I actually just read The Road to Wellville for the first time a couple weeks ago, and was struck by how much it reminded me of the modern-day startup scene. A p

I actually just read The Road to Wellville for the first time a couple weeks ago, and was struck by how much it reminded me of the modern-day startup scene. A profusion of tiny health-food companies, all making extravagant claims and so desperate to raise money that they hawk shares to travelers getting off at the train station. All these companies crowding into tiny Battle Creek, not so much because there was any practical reason for them to be there as because Battle Creek is where health-food companies are supposed to be. A "move fast and break things" attitude that leads to patients getting killed by such "treatments" as bathing in pools of electrified water and prolonged exposure to radium. The book was written a quarter of a century ago, so it's not like this is a parallel T.C. Boyle explicitly set out to draw. It's just striking how these patterns seem to repeat themselves.