Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism

by Sarah Wynn-Williams

An explosive memoir charting one woman’s career at the heart of one of the most influential companies on the planet, Careless People gives you a front-row seat to Facebook, the decisions that have shaped world events in recent decades, and the people who made them.

From trips on private jets and encounters with world leaders to shocking accounts of misogyny and double standards behind the scenes, this searing memoir exposes both the personal and the political fallout when unfettered power and a rotten company culture take hold. In a gripping and often absurd narrative where a few people carelessly hold the world in their hands, this eye-opening memoir reveals what really goes on among the global elite.

Sarah Wynn-Williams tells the wrenching but fun story of Facebook, mapping its rise from stumbling encounters with juntas to Mark Zuckerberg’s reaction when he learned of Facebook’s role in Trump’s election. She experiences the challenges and humiliations of working motherhood within a pressure cooker of a workplace, all while Sheryl Sandberg urges her and others to “lean in.”

Careless People is a deeply personal account of why and how things have gone so horribly wrong in the past decade—told in a sharp, candid, and utterly disarming voice. A deep, unflinching look at the role that social media has assumed in our lives, Careless People reveals the truth about the leaders of Facebook: how the more power they grasp, the less responsible they become and the consequences this has for all of us.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Audiobook, Business, Politics, Technology, Biography

382 pages, Hardcover

First published March 11, 2025

About the author

Sarah Wynn-Williams is a New Zealand lawyer, public policy expert, and author. She was formerly a Director of Public Policy at Facebook.

Reviews

[Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm boosting this book because Zuck REALLY REALLY hates that it's out there and is doing all he can do to squash it.

Yeah, I know. I'm just a contrarian.

-- And now, I'm here after reading an insider's accounting of What Facebook Is.

And honestly, the title really says it all. Sarah hopped on board early on, idealistic as hell about WHAT Facebook could have been: a platform to reach out and connect people, to boost important messages, to change the world. She was a true believer. And it took some time for her to see how Zuck's power, the company's greed, the utter unfeeling pursuit of users, of cow-towing to authoritarian governments to get more market share made her realize, at long, long last, that she couldn't make things right from within the belly of the beast.

There's plenty of evidence already of Facebook (now Meta) gave over all its user's data to the Chinese government, of how it just ignored laws because it had already gotten so powerful, so pervasive, and how so many other governments just loved what it gave them. And it isn't the worst of it. There's also the Rohingya genocide. You know, the Myanmar massacre. What happens when the only internet that's available happens to be stripped down versions of Facebook promoting hate and persecution and calls for mass rape and murder.

And we know that Zuck got away with it because he just said he can't control what others do. And yet, the platform not only let it happen, it helped others with hate on their minds find each other and boost that algorithm. Money, lawyers, political influence. Facebook is the goose that laid the golden eggs for all those authoritarians.

And Sarah was there as the political arm, the idealist forced to watch as her ideas were ignored in favor of Right Wing advisors and the power hungry, how endless Harvard Grads were installed in all key places. And then there was the 2016 American Elections. They patted themselves on their backs for how they managed to promote and algorithmically skew all the right messages in all the right ears. How hate speech in America got boosted. How White Power got boosted. How Trump was catapulted, monetized, and incentivized right to the top of all of Facebook's feeds, an endless loop, AND an utterly successful deployment of media manipulation.

One that could be incentivized again and again. And of course, we know that Facebook got extremely rich during this time. The culture in their offices did nothing but promote how they did nothing wrong, how they were on a mission that is hard to understand, how they were getting things done.

Sarah, by this time, was utterly disillusioned, a victim of the old boy's network, and drumrolled out because she couldn't stand what was happening by this point.

We can take her accounting of this with a grain of salt if you want, but really, I've also been paying attention to the social media giants for many years. If you don't see how they make their money, then YOU are the product, after all.

