Comment by recursivecaveat

I think there is a personality trait that makes you absolutely obsessed with the idea of 'proving everybody else wrong'. I think this trait is very common, if not downright necessary, to be at the very top of some fields. Once you have that bug, the more ridiculous the idea, the higher the emotional reward if it pays off, so there's no limit on what you will consider pursuing.

That's my theory for why certain classes of people: VCs, film producers, dictators, pro athletes, are often dumping money into extremely transparent and audacious scammers.