Theranos as An American Parable

I recently read Bad Blood since the Theranos trial is coming in full swing.

I can’t help but see Theranos as an uniquely American parable with genre-bending plotlines about hype machines, toxic workplaces, and a certain moment in Silicon Valley. It’s a story very much about us.

I lived in the Bay Area at the start of the most recent tech boom in the 2010s. I’ve never been anywhere as crazy as Theranos, but I can recognize many plots of this story. It was very much a mood of that time. We might be due for another iteration with the promises of Web3.

Bad Blood Book Cover

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Product Manager working in privacy preserving machine learning. Taiwanese-American. Optimist in a realist’s clothing. Bit of a contrarian.

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Bessie Chu

Product Manager working in privacy preserving machine learning. Taiwanese-American. Optimist in a realist’s clothing. Bit of a contrarian.