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Comment by Roritharr | Hacker News Reader

Theranos most valuable service to me was that they've shown me what a small man I really am, considering that I enjoy reading about their failure much more than reading about someone else's successes.

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If they'd operated with even the slightest veneer of humility, and if the whole thing had not turned out to be such a house of cards, then you probably would not have such intense feelings of schadenfreude. I think it's pretty normal to feel some pleasure at the misery of others when those others have made themselves out to be such Paragons of Virtue, Captains of Industry, Movers and Shakers of 21st Century Health, and whatnot, and turn out to completely full of it.

And, just to make sure it's clear that I'm not exaggerating, we're talking about a company whose founder literally received something called the Horatio Alger Award last year:

    She was the youngest person ever to be awarded
    the Horatio Alger Award in recognition of
    “remarkable achievements accomplished through
    honesty, hard work, self-reliance and
    perseverance over adversity.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/30/business/the-narrative-fra...

She wore black turtlenecks ffs. If that's not hubris then I don't know what is.

I almost downvoted this comment. What a person wears is a personal decision and irrelevant to this discussion.

Wooooosh. It's a reference to comparing oneself to Steve Jobs. They make fun of it in Silicon Valley and elsewhere in tech culture.

doesn't matter

The Steve Jobs reference wasn't lost on me, but it is a distractor from the central topics of non-accountability, integrity, and management. Especially when women are involved, discussing what outfit is being worn is a red herring and tends to degrade the quality of the thread.

It does when the comment on someone's clothing is whether or not it compliments her figure and if she's wearing this season's colours. Dressing like a clown should be commented upon. Somewhere between these two extremes is deliberately dressing like Steve Jobs.

Maybe. But the Jobs attire is not so special that people wouldn't wear it unless they were trying to emulate him. If I had to pick on dress to wear every single day of my life, it would probably be a grey turtleneck - pretty close.

Although in this case if any male business leader would wear a black turtleneck, they too would be compared to Steve Jobs as well.

>Especially when women are involved, discussing what outfit is being worn

Uh, why is this "especially" so, just because a woman is involved? Why are people so desperate to make everything a gender issue?

The clothing choices of female politicians and business leaders is routinely commented upon by the media, to a far far far far higher degree than males; nobody is making this a gender issue. It already is.

No one can wear black turtlenecks anymore without the assumption that they are comparing themselves to Steve Jobs - got it.

You sound like you're being a passive aggressive tosser, but what you say is true. If you are presenting yourself as an innovative leader in disruptive technology, and you choose to dress like the world's most famous innovative leader in disruptive technology, you're choosing to invite the comparison.

You can wear a black turtleneck now and then without appearing to ape Steve Jobs.

You can't wear only black turtlenecks without appearing to ape Steve Jobs.

And Jobs, in turn, selected them to associate himself with the image of artists, jazz musicians, and designers.

Clothes are signals, even when you’re trying to signal that you don’t care about signals :-)

If you are the CEO of a startup? I mean, come on.

When you think about it though, it's unlikely she nominated herself for the award or asked for it. Can we really hold someone accountable for another group of persons' actions?

With that in mind, I briefly researched the 'Horatio Alger Award', it's being offered by the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, a nonprofit organization. I checked their site and merit of any kind is only part of the story.

As I understood things, when you're awarded the title, you automatically become a member and it's not possible to gain membership otherwise. This prize ensures growth and continuity for the organization, along with potential funding.

I read the 'Become a Member' pdf document from their site and while it appears anyone can be nominated, as long as the nominee is 'on brand' with the organization's ideals of remarkable achievements, the new member/awardee will, in turn, have to support the association in as many ways as possible, either by contributing to the program (activities with an administrative or promotional purpose), AND/OR financially.

The form states that it 'must be completed and signed by the nominee and the nominator. If the nomination is confidential, the form may be completed and signed by the nominator only. By signing this form, the nominator and nominee acknowledge their understanding and acceptance of the responsibilities associated with membership in the Association.'

I think the more questionable thing here is possibly exploitation of the desirability of status and prestige.

Most little-known prizes are basically scams, offering gloss and publicity to companies in exchange for cash at one point or another (in Alger's case, after the award). Everyone with half a clue knows it, so you end up picking the awards that fit your particular agenda and the image you want to project. In this case, Theranos' management wanted to look saintly; hence inevitable schadenfreude.

It wasn't so much that she failed, but that she faked her success.

This is a good trait to have - Reading and following "failures" is a sure sign of attaining success! (IMHO)

You are not a small man, just human.

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