I've read the news and read the full investigations of these ties, and let me be frank: it all fits. I don't see any reason to doubt Sarah. Her story is an old one. She thought she was doing great work, but her bosses succumbed to the call of greed and power and when they discovered they were hurting people, they didn't stop. Indeed, they just hunted for more power and the ability to shrug off whole governments' pressure. After all, if you have that much power, you can make your own rules.

Zuck even wanted to become president after Trump's first success. Too bad he has all the presence of a Bond Villain--or Lex Luthor. And I think we've all seen what those kinds of cartoon characters are like once they are told no. Or that they aren't popular.

They get mean.

Or, in this case, he's been hell bent on stopping people from reading THIS book. An army of lawyers, injunctions, gag orders--enen trying to squash the publishers FFS.



I'm glad I got to read this. This much smoke generally means there's a fire.


My synesthesia tastes ash. I just hope this fire gets boosted.


Personal note:
If anyone reading my reviews might be interested in reading my own SF, I'm going to be open to requests. Just direct message me in goodreads or email me on my site. I'd love to get some eyes on my novels.

Arctunn.com

[Emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

WW's inability to understand her own complicity in Meta's harms is really galling. I'm sorry her workplace was so toxic. Nobody should be harassed at work. Her company and her portfolio at the company also led to incredible amounts of violence and harm and this receives zero introspection beyond claims that she had no idea what FB was planning with China, with Trump, in Myanmar. Either she is the least curious person in the world, or a whole lot of responsibility is being obscured here. There are other whistleblowers who are much more cognizant of their role in negatively shaping events, none as highly placed or influential as SWW. The lack of reflection is obscene, and the idea that Facebook became evil only as late as 2016 is risible. In the epilogue, Sarah discusses her exciting work in AI technology policy trying to prevent harm. It's proof that she still doesn't understand.

To read this book is to understand that every other member of leadership at FB was one of the "careless people" but that Sarah, in a near-decade of pat and extremely credulity-stretching Marine Todd-esque anecdotes dressing down her colleagues, was blameless. And that she spent years trying to get another job but was afraid of not having health insurance and other leads fizzled out. I'm sorry. We are talking about a pre-IPO member of leadership with equity and this excuse simply doesn't fly. This lack of perspective makes it difficult to digest the chapters about introducing zero rating to authoritarian countries played for laughs.

I've worked on platform accountability issues in previous work. I know people who joined Meta with the idea of changing it from the inside or with the goal of accessing research withheld from external entities. I've even heard of people who were early believers, like SWW, who became disillusioned (though it's funny to join FB the year after the blockbuster Social Network and think FB was a normal company and Zuckerberg a decent person.) But I think this is a deeply flawed and largely substance-free entry into the body of work on Meta. It's entertaining and shocking and I do feel for the workplace toxicity she endured. But I also feel for the millions of people affected by Facebook's global policies - which have been rotten much longer than she would have you believe.

Instead, read Max Fisher's Chaos Machine.

[Brady Lockerby · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was SO interesting and informative, exactly why i love non-fiction so much! this follows sarah's career working for Facebook and all of the INSANE experiences she has had herself, but also what she has witnessed Mark Zuckerberg and other Facebook execs do and say... your jaw will be on the floor multiple times.. listened on audio and loved her narration!

(i typically don't rate memoirs, but this one is getting a 5 star because Meta is trying to get this book taken down and i think it needs to be read and or listened to as much as possible!!)

[chris mango reader]

oh, Meta doesn't want us reading this book? They're forcibly stopping promotion? Sure do wonder what they could be trying to hide...

[Lisa of Troy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do you remember when Facebook was just people sharing cat pictures (which I loved btw) and people bragging about their vacations (which I also loved)? Facebook used to be just people living their best lives. Now, it is a toxic cesspool where you feel more depressed than when you logged on!

Careless People is a required read.

Technology is going to be the next cigarette smoking. We all started it, not really giving it a second thought. Now, we really should be questioning is this really the best for us. Sarah Wynn-Williams certainly explains how Facebook/Meta is exploiting its users, deliberating hurting people if it will turn them a buck.

