"Somehow, every single thematic concept at this conference has converged onto artificial intelligence as the only thing worth seriously discussing."
The truth behind the 2026 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference
81–90 of 93 posts
Re: The truth behind the 2026 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference
#82I've been inside the conference- I used to do due diligence and discovery for Google Ventures and they gave me a ticket one year. The "talks" were eminently forgettable ("we put this in X people and Y died") and the power meetings were... also fairly forgettable. A lot of it is just puffery, and a lot of the dealmakers have no real understanding of the area they are in (softbank seems to be the place where bad ideas…
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Re: The truth behind the 2026 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference
#83I've been inside the conference- I used to do due diligence and discovery for Google Ventures and they gave me a ticket one year. The "talks" were eminently forgettable ("we put this in X people and Y died") and the power meetings were... also fairly forgettable. A lot of it is just puffery, and a lot of the dealmakers have no real understanding of the area they are in (softbank seems to be the place where bad ideas…
Aren't these conferences setup like this as they are tax write-offs so you get a holiday for cheap?
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Re: The truth behind the 2026 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
What is the Vonnegut-esque in your view?
> The Sirens of Titan [1] is a comic science fiction novel by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., first published in 1959. His second novel, it involves issues of free will, omniscience, and the overall purpose of human history, with much of the story revolving around a Martian invasion of Earth. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sirens_of_Titan
Right but what in your view makes something Vonnegutesque where it isnt otherwise so labelled?
Re: The truth behind the 2026 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've heard that a lot of medical conferences take advantage of the fact that doctors need to fulfill a quota of "professional development" every year, so they set themselves at very pleasant resort hotels.
When I was in grad school in SF, my Aunt who was a doctor (dermatologist) attended the annual dermatology conference there. She invited us out to dinner at several of the nicest restaurants in the city and we were treated to the full course experience, plus lots of nice wine. At the end, all the doctors fought to pay the bill because it was a tax write-off (business expense? I don't know how professional doctors with…
> At the end, all the doctors fought to pay the bill because it was a tax write-off (business expense?
Either these doctors went to the Michael Scott School of Business or it was some other reason they were fighting over who pays.
A tax write off is only worth (dollar amount - (dollar_amount * tax rate in percent)
Example: You spend $100 and pay 30% in corporate tax. Your write off that you spent $100 for is worth $30, end result is you’re out $70.
If you let someone else pay and just pay $30 of taxes on your $100, you keep $70, which is over twice as much money as the previous scenario.
If no one else was willing to pay for the meal, having the business pay for it would save you the tax rate.
This only makes sense if it’s something like a car that you’re going to own anyways, not for fancy ass meals unless that’s how you eat anyways.
Re: The truth behind the 2026 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference
#86Possibly related: The Mystery Flesh Pit National Park
https://www.mysteryfleshpitnationalpark.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_Flesh_Pit_National_Par...
Re: The truth behind the 2026 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The Sirens of Titan [1] is a comic science fiction novel by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., first published in 1959. His second novel, it involves issues of free will, omniscience, and the overall purpose of human history, with much of the story revolving around a Martian invasion of Earth. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sirens_of_Titan
Right but what in your view makes something Vonnegutesque where it isnt otherwise so labelled?
I'm not the poster of the original comment, just wanted to point out that The Sirens of Titan has a similar storyline. If I have to guess, the GP might have meant the absurdity of the article and casual mention of an unbelievable "fact".
Re: The truth behind the 2026 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference
#88I've been inside the conference- I used to do due diligence and discovery for Google Ventures and they gave me a ticket one year. The "talks" were eminently forgettable ("we put this in X people and Y died") and the power meetings were... also fairly forgettable. A lot of it is just puffery, and a lot of the dealmakers have no real understanding of the area they are in (softbank seems to be the place where bad ideas…
All the action at PSB happens in the hot tub discussions. I didn't spend any time in them, as I was too junior and didn't know the right people, but PSB did get me some good post doc options! Not much industry there though, unless it's changed in recent years. One of the more scientifically productive conferences because of the connections that people establish. (Inside JPMorgan is so crowded and not so useful. I got…
Given that hot tubs have been brought up twice in this thread, I'd pose that hot tubs at conferences might be their own Schelling points.
Re: The truth behind the 2026 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
When I was in grad school in SF, my Aunt who was a doctor (dermatologist) attended the annual dermatology conference there. She invited us out to dinner at several of the nicest restaurants in the city and we were treated to the full course experience, plus lots of nice wine. At the end, all the doctors fought to pay the bill because it was a tax write-off (business expense? I don't know how professional doctors with…
> At the end, all the doctors fought to pay the bill because it was a tax write-off (business expense? Either these doctors went to the Michael Scott School of Business or it was some other reason they were fighting over who pays. A tax write off is only worth (dollar amount - (dollar_amount * tax rate in percent) Example: You spend $100 and pay 30% in corporate tax. Your write off that you spent $100 for is worth $3…
Jerry, all these big companies, they write off everything.
Re: The truth behind the 2026 J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference
#90Close to my heart as I'm at the actual JPM conference this year. The author's not running in the right healthcare circles though which is why they hasn't met them. If they were connected with the CEO and/or CFOs of health systems or any of the public companies presenting, they'd definitely know people that have attended. Regardless, fun read though. And it is true, -hard- to get in.