3 ms·

I think Holmes thought she could wing it until what they were promising was possible. Not a bad plan, it just ... didn't really work out.

Ididntdothis 7y ago
I wonder what she was really thinking. When I read the book “Bad Blood” I got the impression that she was mainly concerned about covering up and keeping up impressions and wasn’t even involved in the actual technology.
tenpies 7y ago
Isn't there a name for the idea that every visionary and every fraudster is basically the same person? There has to be a parallel universe where Holmes got more money pumped into her company, got regulators to ignore her company despite causing deaths, got away with incredibly shady marketing, purchased bankrupt companies owned by family members against her fiduciary duty, and then - through sheer hype and money spent - managed to produce a viable product or at least advance the technology enough to be a net contribution to humanity. In this universe, that person is Musk instead of Holmes, but they are fundamentally the same archetype and the same story.
- RantyDave 7y ago
  Yes! Exactly! Jobs without Woz.
- Reedx 7y ago
  Thomas Edison did this with the incandescent light bulb. He claimed he had it working long before he actually did. Holmes was doing the same thing. Indeed, she often referenced Edison's quote about having to fail 10,000 times. And named their machine the Edison. Theranos was paying the salary of ~800 employees. They were trying to make it work (though by all accounts were given an ultimately impossible task). It seems likely she was a true believer and had convinced herself it was possible. Ignoring the problems and base reality. Also having convinced herself that it was for the greater good. "We're going to save lives. No one has to die too young, like my uncle did". In the meantime, pretended that it works. Fake it till you make it. Elon isn't really doing that though, given the results he's shown many times over. It helps that he's an engineer operating from first principles and has a physics-based mindset. I think the reality bending he does is more in the realm of expectation and time. Hence unrealistic estimates. But they're things that are ultimately doable and tend to get done.

Ididntdothis 7y ago

I wonder what she was really thinking. When I read the book “Bad Blood” I got the impression that she was mainly concerned about covering up and keeping up impressions and wasn’t even involved in the actual technology.

tenpies 7y ago

Isn't there a name for the idea that every visionary and every fraudster is basically the same person? There has to be a parallel universe where Holmes got more money pumped into her company, got regulators to ignore her company despite causing deaths, got away with incredibly shady marketing, purchased bankrupt companies owned by family members against her fiduciary duty, and then - through sheer hype and money spent - managed to produce a viable product or at least advance the technology enough to be a net contribution to humanity. In this universe, that person is Musk instead of Holmes, but they are fundamentally the same archetype and the same story.

RantyDave 7y ago
Yes! Exactly! Jobs without Woz.
Reedx 7y ago
Thomas Edison did this with the incandescent light bulb. He claimed he had it working long before he actually did. Holmes was doing the same thing. Indeed, she often referenced Edison's quote about having to fail 10,000 times. And named their machine the Edison. Theranos was paying the salary of ~800 employees. They were trying to make it work (though by all accounts were given an ultimately impossible task). It seems likely she was a true believer and had convinced herself it was possible. Ignoring the problems and base reality. Also having convinced herself that it was for the greater good. "We're going to save lives. No one has to die too young, like my uncle did". In the meantime, pretended that it works. Fake it till you make it. Elon isn't really doing that though, given the results he's shown many times over. It helps that he's an engineer operating from first principles and has a physics-based mindset. I think the reality bending he does is more in the realm of expectation and time. Hence unrealistic estimates. But they're things that are ultimately doable and tend to get done.