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Comment by _the_inflator | Hacker News Reader

There is some very truth to it. Have a look at Eleni Antoniadou:

https://www.forbes.com/pictures/mkg45effdk/eleni-antoniadou-...

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49753214

She's currently a very big meme in Greece, because she made some laughable claims like that she's done a trachea transplant which she didn't really, and that she's worked in NASA, which is also false.

I have no idea how she's in Forbes.

In today’s world it doesn’t matter what you do, just what you can convince enough people is true. The disbelievers are just jealous.

Social media has truly altered reality in a weird way.

Yes, that's exactly it.

Forbes has managed to sell out its brand.

Except the videogame review department. Surprisingly objective and critical material there in a genre renown for quid-pro-quo.

I feel totally sorry for her. She stands in the pillory and the internet won't forget. I cannot imagine a recover from there, because this is a trust issue.

Thats probably the worst (best?) example. She hasn't done hardly anything she said shes done.

Theranos was a good one, too. There was pretty much nothing there, for years, but people so wanted to believe the story. At a time when high tech was seen as producing an endless stream of silly apps that solved problems for hipsters, and mired in very real sexism problems, here comes this young, attractive woman who claimed to be using technology to solve some serious medical problem. Narrative Jackpot! Like the X-files poster, everyone in the press and industry Wanted To Believe! Money poured in, fame, adoration, comparisons with Steve Jobs. Full page photo spreads, lots of smiling, lots of shaking hands. Happy words and excitement. Hype lead to a presumption of success, which lead to more happy talking, which created more hype, leading to more presumption of success, which lead to more happy talking... Finally someone looked behind the curtain and saw there was nothing there. And everyone was disappointed and pretended to be so surprised. There are no UFOs.

Everyone involved are millionaires now and are permanently set for life. They're just going to spend their time now looking for the next narrative to fit and the next thing to take credit for, knowing nobody is going to fact check until they've done the cycle again.

That artificial trachea transplant is well known in Sweden since the lead of the project who carries the bulk of the blame for the research fraud, Dr. Paolo Macchiarini, used the Karolinska Institute as his base and the scandal resulted in KI replacing the board and the president because of how they supported him in spite of evidence. Since KI is involved in awarding the Nobel Prize in medicine we were very worried in Sweden if this was evidence of a culture that would compromise that process as well.

If she would've had that on her resume over here, sheesh, that would not have looked good. Especially if she claimed that her work saved a patient's life.

This is why I hate group work.

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