Sarah Wynn-Williams is a former Facebook/Meta employee, and she has the dirt. Although I will admit some of her complaints seemed rather petty. Like who cares if all of the employees let Mark Zuckerberg win at board games? Also, she was writing about how her boss lost his cowboy boots, and she went all over trying to find them. Why? Wasn't she a director of policy or something? Why would you go crawling around for some boots? Or couldn't you just brush it off like, "Oh, I thought that you would be onto your next fashion statement by now anyways."

At times, Wynn-Williams does come across as a little naive. Corporate America lies. Every HR department worth its salt is going to say something along the lines of "oh there are plenty of career opportunities for you!" Even if they plan to fire you the next day, they aren't going to say, "You suck. There is no hope for you here." At least not publicly or in an email. But if you have spent years working at a company and they have no clear, articulated career plan for you, it is obvious that they are lying to you.

Wynn-Williams also raises an excellent point about reporting sexual harassment. If you report someone who is in senior leadership, you might as well look for a job elsewhere. Here is why: someone in upper management knows the other higher ups. They don't know you. So when a complaint is made, they know Tom The Sexual Harasser. They don't know you. You they can easily live without. But they are comfortable with Tom and don't want the hassale of having to look for a replacement. Upper management will only hear from Tom, not from you, and Tom will tell them that you are crazy and do bad work. When you work hard and do incredible tasks, Tom will take all of the credit. If you make a mistake and Tom doesn't catch it, Tom will throw you under the bus so hard.

Oh and I also have been asked to go swimming in a corporate environment. While I was in public accounting, one of the male senior managers said that he wanted the entire team to go to a water park, but he wanted everyone to actually swim. He asked me if I would go swim. To which, I said, "Sure. No problem." "You will?" "Yes. But I am not going to wear a bikini. It is going to have a skirt, and it won't be low cut. It will be pretty similar to what I wear to work every day so it won't be a big deal." "Oh." We never had a swimming party. lol

Still working from my other computer so I don't have my fancy end credits, but for those of you curious.....

I bought 5 copies of this book. Take that, Mark Zuckerberg!

[Me, My Shelf, & I · Rating 2 out of 5]

I often wonder how future history classes will talk about our moment in time, given more distance and clear connections: the way algorithms have created the "Red Feed"/"Blue Feed" phenomenon that drives wedges between people, how our user data is weaponized by advertisers and politicians alike, if the future will view these social media sites as a net positive or net negative for humanity.

Resources:
The rest of this review is specifically about the book and my experience with it. But I wanted to take a moment to at least let people know about the documented WAR CRIMES Facebook committed and that you can find more succinct, better reporting with more documentation even just on Wikipedia under "Facebook content management controversies: War Crimes."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faceboo...
Follow-up link in that wiki: Incitement of Human Rights Abuses in Myanmar

The Weak Tea:
Okay, so this book was way more mild than I genuinely thought it'd be. And it's not even like most of the information presented was unknown, so I'm actually curious what Zucks was trying to block from being published.

No, she's not looking to paint anyone but herself in a good light. She frequently points out the sexism and "boys club" atmosphere of working at the company, and the way her bosses seem like naïve and petulant children who are too insulated by their money and the "yes men" they're surrounded by to understand or care about basic ethics or anything not catering to their egos.

Of course, this is also pretty obvious by watching their company practices and media appearances, so no big surprise.

One New Fact:
One thing that kinda surprised me to learn, but also seemed like an obvious course of action once she mentioned it, was that Zucks apparently learned the wrong lessons from how much Facebook affected Trump winning... enough that he now has his own aspirations for becoming President.

Ew. No.

The Atrocities of Facebook:
The memoir also really didn't cover the genocide in Myanmar and Facebook's role in it as much as I thought it would. Like... these are genuine war crimes! I thought Rebecca Watson did a much better job covering this in a shorter time (only 12 minutes!) in her video "Mark Zuckerberg Preps for More Ethnic Cleansing" which you can watch here.

