硅谷发明家：吸血成金

有一句马丁路德金的名言
There's a great Martin Luther King quote.
"有信心地迈出第一步
"Take the first step in faith.
你不用看整个楼梯
"You don't have to see the whole staircase,
只要迈出第一步"
just take the first step." Right?
这就是第一步
And this is... this is the first step.
跟我说说爱迪生
So, talk to me a little bit about the Edison machine.
就现实的版本来说
How would you say it was working in terms of
你怎么评价爱迪生
the vision versus the reality?
很不好
Uh, poorly.
我们没法控制好温度
We couldn't regulate temperature very well.
我们无法可再生产地转移液体
We couldn't reproducibly transfer fluids.
我们改了各种各样的设计
We had all sorts of design changes constantly
不停地对抗上一次的变动
that we were trying to fight against,
所以就出了很多笑话
so it was a comedy of errors in a lot of ways.
最初的理念是做一个
The original concept was to make a machine
化学家可以
that, at least then, the chemists could work on
进一步发展化学的机器
to further develop chemistry.
随后我们可以运行样本
Over time, we were able to run a sequence
并可以收到结果
and we were able to get results.
收到结果意味着
Getting results means, you know,
放进去的东西有了对应的信♥号♥♥
I get a signal proportional to what I'm putting in.
这不意味着机器准备好了
It doesn't mean it's ready for prime time, right?
机器要处理很多液体
You're handling a lot of fluid in the machine.
零件会让血液撒的到处都是 因而变得黏腻
Things got blood spilled all over them and got gunky.
我们的血液捐赠人
Some of the donors that we had were,
有不少是大街上
you know, just people off the street
需要钱的人 我能想象到
who need money, and I imagine that, you know,
很可能这些人里
there probably was a fair amount
有得肝炎之类的
of hepatitis and things like that.
仪器会在检测中停止运行
And the device would freeze up in the middle of running a test,
然后我就会用手去碰
and then I would have to reach in there with my hands.
仪器里有针头
There were needles within the device
可能会刺穿皮肤
that could puncture skin,
试剂
and there's reagents
血液撒得到处都是
and blood and everything spilling all over the place.
血液在试管底部
Blood that's just sitting there in the bottom of the vessel,
挥发到房♥间的空气里
evaporating into the air in the room.
里面就是一团糟
It was a mess inside.
仪器的零件会在
Pieces of the device would literally fall off
检测中途脱落
in the middle of testing.
会发生离心机炸裂
Centrifuges exploding inside of it
类似的事
and things like that.
显然他们不想让任何人
Obviously, they didn't want anybody
看到这里究竟在发生些什么
to actually see what was going on in there.
当我们有了样机 他们会把投资人
So, when we had demos, they would bring investors
或者一些公♥司♥高管带去一间屋子里
or executives from some company to a room which would have
屋子里有各种样式的爱迪生样机
different styles of Edison they were prototyping.
他们会在高管们的手指上刺一下
They would do a fingerstick on the executives,
然后取血
so they'd take a fingerstick of blood.
他们会把血样放进托盒里
They would put the blood into the cartridge,
然后他们会把托盒放进爱迪生里
and then they would put the cartridge into this Edison.
接下来他们会带着这些高管们离开房♥间四处参观
They'd walk the executives out of the room to go give them a tour,
或者开会 或者去吃午饭
or to go have a meeting, or go have lunch or whatever,
紧接着 一个工程师会冲进来
and immediately afterwards, an engineer would run in,
抓起托盒然后带到实验室里
grab the cartridge and bring it out to the lab,
也就是我的团队做检测的地方
where my team would do the assays at the bench.
我们随时待命 一个小时就能出结果
We were on call, so this could be done in an hour.
我们每次都能得到合理的数据
We got reasonable data every time,
接着我们获得结果
and then we would get those results,
工程师会带着结果进来
the engineer would run into the room with the results,
这些人回来后会对他们说
and these guys would come back in and they'd say,
"这是运行检测后的结果"
"Well, here's your results from running our tests."
我们在网站上列出200项不同的测验
We had listed on the webpage, like, 200 different assays,
但是我们能做成功的不超过100项
but we had no more than half of those actually validated to be working,
在那时实验室也就只能做到这样 更别说爱迪生了
even in the lab at that point, let alone on the Edisons.
