Elon Musk’s words from an on-stage interview at TED 2017 in Vancouver in April 2017, about nine years ago, are being shared again. Inverse reported him saying, “I think the value of beauty and inspiration is very much underrated, no question.”
Where it comes from
TED lists the conversation, with interviewer Chris Anderson, as “The future we’re building — and boring”. It runs about 40 minutes, and Inverse says the remarks came at the end of it. Inverse’s list of quotes from the talk says the interview took place on a Friday at the conference. Anderson put it to Musk that he seemed to have a double motivation, to save humanity with a backup plan and to inspire people, Entrepreneur’s transcript shows. Musk answered that the value of beauty and inspiration is underrated. He said he was not trying to be anyone’s savior, and that he was “just trying to think about the future and not be sad.”
About the wording
The Entrepreneur transcript includes a false start just before the “not be sad” line. Some online transcripts also contain errors, so the recording on TED’s site is the best check.
Our take: shared quotes often carry no date, and this one is nine years old. It is Musk answering a question on stage in 2017, not a new statement about his plans, so it should not be read as news. The wording matches the Entrepreneur transcript and the Inverse quotes we checked. We could not read TED’s own transcript text and did not find the quote in wire coverage, so the TED recording is the best source.