Other highlights that got little screentime but really speak to Capitalism as a whole:
1. Facebook wanted far-right parties to win their national elections (like France and Germany) because it would be in Facebook's best interest as it would ease their regulatory issues in those countries.
2. Facebook was using sensitive user data (like the emotional state of a teenager who just posted a selfie or anything with the keyword 'worthless') to target specific ads at them. Because research has shown that this is a time when people are more vulnerable and can be preyed upon and pressured to buy. (Ch 44 Emotional Targeting was very good and exactly the kind of exposé I was hoping the rest of the book would be, I definitely recommend that one at least, and it's only 6 pages long in my ebook version.)

When the incentive of the corporation is to make money for their shareholders, and there's no oversight or enforcement of ethics and morals, this sort of dystopic conclusion is a feature, not a bug.

Kinda Weird Anti-Semitism Vibes Around 92% In, I Really Question This Inclusion:

“Sarah, you know your boss Joel. He’s a Jew who went to Harvard.”
“Yes,” I said uneasily, worried that we’re drifting into some anti-Semitic conversation I don’t want to be part of.
“And his boss.”
“Elliot.”
“Yes—a Jew who went to Harvard; and his boss … a Jew who went to Harvard. And her boss…”
“A Jew who dropped out of Harvard?” I venture.
“You’re catching on,” he said. “So you see, one of these things is not like the other.”
“You mean me?”
“Yeah,” he said. “You’re not like these people. And you’ll never be like them. And the sooner you grasp this, the better.”

The Author:
I left the quote above untouched, but I think it's really emblematic of a running issue I had with the book. See, the author wants you to know that she's a good person and has always been a good person, and everything she did for Facebook was against her will. She was aware that the conversation was anti-Semitic and didn't want to be a part of it, you see! But like... babes... you coulda shut that conversation down, called out the dogwhistles for what they were, or -most importantly- not shoehorned it into your book. It really feels like they scrubbed it up in post by making sure you know she was "uneasy," because it otherwise paints her in a negative light. But it's exactly that for the whole book.

Time and time again I found myself questioning why the author kept working for the company or why she only spoke out now that she was fired. Sure, she mentions not wanting to be without health insurance while in between jobs in America... but she also casually mentions how she's worth millions of dollars because of her early shares in the company and owns a home in San Francisco with her husband. Ma'am, there are no operations or ongoing health issues that you could not afford to pay out of pocket 1000x over. Not to mention that her husband also works and she could just be added to his insurance. This is such a weak excuse that's trying to appeal to an everyman reading the book.

And somehow in every scenario she presented here, she was the only one who understood the implications and right course of action, yet also could never manage to convince anyone else at the company. She was a high-ranking employee of many years (since 2011) who directly knew and worked with Zuckerberg, yet was also so ineffectual at her job that she only managed to get him meetings with world leaders but never to affect policy that turned out to be very bad? You can't have it both ways where you're upper management and literally talking to world leaders, but also can't affect your own workplace in the slightest. And she always fell on the right side of history.

Sure, Jan.

From winning at Catan (and misusing the pop culture reference "Rosebud" as she soapbox'd) to being the only person interested in helping a woman mid-seizure... a lot of these anecdotes felt very fabricated. And when they weren't fabricated, well she's just a victim who was forced to organize a riot in a foreign country because Zuckerberg wanted to see one while they visited. You can't just be an adult and turn down or ignore unreasonable requests, you see!

If this book were an AITA post, I would absolutely award her an 'Everyone Sucks Here' badge.

Overall:
Ultimately I think that this book will generate a lot of buzz and people may talk about the issues with Meta that have largely flown under the radar. I personally got off the platform in 2017 and haven't used any of the other sites they own. Given their willingness to capitulate to authoritarian governments, betrayal of user data and privacy, and how they specifically target people at their most vulnerable, I would encourage folks that if they take nothing else away from this book, it's time to divest from Meta. No more Facebook or Instagram or WhatsApp.

