[iwanttocomment]

I was hoping the comments would be full of similar stories, in which a demon makes a half-hearted effort to pull you into his clutches, only to be naively blown off, then not thought of again until his true nature was revealed.

Our story of this sort comes from when my partner interviewed at Theranos (!) long before the collapse or any public recognition, related the super-creepy interview process, and I was like "sounds like a big no to me." When the Theranos story blew up it was like "oh boy".

[throwjefferey]

One observes that all the stories about the cloven hoof being found out and the devil shooed away always seem to have peasants or naive every-men as their protagonists, mayhaps the upstairs strata are just less bothered by a bone or two leaking from the closet, maybe it is just table stakes for them.

[mrkandel]

scott aaronson is a naive every-man?

[tantalor]

What was creepy about the interview process?

[iwanttocomment]

Keeping in mind that I wasn't the interviewee and this happened over 15 years ago, there was apparently a combination of extreme secrecy about the organization and a massive disconnect between the largely military experience of the interviewers and the company's supposed product space. Partner left wondering "black ops or bullshit?"

[randycupertino]

I interviewed and had an offer from Theranos. They were super slimey, and this was before they were known as a fraud.

- Sunny asked me why I went to such an unprestigious academic institution for undergrad

- Sunny flipped out at an extension cord going to the table AV setup in the meeting room. He called in 5 IT people and yelled at them during my interview about the extension cord and yanked it out of the wall.

- Elizabeth and Sunny parked their Lamborginis in the handicapped parking spaces directly in front of the office

- When I got the offer, the fine print noted the location my office would actually be located in was NOT at the fancy HQ in Palo Alto where they had recruited me at and showed me that I would be working, it was at a trailer park on the east side of highway 101 in Menlo Park (um, no thanks. Part of the reason I passed).

- part of the hiring process was to go get your blood tested by them and my lab results were discordant with my lab results from Stanford so it showed their testing didn't actually work

- security stood outside the restroom stall while I peed before the interview and came in with me while I washed my hands.

- Elizabeth rescheduled my interview with her 4x, once with 18 minutes notice. Their entire process took 3 months and 7 rounds.

[belter]

If you want to see the story of creepy, and what monster Epstein was and Ghislaine Maxwell is, watch this interview from today: https://youtu.be/xSkzN7R5VAM?t=57

It is from an extremely articulate and intelligent Epstein victim, that is only speaking out after the DOJ, either trough incompetence or most likely via malicious compliance, had her personal information in the released files.