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A review by p_t_b
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
4.0
so i am in the midst of a quarantine-induced anti-corporate freakout whereby i decided to de-bezos my life, which meant killing my audible subscription and going to the (non-corporeal) library to get my audiobooks. i didnt know anything about theranos/elizabeth holmes other than she was a scammer. what this book taught me is that she was a HUGE scammer
honestly a surprisingly satisfying and almost true-crimey story. i mean "almost true-crimey" in a genre sense -- there is no almost about the crimes theranos did. does a good job of contextualizing theranos in the silicon valley vaporware phenomenon but also stipulating that holmes and her partner sunny were extra-sleazy lying liars.
sort of fun to read a story where a pathological liar who knows how to rope-a-dope the people and systems of the american elite gets punished in the end, as opposed to i dont know, becoming president through a horrible intersection of blind spots/bad choices/racism/sexism/historical coinkydinks/god punishing us. not for nothing though, elizabeth holmes was on stage with the clintons during 2016 campaign events and hung out with biden and obama, so it's not like this should be read on a left-right vector -- more like, why is there like a moral timber line? once your money climbs above a certain level, it seems like right/wrong just kind of trails off into mumbling
anyway i have to go do dishes ttyl
*i realized just after posting this that jeff bezos owns goodreads too. barf
** somehow naturally progressed from this to a biography of PT barnum
honestly a surprisingly satisfying and almost true-crimey story. i mean "almost true-crimey" in a genre sense -- there is no almost about the crimes theranos did. does a good job of contextualizing theranos in the silicon valley vaporware phenomenon but also stipulating that holmes and her partner sunny were extra-sleazy lying liars.
sort of fun to read a story where a pathological liar who knows how to rope-a-dope the people and systems of the american elite gets punished in the end, as opposed to i dont know, becoming president through a horrible intersection of blind spots/bad choices/racism/sexism/historical coinkydinks/god punishing us. not for nothing though, elizabeth holmes was on stage with the clintons during 2016 campaign events and hung out with biden and obama, so it's not like this should be read on a left-right vector -- more like, why is there like a moral timber line? once your money climbs above a certain level, it seems like right/wrong just kind of trails off into mumbling
anyway i have to go do dishes ttyl
*i realized just after posting this that jeff bezos owns goodreads too. barf
** somehow naturally progressed from this to a biography of PT barnum