The Theranos founder awaits a decision in her federal fraud trial--but the case also points to some dangerous American myths about the nature of success
Yes. I think you've hit upon a theme that is at the center of the ailing patient that is our national culture: success as measured in dollars and fame. When we still lived in Durham, I got involved in a project that presumably was selling a teaching tool to universities to help their students who did not speak English as their first language write better papers in English. They were dragging in business schools in the U.K. with their pitch and getting ready to charge them BIG money for a so-called interactive program. Slowly, I became aware that *there was no product* at all. I questioned the CEO of this sham about it and he grinned, telling me that we were simply following the "good enough" philosophy of Silicon Valley. I was supposed to grin back and go along: instead, I quit. "Good enough", mocking up a project to demonstrate how it should be until people invest enough money to make it what it ought to be, has turned into a simple flimflam in the minds of most who want to be "the next Steve Jobs". Faking it 'til you make it is okay if you're doing something creative; but if you're taking people's money, it's just a con game. Americans have always been good at this kind of thievery. We are also great at getting taken in by it.
Yes. I think you've hit upon a theme that is at the center of the ailing patient that is our national culture: success as measured in dollars and fame. When we still lived in Durham, I got involved in a project that presumably was selling a teaching tool to universities to help their students who did not speak English as their first language write better papers in English. They were dragging in business schools in the U.K. with their pitch and getting ready to charge them BIG money for a so-called interactive program. Slowly, I became aware that *there was no product* at all. I questioned the CEO of this sham about it and he grinned, telling me that we were simply following the "good enough" philosophy of Silicon Valley. I was supposed to grin back and go along: instead, I quit. "Good enough", mocking up a project to demonstrate how it should be until people invest enough money to make it what it ought to be, has turned into a simple flimflam in the minds of most who want to be "the next Steve Jobs". Faking it 'til you make it is okay if you're doing something creative; but if you're taking people's money, it's just a con game. Americans have always been good at this kind of thievery. We are also great at getting taken in by it.