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by audeyisaacs 3186 days ago
Musk's speaking is always a little awkward (in an endearing way), but did he seem significantly more nervous/emotionally affected than usual in the first part of this speech? It seemed that way to me, curious if anyone else interpreted it like that.

He calms down when he starts talking about risk and it being the anniversary of a launch.

edit: Good and fun presentation regardless!

edit2: Thoughts:

- Maybe he feels in over his head. The timing when he relaxed seemed to coincide with talking about a previous experience that might have felt overwhelming at the time but paid off.

- Maybe he typically takes beta blockers or something for speeches and take them until late this time (the talk did start late)

- Maybe it's just random.

Any spacex watchers have thoughts on cause?

edit3: Definitely not a diss. Love Elon/SpaceX/the vision.

6 comments

He did seem way more nervous than usual.
I think it's weighing on him.. I think he'd like to move/iterate faster.. and the costs/stress of doing what he's doing when MANY keep saying 'Can't BE DONE' ... well.. to persevere through that.. takes some real strength of character and determination...but it's still stressful. I think you can hear that in his voice. I bet he's tired as fuck.
I saw that.

The talk was on the 9th anniversary of their first successful launch, which basically made SpaceX possible.

He said that it was an emotional day for him.
I wondered if I was really noticing that or if I was projecting my own fear of public speaking on him.
I don't think it was the primary factor, but he did have to fly to Australia later that day to give a (battery) presentation. Which is a very different time-zone. A big day, even for Musk.
IAC was in Adelaide (Australia) this year, but I guess he did have to fly in for that.
he told a few jokes that bombed. tough crowd.
"So we decided to call it BFR"... crickets

Clearly no gamers in the audience, I died.

I have a feeling it was a very mixed crowd and there are probably lots of people chuckling quietly at his jokes but not the level of full-on laughing required to be heard by the camera way in the back.