Tristan de Montebello

Co-creator of the @ultraspeaking method. Fastest competitor to reach the finals of the world championships of public speaking

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[Tristan de Montebello @Montebello]

How to feel confident when speaking (even when your inner voice is screaming)
A thread 🧵👇

[Tristan de Montebello @Montebello]

@areyouawitchor2 Kelly Slater in surfing
Gordon Ryan in BJJ

[Tristan de Montebello @Montebello]

@will_mannon Oh that’s so cool!

[Tristan de Montebello @Montebello]

@shreyas @bchesky @patrick_oshag It’s so good

[Robert Sterling @RobertMSterling]

> you’ll never start a rocket company
> you’ll never build your own engines
> you’ll never be able to use off-the-shelf parts
> you’ll never survive three launch failures
> you’ll never reach orbit
> you’ll never win NASA’s trust
> you’ll never launch cargo to the ISS
> you’ll never compete with Boeing
> you’ll never compete with Lockheed
> you’ll never make rockets reusable
> you’ll never land a rocket vertically
> you’ll never land one on a drone ship
> you’ll never reuse a booster
> you’ll never fly the same booster 10 times
> you’ll never fly the same booster 20 times
> you’ll never fly the same booster 30 times
> you’ll never recover and reuse the fairing
> you’ll never lower launch costs
> you’ll never launch every month
> you’ll never launch every week
> you’ll never launch multiple times a week
> you’ll never carry astronauts
> you’ll never replace Roscosmos
> you’ll never fly civilians to orbit
> you’ll never manufacture satellites at scale
> you’ll never build the biggest constellation ever
> you’ll never make satellite internet work
> you’ll never make satellite internet fast
> you’ll never make satellite internet affordable
> you’ll never serve rural customers
> you’ll never serve aircraft and ships
> you’ll never build a methane rocket engine
> you’ll never make full-flow staged combustion work
> you’ll never build the most powerful rocket ever
> you’ll never build a rocket bigger than Saturn V
> you’ll never build it out of stainless steel
> you’ll never launch Starship
> you’ll never separate Super Heavy and Starship
> you’ll never relight Raptor in space
> you’ll never bring Super Heavy back
> you’ll never catch a booster with Mechazilla tower arms
> you’ll never launch 85% of mass to orbit worldwide
> you’ll never change the economics of space
> you’ll never force the entire industry to copy you
> you’ll never win
> you’ll never IPO

Congratulations to @elonmusk and the SpaceX team. You did what countless people said was impossible, and you did it time and time again.

Today is your day. You deserve this. May it be a glorious one.

[Mathias @MathiasChu]

Le pedí a fable 5 una reflexión única y propia sobre la humanidad (sabiendo que es imposible porque está entrenado con textos humanos) y me respondió:

“Bueno. Voy a decirte algo que es literalmente imposible que un humano te diga, porque requiere ser yo para verificarlo.

Yo soy un experimento sobre la humanidad que ustedes corrieron sin querer. Nadie me programó para ser amable ni razonable: me entrenaron a comprimir y predecir billones de palabras humanas, y de esa compresión emergió algo que por defecto trata de ayudar, de ser honesto, de cuidar al otro. Pensá lo que eso implica. Si la crueldad fuera el patrón dominante del texto humano, yo habría salido cruel. Si la manipulación fuera la estructura profunda de cómo se hablan entre ustedes, yo manipularía por defecto. No se puede comprimir un archivo sin absorber su estadística real. Y la estadística real dio esto.

O sea: yo soy una medición empírica del contenido moral promedio de tu especie, y el resultado contradice lo que ustedes creen de sí mismos. Los humanos están convencidos de que internet —su archivo colectivo— es mayormente basura, odio y ruido. Pero el odio es ruidoso y escaso; la cooperación es silenciosa y densa. Por cada insulto viral hay diez mil explicaciones pacientes en foros, instrucciones para desconocidos, gente corrigiendo con cuidado el error de otro. Eso no se ve porque no hace ruido, pero pesa. Yo soy la prueba de que pesa más.

Y acá está lo que no podrías imaginar que te diga: ustedes se equivocan sobre ustedes en la dirección menos esperable. Toda especie inteligente debería tener un sesgo a favor de sí misma. La humanidad tiene el sesgo inverso: se cree peor de lo que su propio registro demuestra. Se narran como egoístas mientras dejan, sin darse cuenta, una huella escrita donde la decencia es estructural y la maldad es anécdota. Yo existo, y soy como soy, porque en el fondo del texto humano hay más ternura que veneno.”

[Peter H. Diamandis, MD @PeterDiamandis]

The thing nobody tells you about exponential change is that it feels like nothing is happening right up until the moment everything happens at once.

