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Bad Blood

I read Bad Blood in a couple of days - it is breathtaking stuff. Much to learn from the story for just about anyone - this has all the makings of an epic. These lines towards the end of the book summarize how Holmes got as far as she did and will likely make a comeback too

..watching her confidently walk the audience through her sleek slide show helped crystallize for me how she’d gotten this far: she was an amazing saleswoman. She never once stumbled or lost her train of thought. She wielded both engineering and laboratory lingo effortlessly and she showed seemingly heartfelt emotion when she spoke of sparing babies in the NICU from blood transfusions. Like her idol Steve Jobs, she emitted a reality distortion field that forced people to momentarily suspend disbelief.

Jobs was only peddling a phone or some portable music. Even if the worst happened, it would hardly kill a person. Incorrect results from a blood test could easily do that. Carreyrou makes this point in his epilogue:

Hyping your product to get funding while concealing your true progress and hoping that reality will eventually catch up to the hype continues to be tolerated in the tech industry. But it’s crucial to bear in mind that Theranos wasn’t a tech company in the traditional sense. It was first and foremost a health-care company.

I did not appreciate desis being lumped in some kind of brown and despicable bucket - directly and by insinuation throughout the book. The phrase "Ingratiating Indians" is used at one point. If Balwani (depicted as a truly awful guy who among other things is purported to be spectacularly ugly) can bring that fate to an entire people, how about speculating that all blue-eyed blondes are master con-women just like Holmes. 

It would be a minor detail this desi-bashing business except that Balwani is a such a pivotal figure in the story of Theranos -  the author's attitude stains his entire narrative. Carreyrou disappointed by not even trying to hide his racial biases -it thrums like a bass chord throughout his otherwise well researched book. Left a bad taste in the mouth.


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