Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

U.S. Files Criminal Charges Against Theranos’s Elizabeth Holmes, Ramesh Balwani

wsj.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

291–300 of 533 posts

Re: U.S. Files Criminal Charges Against Theranos’s Elizabeth Holmes, Ramesh Balwani

#291

Post by sjg007 »

dmfdmf wrote: post #241
maxxxxx wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember reading that a lot of CEOs and generally people in leadership positions have psychopathic traits. This probably is an asset if it's balanced by other traits.

I'd take those articles with a huge grain of salt. How could you distinguish a CEO with the courage to make an unpopular choice (e.g. layoff 1/3 of the workforce to save the company) -vs- a psychopath who does it to inflict suffering on others or to just establish dominance? How do you even measure psychopathic traits without defining exactly what "psychopathy" means and a rational ethic by which to judge the non-psy…

Huh? You just give the ceos a psychopath exam.

Re: U.S. Files Criminal Charges Against Theranos’s Elizabeth Holmes, Ramesh Balwani

#292

Post by LanceH »

gwicks56 wrote: post #215
icelancer wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> The short answer is her Jobs-like "reality distortion field" -- she was exceedingly good at convincing non-scientists that their science worked. This confuses a lot of people (not saying you are one of them), but this is really common in intelligent non-experts. People vastly overestimate how intelligent they are when they place value on their intelligence; in other words, they like thinking they are smart. When t…

That's why, when you read the memoirs of conmen, they always say educated, intelligent people are the easiest to rip off.

They always say that because it sounds a lot better, and they have no problem with lying.

Re: U.S. Files Criminal Charges Against Theranos’s Elizabeth Holmes, Ramesh Balwani

#293

Post by jason_slack »

hawkice wrote: post #289
jason_slack wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why the down vote, she is referred to as the next Steve Jobs: https://mashable.com/2018/03/14/elizabeth-holmes-theranos-se...

Because being popular doesn't make you above the law. The comment is at best irrelevant, at worse morally noxious.

But I asked why is she considered that way. I’m not saying she is special but why do people say she is the next Jobs.

Re: U.S. Files Criminal Charges Against Theranos’s Elizabeth Holmes, Ramesh Balwani

#294

Post by knuththetruth »

mhneu wrote: post #238

Excellent news for American society. “The Chickenshit Club” by Eisinger recently explained why the lack of criminal charges had emboldened white collar crime. Basically, individuals need to have the risk of criminal charges if they do something very egregious - they need to have skin in the game. The US Justice Dept has in the past two decades largely only been fining corporations. And so companies estimate risk and…

Yeah, it was crazy to me that Lazlo Bock not only came out with a book about Google’s “hiring culture,” but even started his own HR company AFTER being involved with Google’s wage fixing scandal. Absolutely shameless.

Re: U.S. Files Criminal Charges Against Theranos’s Elizabeth Holmes, Ramesh Balwani

#295

Post by learc83 »

SilasX wrote: post #191
rz2k wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Check out the top comment to April 2015: Scientists skeptical about Theranos blood test (businessinsider.com) : [1] > What stops the skeptics from doing their own tests by walking into a service center and having their blood analyzed for all tests possible and doing the same with their blood for conventional tests? Or an even large scale test? > If their concern is genuine (rather than a way to get a look under the h…

And for everyone one of those I can find about a thousand HN comments telling you to push on even if you're unsure about whether you can deliver. Edit: For that reason, most of this "I told you so" sounds like hindsight bias if it comes from someone who would normally take the attitude of "fake it till you make it", "don't wait until you're sure you have a working product".

Look at my comments on the April thread.

I was incredibly sceptical about a 19 year old with no experience starting a biotech company. All of my comments had a large number of upvotes (for 2015), while many of the people disagreeing with me were downvoted into the negatives.

Re: U.S. Files Criminal Charges Against Theranos’s Elizabeth Holmes, Ramesh Balwani

#296

Post by akhilcacharya »

blakeross wrote: post #202
mayank wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you bummed that they didn't go with your screenplay for the big screen adaptation starring Jennifer Lawrence [1]? :) [1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5795144/

No, but I'm bummed they didn't steal the name "Pricks"!

I was thinking Unicorn Blood

Re: U.S. Files Criminal Charges Against Theranos’s Elizabeth Holmes, Ramesh Balwani

#297

Post by buvanshak »

anoncoward111 wrote: post #146

So I mean like, fraud is definitely not a good thing, but COUNTLESS government contractors committed outright fraud and embezzlement during the Iraq War, and none of them were ever held accountable. One of them even made 8 billion USD completely disappear from the "Iraq Reconstruction Fund".

>but COUNTLESS government contractors committed outright fraud and embezzlement during the Iraq War, and none of them were ever held accountable.

I don't know about your country, but here usually all the higher up's in the chain are on the payroll, so you are safe, even if shit hits the fan. That is one of the nice thing about stealing from government. Because you are not actually stealing from the government, but instead, you are just helping the government steal from the people, a part of which is rewarded to you.

Re: U.S. Files Criminal Charges Against Theranos’s Elizabeth Holmes, Ramesh Balwani

#298

Post by SilverSlash »

emiliobumachar wrote: post #270
mhneu wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s one other REALLY important reason why Holmes was able to raise money. Remember venture firms with blood test knowledge like Google V were turning her down. Holmes was close family friends with George Schultz, and that allowed her to do two things. First, get a bunch of military and government guys on the board. And second, sell to the military. That was Theranos’ real ace in the hole. Holmes knew top military…

That mid level DoD employee should get a bonus, a promotion, and a medal.

How about Tyler Shultz? The main whistleblower and grandson of George Shultz. He was working at Theranos and realized they were a giant fraud. He lost his job, was harassed by lawyers, he and his parents almost had to sell their house to pay legal fees, his grandfather wouldn't speak to him anymore, etc.

Re: U.S. Files Criminal Charges Against Theranos’s Elizabeth Holmes, Ramesh Balwani

#299

Post by 75dvtwin »

Theranos / Holmes, also demonstrated how superficial, almost down to malpractice current so called journalism is.

Complete lack of analysis, expertise in the fields they are covering, and clear initial non-biased position.

Instead, we get this flood propaganda + sensationalism garbage from these so called 'reputable' news sources.

And, as a consequence, con-artists, career politicians, and 'celebrities' -- leverage this legalized malpractice for their purposes.

While we, the consumers of 'news' -- are being exploited and treated like as dehumanizing 'advertisement revenue points/votes. We are essentially being suffocated by this 'carbon dioxide of information'.

So in my view, it is not just the case of E. Holmes misleading investors, board members and consumers -- it is also the case of journalism malpractice.

Post reply on HN