Bad Blood : Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou

  Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou  

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe! - Albert Einstein 

You read the story of Theranos, and you will be convinced about the quote.

A doctor friend told me a device like Minilab or Edison is theoretically feasible but requires unmitigated research and dedicated super brains with sound academic backgrounds. But, unfortunately, Elizabeth Holmes, a self-obsessed Stanford dropout, stood as little chance of making this invention as an individual jumping out of an airborne plane without a parachute has of surviving. 

How did a company with a sham of a product come to be hailed as the lab of the future? How did the investors believe a college dropout developed a path-breaking technology or a prototype version? One of the facts mentioned is that every investor specialising in putting their money in medical startups didn't touch Theranos. Could they have known the truth but prefer not to call out Theranos?

The book is a gripping read. Each page churns your stomach and stings your conscience. Elizabeth and her lover Sunny Balwani did everything they could except to develop a half-genuine product. They lied, did tests on other company equipment and claimed the results as their own, projected unreal facts and figures to the investors, maintained evil control over their employees, coerced their employees to sign multiple non-disclosure contracts, threatened whistle-blowers with costly lawsuits, snoop on journalists, except do research. While practising all these acts of monstrosity, they managed to raise 9 billion dollars. They got the who-is-who of American society to give them credibility. The most credible of journalists showered heaps of praise on Theranos. The authorities turned a blind eye. 

This book is a must-read to realise how easy it is to cheat the system. This book is for you if you wish to develop or invigorate your critical thinking skills.

Money In the Bank by PG Wodehouse

 Money in the bank is another PG Wodehouse novel, but why else would you pick his novels except to read another of his stories. You don’t read a PG Wodehouse novel to, get shocked, learn the miseries of life, understand the nuances of crime detection, or get your eyes moist after reading a tragic love story. You read the master’s writings to feel light, to be entertained, to laugh at the hypocrisies of human behaviour, etc. 

Money in the Bank contains all the familiar plots

A stowed away family treasure by a forgetful Lord Uffenham..

Mrs Molly and her husband.  can Soapy be left out? He is there too.

A castle that welcomes impostors with open arms.

A girl who is in love with an insecure guy or as Lord Uffenham puts it “pestilential poop of a pop-eyed plasterer” 

A bungling young attorney who throws rock cakes into rank-strangers offices only because he doesn’t want to offend his caretaker. He later becomes an imposter in Shipley Hall to be with the girl he is enamoured with

Mrs Cork. You have to read the novel to know her.

Mr Trumper who worships Mrs Cork

The Ugubus tribe, who, except for an occasional missionary at Christmas, live entirely on fruits and vegetables.

If that doesn’t make sense to you, it’s a very good reason why you should read “Money in the Bank “ by PG Wodehouse. There are little chances it will make sense to you after reading. You don’t read a PGW novel to make sense, but you read it to have a good laugh , enjoy the ridiculing of fads and the elite. 

You read his novels to read some hilariously funny statements and phrases. I quote below a couple from this novel 

Alexander Twist had never been the man easily to be got better of in a business transaction. It was precisely this keen commercial sense of his which had rendered spacious cupboards, into which to withdraw from exasperated callers, so necessary to his well being.

Her uncle’s odious words insisted on coming to her mind “ You wouldn’t give that poop, Lionel Green, a second thought,” Lord Uffenham said in that uncouth way of his “ if he hadn’t the sort of tailor’s dummy good looks that women seem to be incapable of seeing 

Happy Reading!!! May your stomach ache due to laughing.