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在我读过的书里，让我爱不释手的并不多。虽然我经常会发现自己拿起一本书就放不下来，但它们并不是那种会让大多数人几乎是粘在椅子上一直读完的作品。然而，我最近读的一本书实在太吸引人，让我无法释卷。 约翰·凯瑞鲁（John Carreyrou）的《坏血：硅谷创业的秘密与谎言》（Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup，中文名暂译）讲述了Theranos公司腾飞和衰落的细节。如果您不熟悉Theranos的故事，这里有一个简短的版本：Theranos公司承诺使用少量的血液即可快速为你提供全面的健康检测报告。伊丽莎白·霍尔姆斯（Elizabeth Holmes）年仅19 岁时就创立了这家公司，并且很快和Theranos一起成了硅谷的宠儿。她发表了许多热门的TED演讲，还上过《福布斯》和《财富》杂志的封面。 截至2013年，Theranos的市值接近100亿美元，甚至与沃尔格林（Walgreens，美国最大的连锁药店）成为合作伙伴，在全国各地推广他们的血检。有什么问题吗？问题就是：他们的技术根本无效，甚至从未和奏效挂过钩。但是霍尔姆斯非常擅长推销她的愿景，一路畅通无阻，直到有真正的病人使用该公司的“检测”来做出他们的治疗决定。因为涉嫌欺诈，霍尔姆斯和她的前商业伙伴很有可能面临牢狱之灾，Theranos也在8月正式倒闭。 在《华尔街日报》记者凯瑞鲁报道这个故事之前，公众一直被Theranos的骗局蒙在鼓里。凯瑞鲁对这家公司的覆灭发挥了关键作用，《坏血》一书提供了非常精彩的内幕。 凯瑞鲁分享的一些细节只能用“疯狂”来形容。霍尔姆斯会邀请潜在投资人到实验室参观，让他们能够亲自使用Theranos的机器进行血检。而Theranos的机器事先经过编程，只会显示非常缓慢的进度条而非错误信息。还没等到检测结果显示出来，霍尔姆斯就会将投资人送回家并承诺继续跟进。 投资人一走，就会有员工从设备中取出他们的血液样本，然后转移到一台商业血液分析仪中。这些投资人的血液样本其实是用和其他任何美国实验室里一样的分析仪检测的，但他们对此一无所知。 硅谷从Theranos的这场闹剧中可以学到很多东西。首先，公司董事会需要相关专业人员的加入。Theranos董事会确实存在一些重量级人物，包括几位前内阁成员和参议员，但在公司存续的大部分时间里，他们之中都没有任何一位有诊断学方面的专业知识。否则，他们可能很早就会注意到危险信号的出现。 因为事关人的生命，因此与其他技术相比，医疗技术需要另眼相待。凯瑞鲁在书中多次描写了霍尔姆斯如何崇拜史蒂夫·乔布斯，以及乔布斯那种不愿意为梦想妥协的精神。对于普通的消费者电子产品而言，这没有什么大问题。毕竟一部新手机就算无法按照预想运转，也不会给任何人带来伤害。但对于一家医疗公司来说，这是不负责任的。霍尔姆斯推广的是Theranos的愿景，而不是它的实际产品，并且还让人们因此而受害。 《坏血》同时还是一个有关名人美德的警世恒言。从表面上看，霍尔姆斯有着硅谷乐意在一名CEO身上看到的一切：魅力超凡，令人信服，还有可以登上杂志的令人难忘的个人履历。这本身没有什么问题。摇滚巨星一般的CEO对创业公司来说可以成为一个大大的福音，你的个人故事会成为你的公司和产品的故事，帮助公司从竞争对手中脱颖而出，并将你的信息传达给客户。但你不能让名气成为最重要的那个东西。 我理解这种诱惑。你辛辛苦苦地创办了公司，然后突然之间，每个人看你都像看神一样，这种关注确实很难让人拒绝。你内心有一点享受这种关注，所以你想在公众视野中多做停留，但你不应该沉迷于此。工作永远是第一位的。如果你的产品承诺没有如约兑现，公众的关注还有什么意义呢？ 当CEO以她的个人声望为先时会发生什么？Theranos给出了最糟糕的范本。但我不希望人们以此为借口，否定下一位志向远大的年轻女性。世界需要更多的女性独角兽CEO。我也不希望《坏血》让人们对于下一代诊断技术避之不及。Theranos想方设法在质量标准附近周旋。医疗健康行业具有严格的监管制度，新的诊断技术需要接受严格的测试。 《坏血》触及了一些严肃的伦理问题，但它本质上是一个以悲剧收场的惊险故事。它精彩绝伦，细节饱含张力，能让你在阅读过程中喘不过气来。整个故事荒诞异常，令人时时产生难以置信的不真实感（难怪好莱坞已经有计划把它翻拍成电影）。在冬日的火炉旁阅读这本书，我想是再合适不过的了。  I couldn’t put downthis thriller with a tragic ending By Bill Gates
I don’t read a lot of page turners. I often find myself unable toput a book down – but they’re not the kinds of books that would keep mostpeople glued to their chairs. Still, I recently found myself reading a book socompelling that I couldn’t turn away. Bad Blood: Secrets and Liesin a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyroudetails the rise and fall of Theranos. If you aren’t familiar with the Theranosstory, here’s the short version: the company promised to quickly give you acomplete picture of your health using only a small amount of blood. ElizabethHolmes founded it when she was just 19 years old, and both she and Theranosquickly became the darlings of Silicon Valley. She gave massively popular TEDtalks and appeared on the covers of Forbesand Fortune. By 2013, Theranos was valued at nearly $10 billion and evenpartnered with Walgreens to put their blood tests in stores around the country.The problem? Their technology never worked. It never came close to working. ButHolmes was so good at selling her vision that she wasn’t stopped until afterreal patients were using the company’s “tests” to make decisions about theirhealth. She and her former business partner are now facing potential jail timeon fraud charges, and Theranos officially shut down in August. The public didn’t know about Theranos’ deception until Carreyroubroke the story as a reporter at the WallStreet Journal. Because