it's still the theranos playbook, it's just a different image projected. and it still serves the same role - tapping into SV narratives and preconceptions to create an image that is super appealing to investors, the media and employees in order to spin up the hype flywheel, and excuse inconsistencies and misbehaviour. fundamentally both still took advantage of contrasting their traditionally inscrutable fields to contrast their highly visible images and paper over any skepticism.

either way the failing is the same - investors failed to preform adequate due diligence and lent their credibility to things they didn't fully understand because they were distracted by the charisma of the founder and were worried that they would miss potentially outsized gains. as long as large amounts of capital keep flowing to private markets (especially VCs) this will continue happening

-- apparently he was jacked to the hilt on adderall 24/7 --

I once played poker in a Reno poker room. It was structured betting, not all in madness like on TV. I was probably 21 and sitting down with a mixed group, but mostly old timers. I was not new to poker, but I occasionally got the allowed bets wrong. I did really well that night. It could have been luck but I like to think I gamed them with my behavior, by pretending to be stupid. Like in a Guy-Ritchie movie plot twist kind of way.