Elizabeth Holmes, soon to be played by Jennifer Lawrence, conned her way to a CEO-ship of a billion dollar biomedical company without producing any evidence and I, like many people, am fascinated by her story. If you met her in her heyday, you’d probably remember the surprising baritone, how she always dressed in the same black outfit, the soulless unblinking void behind her eyes and her groundbreaking biotech promises that just never seemed to pan out in a timely fashion. She developed and honed a total front that many people never bothered to look past… and it’s this ability to see through a con that distinguishes scientists from suckers.
It’s not a knock on suckers though. We, and other animals, are biologically programmed to respond to confidence displayed through eccentric cues and behaviors. When bee colonies search for new locations, the colonies make the decision based on a dance-a-thon demonstrated by the scout bees through their waggle dance. Poor scouts. Poor bees. Although it’s a pretty effective method, I’d imagine they’d make better decisions by conveying how much nectar and pollen and how many bears lie within a given radius.
In Science, as it is in life, the best way to protect yourself from a con is to continue asking questions while listening attentively and demanding evidence. If a person doesn’t answer the question asked, changes the subject, or refuses the question altogether then something is up. In Holmes’s case, she claimed to be guarding trade secrets which would’ve been fair enough in general, but not if she was seeking your time and money, or if as the documentary I saw claimed, she was taking people’s trust, safety and well-being into her hands.
I guess my summation take away is to recognize the signs and red flags of people who have devoted themselves to crafting a persona or gimmic instead of devoting themselves to honesty, transparency and integrity. You have the option to be a thinker, bees don’t.
