Very readable example of newly popular & expanding scams nonfiction genre. I can see why Elizabeth Holmes’s defense tried to pin everything on Sunny; he sounded like a douchebag who nobody liked. It’s hard to escape the conclusion that Theranos took so many people in because so many “legit” companies (especially tech startups) are indistinguishable from scams themselves. The whole idea of the internet was sold by using tech speak to promise riches materialized from thin air. The real business model of so many companies, whether Silicon Valley tech start-ups or Modesto pizza chain franchises is to create just enough of a business that the owners can sell the company & cash out. It's almost as if Holmes discovered some sort of "cheat code" to get all the big bosses to drop all their coins in front of her. Ever since hearing about Theranos, I have joked that Holmes’s “deep voice” is actually “the voice” from Dune. Another theory accounting for Holmes's success in winning over prominent backers is that she successfully mimicked the young of whatever species the George Schultzes & Henry Kissingers are (similar to the cuckoo bird). It’s clear that Tech-Bullshit is the most potent form of bullshit in our society. It's amazing how so many people were so captivated by the promise of at-home blood panels, but not by anything that would allow more people regular access to a doctor. It’s just like the Joey Alison Sayers comic where a school is begging for money for air conditioning, while someone with an idea for an unlicensed taxi service is being buried in piles of cash. One detail I was struck by is that George Schultz could be regularly found in his office at the Hoover Institution; it’s mentioned that his grandson Tyler knew he could find him there. I had always thought that the positions given to people like George Schultz were basically fake jobs providing welfare for the rich & powerful, but this detail provided in Bad Blood showed me that the real function of these think tank fake jobs (I mean, fellowships) is to provide opportunities for out of work political elites to act like they have real jobs & feel important (thanks to my wife for that insight). I was especially amused (impressed?) by Elizabeth Holmes's younger brother, who came to work as his sisters company and spent his time copying and pasting ESPN articles into official looking email templates, to make it look like he was working when he was really just reading about sports. Now there's a Duke University man. I’m trying to remember if there was a period 2011-2012 when my local Safeway had a mysterious, unfinished space set aside that would line up with the clinic based around the Theranos gadget. Is it a boast or a deprecation to say that I never heard of Theranos or Elizabeth Holmes before there was a HBO documentary about them?