The Art Of BS

David Sacks is a PayPal alumnus and a founder of geni.com. Sandwiched between co-founding and/or working at these two companies, his career graph briefly veers towards Hollywood, wherein he managed to produce a delightful movie called “Thank You For Smoking”. As much as I’ve watched a lot of movies lately, I’ve somehow managed to skip the comedic genre. Thank heavens I found TYFS before overdosing on a plethora of drama and action.

TYFS narrates the story of a lobbyist for an American tobacco research institute who does what he does to pay the mortgage. There is an amazing scene in the movie where our hero Nick Naylor teaches the art of BS to his son. In response to his son’s question, the protagonist replies that in order to be perceived right, one just has to prove the other person wrong instead of proving his or her own position. In many respects, this movie is an amazing parody on the madness of our daily lives and manages to portray many of its characters in their true colours of gray.

Many of the tongue-in-cheek dialogues in this movie are quite memorable. Towards the end of the movie, the principal character is asked to appear in front of a Senate hearing committee. When questioned by a scheming Senator as to how the actions of the tobacco research institute are not influenced by the very cigarette companies that fund them, our spokesman glibly replies (paraphrasing here): “The same way your campaign contributions do not affect your actions as a Senator”.

Watch this movie for some lessons in the art of BS.