he was so integral to the company’s demise, Bad Blood offers a remarkable insidelook. Some of the details he shares are – for lack of a better word –insane. Holmes would invite prospective investors to the lab, so they could gettheir blood tested on a Theranos machine. The device had been programmed toshow a really slow progress bar instead of an error message. When resultsdidn’t come back right away, Holmes sent the investors home and promised tofollow up with results. As soon as they left, an employee would remove the blood sample fromthe device and transfer it to a commercial blood analyzer. Her investors gottheir blood tested by the same machines available in any lab in the country,and they had no idea. There’s a lot Silicon Valley can learn from the Theranos mess. Tostart, a company needs relevant experts on its board of directors. The Theranosboard had some heavy hitters – including several former Cabinet secretaries andsenators – but for most of the company’s existence, none of them had anyexpertise in diagnostics. If they had, they might have noticed the red flags alot sooner. Health technology requires a different approach than other kinds oftechnology, because human lives are on the line. Carreyrou writes a lot abouthow Holmes idolized Steve Jobs and his unwillingness to compromise on hisvision. That approach is okay for consumer electronics – if a new phone doesn’twork as promised, no one gets hurt – but it’s irresponsible for a healthcompany. Holmes pushed a vision of what Theranos could be, not what it actuallywas, and people suffered as a result. Bad Blood is also a cautionary tale about the virtues of celebrity. On thesurface, Holmes was everything Silicon Valley loves in a CEO: charismatic andconvincing with a memorable personal story made for magazine profiles. There’snothing wrong with that on its own. A rock star CEO can be a huge boon for astartup. Your story becomes the story of your company and your product, whichhelps you stand out from your competitors and get your message out tocustomers. But you can’t let fame become the most important thing. I understand the temptation. When you’ve worked so hard to launch acompany and then suddenly everyone treats you like this magical person, it’shard to turn away from the spotlight. There’s a part of you that enjoys theattention, so you want to spend more time in the public eye than you should.The work has to come first, though. If your product doesn’t work as promised,what’s the point? Theranos is the worst-case scenario of what happens when a CEOprioritizes her personal legacy above all else – but I hope that people don’tuse it as an excuse to write off the next young woman with a big idea. Theworld needs more female unicorn CEOs.I also don’t want Bad Blood to scarepeople away from next-gen diagnostics. Theranos went to extraordinary lengthsto get around quality standards. The industry is highly regulated, and newdiagnostics undergo rigorous testing. Bad Blood tackles some serious ethical questions, but it is ultimately athriller with a tragic ending. It’s a fun read full of salacious details thatwill make you gasp out loud. The story almost feels too ridiculous to be realat points (no wonder Hollywood is already planning to turn it into a movie).I think it’s the perfect book to read by the fire this winter. |
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