Hacker News Reader

Comment by micromacrofoot | Hacker News Reader

or she's just delusional, smart people can be delusional

Delusional to what degree? Because fraud and manipulation typically require intent. If she has lost touch with reality to the degree that she believes her lies, she needs psychiatric help and I haven't seen a single person offer that defense including her legal team or the two successive men that served the joint role of her business and romantic partner. If she's that detached from reality, wouldn't it be more likely that she's the one being manipulated by the non-delusional folks around her? How could she be the ringleader of this fraud and manipulation if she's the delusional one and everyone else is sane? Those are some of the questions the movie explores.

I'm thinking it's some kind of delusion of grandeur, not a delusion of ignorance, she is on some secret mission from god

If she has delusions of grandeur, I think that makes it even more likely that she's self-aware. Once again, Fielder lived with her 24/7. If Fielder didn't see it over that time, it's likely because she was hiding it, and if she's hiding it, she's likely aware of it.

You're making this out to be a binary, where delusions are more of a spectrum. She can be aware of the fact that she's deceiving people, but the motivation can be delusional. Often such a unrelenting dedication to a series of deceptions is fueled by a core delusion.

Some people live like this their entire lives to the point that constantly deceiving themselves is part of the mindset. There is likely some deep mental illness at play here.

One wonders if Theranos had been a software company, would she be lauded instead for her bold moves? Would she be on her fourth company instead of in prison? Or would she need to be male? Just seeing how the AI companies are allowed to behave.

Epstein seems to have gotten away with defrauding a couple billionaires and becoming rich and super connected in the process.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com