因为爱迪生尝试做多项检测
Because it's trying to do multiple analyses,
需要很多硬件在机器里
you need so much hardware inside the machine,
完全不现实
it was totally impractical.
他们非常固执地坚持
They were very adamant about
机器只能这么大 必须是这么大
the machine being this big. It's gotta be this big.
我说
And I said,
我们做不到
"We can't do that.
把这么多硬件全塞进这么小的空间
"The laws of physics just are not going to permit us to cram all the stuff
不符合物理定律
"that we've decided needs to go in there into this little box.
还能再大点吗
Can the box be bigger?"
Theranos的常见的回应
And a common response at Theranos
基本上都是那么几句
was something along the lines
"也许你不...
of, "Well, maybe you're not...
也许你不适合在硅谷发展
"maybe you're not a Silicon Valley person.
你应该去别的公♥司♥工作
"You should go work for some other company if you don't...
如果你不相信
"if you don't believe in the vision
产品的愿景"
of the product."
一个非常正经的
And what would start off
头脑风暴会议会变成
as a very serious brainstorming meeting would turn into
一个两个小时的对话
a two- hour conversation about
讨论处理信息的云端的名字
the name of the cloud that's going to process the information.
时间到了 机器需要有多大
It's like, time out. How big does this box need to be
才能遵循热力学定律
to abide by the laws of thermodynamics,
可以做到能运行并拯救人们的生命
and actually function, and saves people's lives?
或许有比处理信息的云端
Maybe that's more important than the name of the cloud
叫什么名字更重要的事
that processes the information,
最后好像定了云端叫尤达
which I think ended up being Yoda or something.
是星战里的尤达吗
Was it Yoda?
我觉得是
I think so.
你最喜欢星战电影里的什么声音
What's your favorite sound from the movie Star Wars?
尤达
Yoda.
尤达的声音听起来什么样
What does Yoda sound like?
尤达会说"一不做二不休 没有试试这回事"
Yoda sounds like, "Do or do not. There is no try."
你不能绕过物理法则
You can't just bend your way around the laws of physics.
你不能忽略物理法则
You can't just have a great marketing campaign,
去大肆宣传
and then get around these things.
Sunny和Elizabeth
Sunny and Elizabeth, they didn't care
他们不在乎我们研究出什么不起作用
that we figure out what's not working, or make sure
也不在乎我们有可以解决这些问题的真正方式
that we can actually solve these problems in a real way.
他们总是认为一切都可以
They always seemed to think that everything could happen
很快地实现 如果你说不行
very fast, and if you said no,
他们就会找下一个
then they just went around to find the next person
愿意说行的人
who would say yes.
通常这样会找到更年轻
And generally, they tended to start become younger
更缺乏经验的人 对吧
and less experienced, right?
"我们要做颠覆性的事 我们不想让大家
"We're going to disrupt. We don't want people
陷入以前的方式
"who are stuck in the old ways of actually,
验证试验
"you know, validating experiments, and, you know,
恰当处理文书"
doing things properly with documentation."
想要事情做得恰如其分的人里
One of those people who wanted things done properly
的其中一人是Ian Gibbons
was Ian Gibbons.
Theranos雇用的第一名有经验的科学家
The first experienced scientist hired by Theranos,
他是血液检测专家
he was an expert in blood testing
在公♥司♥关键专利上有着重要贡献
and had done much of the work on the company's key patents,
专利上有Elizabeth的名字
to which Elizabeth had attached her name.
Ian是一名剑桥大学博士
Ian was a Cambridge PhD.
他知道别人不知道的事
He knew things the rest of us didn't know.
他会和一些年轻的化学家和科学家共事
He would work with some of the younger chemists and scientists,
帮助他们做试验
and help them with their experiments,
帮助他们设计试验
help them to design their experiments,
帮助他们分♥析♥数据 解析数据
help them to analyze their data, interpret their data, etc.
他有着丰富的知识
He was just a wealth of knowledge, and it was
我认识他两年对他的看点一直在变
you know, at the time, it kind of evolved, I knew him for two years,
我对他的看法越来越好
and my opinion of him evolved only just to be better
因为他会试着做到最好
because he was just trying to make the best of his situation.