Skip to main content

Bad Blood finished

Excellent.  Reminds me of All the President's Men and Spotlight.  Elizabeth Holmes, he suggests at the end, might have psychopathic personality.  Before reading the book, from news account, that would have seemed a stretch.  Now .  . . plausible.

Her success. Ambition, charisma, brains, talent
abetted by a desire on the part of Silicon Valley and politicians to have a "female Steve Jobs" to champion. The list of pols clamoring to be associated include:  Obama, Clinton, Biden.

Kissinger, Schultz, Mattis joined her Board of Directors for reasons which are less understandable.  Could it be as simple as that they were flattered by her attention.  (Tyler Schultz, George Schultz's grandson, emerges as one of the true heroes of the story.)

Downfall.

Lying.  About the Theranos machine, about the results, about the money, about the lab, about absolutely everything.

Intimidation:  Culture kept workers from discussing projects with one another. Employee churn. Non-disclosure forms. Disgruntled employees were spied upon. The deep pockets of Holmes and Sonny allowed them to use the possibility of court fees to silence employees. A cult of personality around E.H. that she cultivated to create loyalty and devotion. Finally greed on the part of employees.  If she really is the next Steve Jobs, then they are likely to benefit.  So even after Carreyou's Wall Street Journal article pulls back the curtain, employees apparently attended a company meeting and chanted Fuck You, Carreyou.
Pretty amazing stuff for college grads/Ph.D's/engineers.  Must be pretty embarrassing for them to look back on it now.

Tremendous reporting job by Carreyou.  Other heroes:  Rupert Murdoch (!) who--despite being heavily invested in Therenos--refused to kill the Wall Street Journal article.  And a handful of employees who spoke on the record or on background to Carreyou. 

Finally, a bracing and wonderfully hopeful book. Sometimes TRUTH does win out.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Happy Valley Season 4

 Weakest.  Tommy is in prison.  His son, Ryan, is now 17.  Catherine the cop's sister, Clare, takes Ryan to visit Tommy in prison, without telling Catherine.  Not good.  Sisters have a break when Catherine finds out.   Plot two:  PE teacher, abusive to wife.  She is getting drugs from local Indian/Pakistani pharmacist. Husband finds out and has wife arrested!  Pharmacist worried . . . plots to kill husband.  Wife agrees, then changes her mind.  Pharmacist in a rage kills her. (All a bit of a stretch, as he is a mild mannered family man.) Tommy escapes from his court hearing, hides out, gets in touch with Ryan.  Plan is to go to Marabella, Spain together.  Tommy's "helpers" get worried about Tommy and decide to do him in.  Instead, he kills them . . . and is knifed himself.  He returns to Catherine's house, looks through a photo album showing Catherine took good care of Ryan, and decides not to kill her....

Creation Lake

 <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/207300960-creation-lake" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Creation Lake" src="https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1707672124l/207300960._SX98_.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/207300960-creation-lake">Creation Lake</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/164139.Rachel_Kushner">Rachel Kushner</a><br/> My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6948455482">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br /> Definitely worth reading, though some editing (especially of Bruno's thoughts on the world) would have helped. "Sadie Smith" is embedded by a shadowy group into a radical commune. She is to spy on them. Kushner's characters are great; her insights terrific; her use of language awe-i...

Tess of the D'Urbervilles, continued 2/3rds

"To all humankind, Tess was only a passing thought. Even to friends, she was only a frequently passing thought." Angel Clare is a good character. He's "enlightened," in so many ways, but when Tess's confesses her "crime," he reverts to ancestral form . . . Tess's "confession" comes earlier than I expected, right after Angel reveals that he has had a bad moment with a woman. Tess points out the similarity in their transgressions, though his is the only true transgression, expecting forgiveness. She doesn't get it. She returns to her mother . . . realizes she can't stay with her. Thoughts to suicide. Unhappiness that divorce is not possible. Departs. Tragic in that the two, if Angel could just see clearly, would indeed be a great couple, each adding to the other.  Nature as a definite force involved in the tragedy.  It's not neutral--when things go bad, the very skies mock Tess. Tess as unaware of the power of her bea...