4 ms·
It’s from his agent. This is their job.
by Q6T46nT668w6i3m 4y ago
It’s from his agent. This is their job.
- tptacek 4y agoI get that. It's the fact that Lewis was embedded for six months, working the SBF beat. It suggests he was a believer.
- dmix 4y agoIs Lewis's MO to pump up the people he writes about? It's been a long time since I've read Flash Boys. If he had sat on negative info it probably could have sold more books if he published some articles beforehand (controversy > puff pieces business wise). That's how that WSJ journo made his career off that Theranos book via posting negative stories well before the book was released. Although he was a WSJ journalist first, not a pop-finance author.
- tptacek 4y agoThat was certainly his M.O. in Flash Boys (IEX), Moneyball (Beane), The Big Short (Eisman and Burry), and The Blind Side (Sean Tuohy). But, look: just wait and see what develops from this, and see if it acknowledges Lewis' role in building up SBF's profile, even after he announced to the world that he was literally in the Ponzi business.
- selimthegrim 4y agoMaybe Tracy Kidder would have done better.
- dmix 4y agoIf that's the case he probably wasn't asking hard questions just looking for the shining star entrepreneur narrative that those business books love.
- tedunangst 4y agoAdd New New Thing to that list.
- pclmulqdq 4y agoLewis always pumps up the person he "embeds" with on a story. He writes puff pieces disguised as hard-hitting reporting.
- kevinmchugh 4y agoCarreyou had won two Pulitzers before he started reporting on Theranos. He was a successful professional. His reporting was so notable it became part of the story of Theranos. His first story on Theranos was published 3 years before the book. I'm pretty sure the book only exists because of the quality of the reporting. The reporting was not in service of the book.
- tptacek 4y agoThat's doubly true, because without the reporting, it's possible Theranos would still be around, or would have been quietly acquired. People forget how integral Carryrou was to the whole story.
- dmix 4y agoStill it's probably more likely Lewis cared more about documenting another unique business success story than really understanding his subject matter. Which is far more likely than him purposefully ignoring a negative angle (not that I think you're suggesting otherwise, but the Sequia bit might be taken that way).