WeWork - how did anyone fall for this bullshit?

I've just finished watching Hulu's WeWork documentary. It is genuinely one of the funniest movies I've seen this year.

Seriously, how can you watch that and not crack up?

If I were the head of an investment fund, I think I probably would have fallen for Theranos. Sure, Elizabeth Holmes was a bit of a kooky Steve Jobs tribute act - but the science sounded plausible. Perhaps with due diligence on their financials and a degree in biology it would have been easy to see it was a massive fraud. But to an outsider, it seemed like a reasonable businesses.

WeWork was just batshit though.

Raising global consciousness through... co-working spaces?

OK, the basics of WeWork seem decent: "Startups don't want boring grey office space in anonymous blocks - so we charge a premium for nicely designed offices with a university campus feel." I don't know if that's a good business, but it fits in with my mental model of how the world works.

Similar, WeLive had an intriguing idea: "Young adults graduating university don't want to rent boring grey apartments in anonymous blocks - so we charge a premium for nicely designed rooms with a university campus feel." You know what? Sounds like my idea of hell - but I bet a lot of anxious students would pay good money to delay reality for a few more years.

If that were the vision WeWork sold - I daresay it'd be reasonable business. Possibly not a unicorn. Probably not a jet-skiing around the world with billionaires business. But at least it wouldn't be a laughing stock.

But all this spiritualist nonsense about channelling positive feelings into the world? Claiming that this was some kind of sacred mission? And that's before you get into the weird finances of the company leasing its buildings and trademarks from the founder.

Why did so many people fall for CEO Adam Neumann's grift?

The last corporate away-day I went on wasn't as lavish as WeWork's week-long alcohol fuelled benders in a summer camp - it was a couple of days in a sports stadium with some C-List celebrities hyping up the CEO. Nearly all the people I spoke to found it utterly cringe.

Perhaps it is a British thing to be so cynical about hype-men? All I know is that when I see someone jumping around a stage getting to people to chant, my hackles are raised and I start looking for the exits.

Was it a "greater fool" theory? Everyone else is piling in - perhaps I can get in and turn a profit before the merry-go-round comes to a juddering halt?

But even then - doesn't watching Neumann's speeches just raise the hairs on the back of your neck? He seems like such an obvious televangelist.

I get why people fall for those "influencers" on Instagram. They see photos of a sports car, a glamorous supermodel girlfriend, bundles of cash, a private jet - and they think it's all real. They don't realise it's all rented by the hour. They don't understand the complexities of forex, or matched betting - so they're easily bamboozled.

But these huge institutional investors poured money into WeWork because... what? The CEO is charming? Is that it? Are the purse-strings really controlled by such shallow muppets? Is the dream of backing a unicorn really so enticing that people turn off all critical thinking?

The documentary ends poignantly with one extroverted woman talking about how she misses being around people and how, ultimately, that's what WeWork was all about. The WeWorks I've visited have been basically fine as office spaces - but they aren't for me. They seemed like they were for people who wanted to be demonstrative about the work they were doing rather than knuckling down and, you know, actually working.

Perhaps that's what I'm missing? WeWork is about people who were so desperate for external validation that they were willing to suspend their disbelief just as long as the positive affirmations kept coming. No need to put the effort into making a success of yourself when a cult-leader will tell you how magical you are just for renting a fucking desk.