4 ms·
For whatever it's worth, I came across this incredible piece in going through some of the older HN stories on Theranos[0][1], which make for absolutely mesmeriz
by bcantrill 5y ago
For whatever it's worth, I came across this incredible piece in going through some of the older HN stories on Theranos[0][1], which make for absolutely mesmerizing reading now -- and a vivid reminder that HN is an important historic record!
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6349349 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6349349
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7951019 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7951019
- crsv 5y agoNever forget Medman77 with the call of the century on that one in the comments.
- sydthrowaway 5y agoPlease link to the comment
- School-Cotton 5y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6349808 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6349808
- caseyf7 5y agoAnd notice how it was downvoted to near the bottom of the page. Not all of the best/well informed comments rise to the top.
- JohnJamesRambo 5y agoI upvote now and send a tiny ripple into the fabric of the universe’s karma.
- divbzero 5y agomedman77 only ever posted that one comment and had karma of 81 as of just now (2022-01-02T04:53Z).
- divbzero 5y agoAt the time, that comment could easily be read as angry and irrational, posted by someone who hates on success or simply enjoys trolling. In retrospect, it’s quite possible medman77 had inside knowledge of the company. It’s interesting to compare that against a different comment [1] made the following summer from someone with inside knowledge of the field but not of the company. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7951861 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7951861
- encryptluks2 5y agoYou really don't need insider knowledge to make an assessment like that. You just have to learn what you look for when it comes to BS and be prepared to get some negative karma points for calling out companies due to the multiple social media PR companies they employ that use various reputation defense techniques.
- hitekker 5y agoBy "easily", you mean "lazily". It's one thing to assume the comment is irrational, it's another thing, and even lazier thing, to assume that the commenter hates on success or enjoys trolling. It must be uncomfortable to see that our community was fooled. But blaming a whistleblower isn't the right coping strategy.
- throwawaylinux 5y agoThat time was possibly the peak for using baseless accusations of sexism to counter any criticism of women, at least in the online reddit/twitter/facebook/etc sphere. The old HN threads even have some. I feel people have been gradually getting slightly braver in standing up to this.
- tsol 5y agoJust because you're angry and irrational, doesn't mean that you're wrong. In fact one could argue being the only one to see the scam might itself make a lot of people angry
- mdoms 5y agoWhy does he have a green username? I was always under the impression that green usernames were for newly created accounts.
- School-Cotton 5y agoIt was newly-created at the time the comment was posted.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- apahwa 5y agoand that is their only activity on the site too
- ncann 5y agoThat account was created the same day the comment was posted, most likely for the single purpose of posting the comment. Makes me think it's either an insider or someone with beef against the company.
- hitekker 5y ago> someone with beef against the company. Someone who turned out to be dead right.
- somedude895 5y agoPeople create throwaway accounts to post comments all the time, so that conjecture is quite far fetched.
- encryptluks2 5y agoFor now at least. I would use archive.org on that.
- ferdowsi 5y agoThe adulation for the "big names" in Theranos's board of directors is absolutely cringey to read in retrospect. No wonder Holmes managed to fool the world, it's too easy to be mesmerized by undeserved clout.
- encryptluks2 5y agoIt's amazing how quickly people get fooled when they are offered money and "kickbacks" in return.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 5y agore: FN1 Fortune uses a fake "paywall". View source to see the text. Reader mode on Firefox should work. Alternatively, use AMP for text-only page. No distracting photo of Holmes pretending to to finger-pricked, just the text. For example, curl https://web.archive.org/web/20211231035501/https://fortune.com/2014/06/12/theranos-blood-holmes/amp/|sed -n '/<meta charset/p;/<p>/p' > 1.htm chrome ./1.htm Theranos refused to publish validation studies in peer-reviewed journals. Theranos refused to sell its analysers to existing labs. Someone else can confirm the details, but if I am not mistaken Holmes is a named inventor on almost 20 of Theranos' US patent grants, always with co-inventor(s) who had unlike Holmes finished school and worked under others to gain work/life experience. Usually, Ian Gibbons was a named co-inventor. One can interpret the facts we are given in different ways, but certainly one interpretation is that Holmes' affinity for fraud drove this man to suicide. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Gibbons_(biochemist) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Gibbons_(biochemist) "Fake it till you make it^W^W get caught"