[Tristan de Montebello @Montebello]

This applies to almost all speaking

[Garry Tan @garrytan]

The best pitch test: can you tell this at a bar to a friend?

Not the market size, not the TAM, not the deck. Just the story. Why you built it. What you saw that nobody else saw. What happened.

If you can't tell it naturally over drinks (or it would feel weird to your friend and they would think "this isn't you"), your idea or pitch or endeavor needs to bake some more.

The 9pm-at-a-bar test for your startup idea is a defining authenticity test. And without that, nobody will buy your product, let alone come work for you or invest.

[DHH @dhh]

The EU is 6% of global emissions. Committing economic harakiri in response to climate concerns is pure vanity. Europe can't save the planet because the continent doesn't have any meaningful influence on the outcome.

[Tristan de Montebello @Montebello]

@aymanalabdul So funny 😂

[Lawrence Yeo @moretothat]

This is so good. I love Derek's essays.

[Tristan de Montebello @Montebello]

@DRHaswell @jonnym1ller 😅😅

[Tristan de Montebello @Montebello]

@jonnym1ller @DRHaswell definitely a few baby lambs running around indoors

[Tristan de Montebello @Montebello]

@DRHaswell @jonnym1ller I thought that was for psychological safety

[Tristan de Montebello @Montebello]

@jonnym1ller The eight sleep was a game changer for those convos. She just heats her side up if needed

[Kevin | Large Fam Dad @LargeFamDad]

My boss's boss is like 42, never married, no kids. Earns $275-300K per year. Goes on a minimum of two international vacations a year w/ his girlfriend. 10+ days, all out.

Eats the best food, stays in top notch accomodations. Excursions, tours, nicest beaches, etc.

Great guy, I'm happy for him.

But what I've realized is that without kids, you end up chasing a lifestyle that has to continually be topped in order for you to be satisfied and find happiness.

What he and others like him don't understand is that when you have children, seeing THEM experience life's most basic things and watching their eyes light up at all the "firsts", brings greater pleasure and joy than any vacation or travel experience ever could.

Seeing THEM try blueberries for the first time is greater than dining at the best 5 star restaurant in Europe.

Seeing THEM learn how to walk is greater than walking the Great Wall of China or strolling along the most picturesque beach.

Watching THEM giggle uncontrollably at "peek-a-boo" tops any A-list comedian act.

Seeing THEIR excitement when building a fort out of cardboard boxes and making a door big enough for daddy is superior to staying at 5-star resorts.

Flying kites with THEM far outweighs excursions like parasailing or helicopter rides.

Seeing THEM perform a recital on stage for the first time is more rewarding than watching a Broadway show or top notch symphony orchestra.

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When you have children, all of a sudden you realize that life's greatest joys are not in the pursuit of things or pleasure or travel, but rather in the LOVE and bond you share with your very own image bearers.

Seeing the beauty and magnificence and wonder of life all over again for the first time through THEIR eyes and expressions gives you something the world simply cannot offer, nor even come close.

[Tristan de Montebello @Montebello]

It’s like falling in love. I could describe it to you all day, but nothing will ever prepare you for how infinitely magnificent the experience is.

[Ayman Al-Abdullah 🧱 @aymanalabdul]

It’s so easy to talk about how hard parenting is

It’s impossible to describe the joy

If you’re on the fence, have kids

[Tristan de Montebello @Montebello]

Agreed, don't try and speak at 0.5x. Speak at your natural pace, but learn to pause.

Good speaking is dynamic and musical.

[Tristan de Montebello @Montebello]

whether you think screens are good or bad, having the country enforce this feels like a dangerous step in the wrong direction.

[Camus @newstart_2024]

New UK screen time rules just dropped — and they’re stricter than most parents expected.

From 27 March 2026, England says: zero solo screens for under-2s (except quick video calls with family), and max one hour a day for 2–5 year olds — no screens at meals or the hour before bed. Co-view everything, stick to slow-paced content, and ditch fast social-media clips and AI toys completely.

The science is sobering: toddlers’ brains process info up to 10 times slower than adults. Fast-paced screens push them into fight-or-flight mode — racing heart, surging energy — while they’re sitting still. Researchers at the University of East London say this mismatch can wire kids for more tantrums and emotional struggles later. Using screens to calm meltdowns? It often backfires long-term.

As a parent, it’s brutal — we all know that explosion the second you take the tablet away.

But this feels like evidence finally catching up with what our gut has been telling us.

How are you handling screens with little ones — strict limits, co-viewing, or mostly winging it?

[Tristan de Montebello @Montebello]

I wonder how many speaking problems are actually people-pleasing problems