4 ms·
I think there is a pretty sharp line separating what Holmes tried, and what legitimate startups do. What she claimed had no basis in reality. It's Borat trying
by geophile 5y ago
I think there is a pretty sharp line separating what Holmes tried, and what legitimate startups do. What she claimed had no basis in reality. It's Borat trying to patent a hoverboard, just like in Back to the Future, and telling the VC that he "needs to come up with the science" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXuDhejxz_c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXuDhejxz_c). Except that Holmes was worse, claiming that she had the science.
And she insulated herself from scrutiny by packing the board with old powerful men. So old that their critical thinking skills were on the decline (e.g. George Schultz, as described in Carreyrou's book), and whose expertise was NOT in the relevant subject areas.
Holmes was obviously corrupt from the beginning.
- bumby 5y agoI haven't read Carreyrou's book, but do you think age and stereotypical gender roles played a part in the swindle? In other words, did the "old powerful men" let their guard down more because she was a young female?
- schnitzelstoat 5y agoCarreyrou's book is really good and I strongly recommend it - it's made clear in the book that a lot of them had family friendship connections to Holmes as well. I imagine this may also have clouded their judgement.
- geophile 5y agoAbsolutely. It is hard for me to believe that Holmes didn't intentionally seek out powerful, influential yet clueless men. The fact that she had connections to them certainly made things simpler. I remember first hearing about Theranos in the New Yorker profile of Holmes. The presence of Schultz, Kissinger and other non-scientist powerful old men struck me as extremely odd at the time. And given her youth and appearance, it is impossible not to speculate about her effect on them, intentional or not. Also, the book made it very clear that Schultz's judgement was clouded by personal feelings. He blew up his relationship with his grandson over his defense of Holmes; the grandson saw what was going on.
- WalterBright 5y agoI would not underestimate the powerful effect of a young, attractive woman flattering an old man.
- lokar 5y agoWas there really no science at all? I've not followed the details, but I assumed she had something, but that it was just unworkable now or anytime soon
- geophile 5y agoIt's been a while since I read the book, but I don't recall any scientific basis at all. Pure hoverboard.
- andreareina 5y agoAs I understand it a drop of blood is simply not large enough of a sample to get statistically reliable results.
- yawaworht1978 5y agoI always wonder why people who buy Tesla's fsd think that is any different. The company literally tells them the hardware is there, it's "only" missing the software. Like, what's a robot worth without the undeveloped software.
- m3047 5y ago> It's Borat trying to patent a hoverboard Wow! That's interesting! While nobody has been paying attention, forward-looking patents have become acceptable (I don't agree that this is a good thing). Seriously, that's a fact; and here comes Holmes apparently claiming to have the science, am I right? There is language which apparently (IANAL) needs to be watched especially around verb tense when filing such patents.
- geophile 5y agoCan you provide some examples?
- m3047 5y agohttps://law.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Fictitious-experiments-in-patents.pdf https://law.stanford.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Fictitio... https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3202493 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3202493 One of the harmful externalities of the practice is that when incorrect / impossible prophetic claims are made (and they are), they negatively impact the progress of science since they are generally presumed to be true and so might be used to refute a legitimate science or technical claim.