YMMV / The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley

• Alternate Aesop Interpretation: Holmes says that, as a child, she read Moby Dick to learn about how great leaders lead. And, well, she sure does internalize that model of leadership. The only problem is that Ahab, the captain of the ship in that book, is a narcissistic madman who not only fails in his mission but gets himself and his whole crew killed. Also may qualify as a Misaimed Fandom on her part.
• Alternate Character Interpretation: Was Elizabeth Holmes a misguided genius trying to make it work, an egotist who refused to accept that her idea was scientifically impossible, or just a con woman from the beginning? Similar HBO documentaries, such as the one on Scientology, raise a valid counterpoint the last one: if Elizabeth Holmes was truly a con man pulling a scam, she'd have run off with the money long ago. In contrast, Holmes dug herself in so deep, with no clear escape plan, that it seems probable that she truly believed her own delusional hype.
• Spiritual Successor:
  • To Fyre, another documentary about an unhinged entrepreneur destroying people's lives through fraud.
  • Also Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room which had some of the same production staff. Incidentally, Holmes' father Christian was a vice president at Enron.

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