[Reading Notes] The new era of scams will also follow - "Blood: The Medical Scam of Silicon Valley Unicorns!" Secrets, lies and money in the blood

This book was born out of my exposure to the Theranos scandal and was published in the Wall Street Journal, and it would not have been possible without the secret informants who risked personal danger to assist me in 2015 and 2016 . (Middle) They disregard the legal and career risks they face for one most important reason: to protect patients from Theranos' lack of testing.

New ventures, perhaps the world including Taiwan, since the emergence of new-type companies such as Apple and Google, the most prosperous company type, in addition to attracting a large number of investors with various innovative gimmicks, relatively generous salary and usually more. The idealized vision has attracted many workers. However, among them, there are many unscrupulous people who act in the name of “innovation” and act like frauds. The Silicon Valley biotechnology company “Theranos”, which has been in scandal since 2016, is a world-famous example.

When century-old medical innovation turns into a hoax

Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou published "Blood: The Silicon Valley Unicorn's Medical Hoax! Secrets, Lies, and Money in Deep Blood", based on interviews with relevant people, depicts the process of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes from fortune, fame, and finally being seen. Following in the footsteps of the report, readers can also understand why a great innovation that was expected to subvert blood testing, flip the medical industry, and even change health care spending has inevitably turned into a big scam of the century for the purpose of making money.

"Gender" is definitely one of the key factors in Theranos' sudden rise to fame, including her fame in Silicon Valley, which is "full of male entrepreneurs", her self-proclaimed "female victim" after the scandal broke out, and even the media presence. The "gender factor" in the reports before and after the publication is worthy of careful consideration by readers. In addition, the Theranos incident further highlights the fact that new startups "use innovation and dreams to defraud funds", "opaque information" and the fact that ordinary investors are easily superstitious in the endorsement of famous people. Even more frightening is that such a culture seems to have flooded the world.

"Theranos scam" can be seen everywhere around you and me

In the name of protecting the earth's environment, but due to the failure of business strategy and financial difficulties, the employees were laid off viciously, and asked employees to work while receiving unemployment benefits, waiting for the company to make a comeback; unable to develop a usable product, but after burning out the investors' funds, Change the name and borrow the dead to receive government subsidies; technology products that cost thousands of yuan are not only dissatisfied by consumers because of exaggerated advertisements, but also deliberately create difficulties in the return process to prevent consumers from returning. All of the above are all cases that the author has personally experienced or heard about, not to mention the lack of flashy companies and job descriptions when applying for a job, and having to exaggerate their "merit" during interviews to gain the favor of interviewers .

Although the content is full of drama, and in order to pay tribute to Jobs, Elizabeth not only dresses, even her voice is deliberately lowered, which makes people feel ridiculous, but if you think about it carefully, similar farces are actually happening in modern society. . For the author, the Theranos incident and this reportage are not just a scandal, but a loud wake-up call to remind us that we must re-examine the people, things, and things around us, or one day, they will make us pay. a heavy price.

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