read the thread

Show Post

Everyone knows the emperor isn't wearing clothes (if you've seen the film, you know that one scene). The agreement among everyone in power is to agree to pretend that nobody is making pretend even though you can see everything.

Show Post

So the answer to the question "How does Theranos (or Enron) happen?", imo, isn't some special form of charismatic lying or preternatural narcissism. It's the tacit social agreement to go along with the make-believe groupthinks of business executives because you never call bullshit on making money.

Show Post

The common narrative is that either she's a grifter, or she's a victim of other people in her orbit who abused her specialness; but I think the broader story is about America and the way of doing business in America being deeply enmeshed in a normative style of participatory magical thinking.

Show Post

People want this film, and everything about Holmes, to divine whether she was "actually" lying, or if she's some special mind that can't tell her make-believe isn't real. But I think there actually a broader learned cultural behavior that teaches ppl not to differentiate between ideas and actuality.

Show Post