Fermi questions[0] (oft maligned when asked in interviews) are a good practice for this sort of thinking.
Anything that is either out of range on scale, or that ducks the question, is worthy of further evaluation and at least some mild skepticism. Theranos promising hundreds of blood tests out of a thimble of blood would be the former. The article referring to Volts of electricity is like a car salesman replying to 'how many seats does it have?' with 'The seats are upholstered in Fine Corinthian Leather' the statement isn't incorrect, it is just useless and, in context, intentionally misleading. Salesmen do it to sell cars, scientists to sell research, journalists to sell papers, and conspiracy theorists for, whatever reasons, I guess.
[0] A few examples: How many piano tuners are in New York City? How many ping pong balls could fit in a school bus?
> Fermi questions[0] (oft maligned when asked in interviews)
I really don’t get when people bemoan these. Do they not get that it’s supposed to be an estimation, and it’s not actually a quiz of whether you’ve memorized a seemingly useless bit of trivia? Do they not see how it can be a useful skill to have, especially in an engineering field where you frequently deal with many orders of magnitude? (If acquiring this lock takes 100 ns, am I doing this often enough for this to cause a user-perceivable delay longer than doing it single-threaded?)
The problem is more when you're a software engineer, and you're asked something like "how many manholes are in Los Angeles" - it is so completely tangential (at best) to any of the estimation skills you'd use on the job.
Anything that is either out of range on scale, or that ducks the question, is worthy of further evaluation and at least some mild skepticism. Theranos promising hundreds of blood tests out of a thimble of blood would be the former. The article referring to Volts of electricity is like a car salesman replying to 'how many seats does it have?' with 'The seats are upholstered in Fine Corinthian Leather' the statement isn't incorrect, it is just useless and, in context, intentionally misleading. Salesmen do it to sell cars, scientists to sell research, journalists to sell papers, and conspiracy theorists for, whatever reasons, I guess.
[0] A few examples: How many piano tuners are in New York City? How many ping pong balls could fit in a school bus?