeah. I'm squirming at the memory. Bezos says "I wanna hear this! ..." but then goes back to the party.
I don't think he really wanted to hear it.
Shatner, whose career & big personality I love, is probably used to being listened to. He's later-in-life than Bezos and from a career of storytelling & emotion. In that situation, I'd have rather heard Shatner's immediate thoughts, than the generic euphoria of one more successful mission.
But I still don't think Bezos wronged Shatner with his divided attention.
Bezos has already had the same experience. Bezos is at a earlier stage-of-life, & comes from a career of ruthless accounting & physics efficiencies. While most space-fans would be sufficiently star-struck to give Shatner the kind of focused attention that a celebrity usually gets, Bezos's own celebrity, fame, & space-experience – not to mention his personal & professional relationships to all the others there – put him far past that.
I think the analogy from NYT's David Streitfeld, that this was a "Kirk/Spock" moment, is closest to the fair truth: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/13/science/bezos-shatner-sta...
I suspect the deep philosophical discussion did happen, but perhaps at a more appropriate time.
This sounds more like a presumption taken on by an arrogant person. It's certainly not a given, as you suggest here.
The rest of the team had a sharp constrast to Shatner in their style of celebration, so which group wasn't following their leader's tone properly? And the group that was celebrating loudly was doing so independent of Bezos, but somehow required him to join in soon and give their tone his affirmation? It's an absurd idea. It makes no sense after just a bit of thought.
Yes. I reject that premise as well.
>> The rest of the team had a sharp constrast to Shatner in their style of celebration, so which group wasn't following their leader's tone properly? And the group that was celebrating loudly was doing so independent of Bezos, but somehow required him to join in soon and give their tone his affirmation? It's an absurd idea. It makes no sense after just a bit of thought.
I think that if Bezos would have settled into a lengthy quiet and introspective discussion with Shatner at the time, it would have changed the overall tone of the group (or at least could have). Of course, I don't know for sure, but I have observed human behaviour in the past.
Traveling to space isn't the same as canyon rafting or bungee jumping. It's not just "exciting", it elicits a wide range of profound experiences and deep emotions. And all of them are just as valid and should be affirmed. If you are organizing and leading people into space, you have to be fully aware as well as humble.
Over the past decades, Bezos spend mountains of energy expounding the importance of space travel, including its philosophical aspects. Bezos response to Shatner makes all of that questionable. It leaves one speculating whether or not he sees commercial space travel as anything else then another thrill ride that might add to the profit margins of his companies.
Maybe he did have a deeper discussion in private. But given Bezos' public image and demeanour, I wouldn't assume he fully understood the importance of that moment before the camera's in hindsight.
Shatner was on that trip as a prop. Most famous space captain going to space for real! Bezos had the opportunity to curb that, and let some humanity seep back into what was basically just a PR stunt.
More damning than that, Bezos was rude to an elderly man, which is rude full stop, no matter the setting.
If Bezos's staff really needed the celebration so much, have their boss come down to their level to do the hooting-and-hollering, and couldn't wait a whole two minutes, they are guilty for the same reasons that Bezos was.
This reflects on Bezos and the company that he kept -- either they are too shallow to understand the depth of what they had done, or too weak to make the uncomfortable choice of discussing it.
Though no one notices, because they are revered for what often comes easy to them, accomplished actors are by and large humble even though the opposite is often believed. Besides inconceivable amounts of money, the one common defining quality among billionaires is narcissism, shorthand for lack of empathy, self-importance, entitlement, need for constant admiration, fear of criticism, etc.
I don’t like Bezos, but I gotta call it like I see it
He was pouring his heart out to the man but you could tell that he just didn't want be there. The least he could've done is pretend to show an interest but he couldn't even do that.
One has his identity shattered, other not trying to let it in of fear of going down the same path.
Both makes sense.
I'm waiting for the day the first psychedelic space flight retreat company gets off :)
In the end, the Bezo didn't do that poorly.
From the top comment:
> It becomes that much worse when you remember that Shatner is a recovering alcoholic, and lost his wife to an alcohol related drowning incident.
Bezos is a real piece of shit.
Whether or not HN commenters owe superbillionaires better, they definitely owe this community better if they're participating in it.
If only people flagged this sort of thing consistently. So it goes.