Silicon Valley rewards founders who talk about tomorrow’s technology as if it’s already here. A founder tells investors that a machine runs a blood test today. When the claim falls apart, the founder explains that it was only a promise about the things the machine would accomplish one day. Some investors learn the difference later, from their lawyers.

Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s new documentary, You Can See Everything, catches a founder offering that explanation on camera. Its subject is Elizabeth Holmes. For a while, Silicon Valley rewarded her lavishly. She wore a black turtleneck like Steve Jobs and posed for photographers holding up a vial of blood no bigger than a fingertip. Her company, Theranos, said the routine blood tests doctors order, such as cholesterol checks, needed only a few drops from a finger prick, and that it already offered more than 200 of them. 

Silicon Valley has a slogan: fake it till you make it

Silicon Valley has a slogan: fake it till you make it

Investors valued the company at $9 billion. Inc. magazine put her on its cover as “The Next Steve Jobs”. But in 2015 the Wall Street Journal reported that most of its........

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