Alex WellersteinVerified account

2. I don't do blood analysis, but I am acquainted with chemical instrumentation and have a general ideal of what it requires. I also am able to search the internet to find more.

3. Maybe a half-hour's work convinced me that Theranos's claims were unlikely to be true.

5. Most resigned as Theranos's problems emerged. But why didn't they do minimal due diligence before they joined the board? Or ask hard questions?

6. Why did Holmes draw on so many national security people for a health corporation?

7. Why were those people so willing to accept?

My suspicion, in a word: networking. Without wanting to be overly cynical about it: when you're building support for ANYTHING unconventional, you need to show you have buy-in from respected people. You use your existing connections to get others, and then leverage reputations.

This is LARGELY the most useful thing I learned how to do at Harvard as an aside. It is frankly what Harvard as an institution excels at. The names on that list are Stanford-centric, so I assume the same dynamic is as work.