(Clearly I'm still tied to Amazon by using Goodreads, but I'm also currently researching alternatives to Amazon and Google in my personal use. We live in a society so it's challenging, but these tech companies are out of control and under-regulated.)

The Audiobook:
The actual audiobook quality was fine, especially considering it was author narrated. Good sound quality and cadence.
-----------------------
pre-read:
As if the final hour announcement of this book that was still listed as "Flatiron Author" and "Untitled Flatiron" on sale sites couldn't get me intrigued enough... Zucks had to go and legally prohibit the author from promoting or distributing copies.

This book could've languished on my TBR for years, but now that my library hold has come through I dropped everything to read it.

Happy Streisand Effect, you corporate buffoons!

[Little Feather · Rating 5 out of 5]

From my publisher's weekly subscription about this book: "NBC reports extensively in advance on revelations in Sarah Wynn-Williams's CARELESS PEOPLE, publishing Tuesday. They note that, "Meta filed an emergency request for a hearing before an arbitrator Saturday, arguing that Wynn-Williams had violated a nondisparagement agreement and seeking 'injunctive relief barring disparagement.'"

NBC says Meta lawyer Jonathan Cohn wrote to publisher Flatiron Books on Friday, claiming that the marketing copy suggested the embargoed book featured "overheated, false, and potentially defamatory allegations." Cohn asked for an opportunity to suggestions revisions.

Flatiron Books said in a statement: "This book is a first person narrative account of what the author herself witnessed. We thoroughly vetted the book. We have no obligation to give Meta or anyone else the opportunity to shut down her story." The publisher accused Meta of trying to "institute a gag order to silence our author."

3/13/25 Edit: Meta Wins Bid To Stop Whistleblower Book Promotion
An emergency arbitrator ruled in an interim award on Wednesday that author Sarah Wynn-Williams must cease promotion of her book CARELESS PEOPLE, her whistleblower account of the culture at Facebook.

The arbitrator writes that Meta will suffer "immediate and irreparable loss...in the absence of emergency relief," according to a copy of the filing posted by the company.

In a claim brought against Wynn-Williams and publisher Flatiron Books/Macmillan, Meta argued that the book violated a non-disparagement contract the author signed as part of her severance package after being fired from Facebook in 2017.

Wynn-Williams is enjoined from making any "disparaging, critical, or otherwise detrimental comments" about Meta, must "retract" any such comments she made previously, and is barred from "further publishing or distributing" the book, "to the extent within [her] control."

Wynn-Williams had declined to appear before the arbitrator and thus offered no arguments in opposition to Meta's claims. An attorney for Macmillan did appear, and argued successfully that the arbitrator has no jurisdiction over the publisher.

The interim award is subject at a minimum to a broader review of the matter by a "merits tribunal, once appointed." It is a finding that Meta "established a likelihood of success on the merits of its contractual non-disparagement claim" rather than any final or complete ruling on the matter.

As the NYT notes, Wynn-Williams could challenge the non-disparagement agreement itself: "In 2023, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that it is generally illegal for companies to offer severance agreements that prohibit workers from making potentially disparaging statements about former employers, including discussing sexual harassment or sexual assault accusations."

The publisher shared the following statement: "The arbitration order has no impact on Macmillan. However, we are appalled by Meta's tactics to silence our author through the use of a non-disparagement clause in a severance agreement.

"To be clear, the arbitrator's order makes no reference to the claims within Careless People. The book went through a thorough editing and vetting process, and we remain committed to publishing important books such as this. We will absolutely continue to support and promote it."

3/21/25 Update

Book By Muzzled Author on Facebook Sells 60,000 Copies
Publisher Flatiron Books says that Sarah Wynn-Williams’ CARELESS PEOPLE sold 60,000 units across all formats in its first week on sale. Circana Bookscan shows tracked hardcover sales of just over 18,500 copies.

Last week Meta won an interim award from an emergency arbitrator ordering the author to not make any "disparaging, critical, or otherwise detrimental comments" about Meta, effectively blocking her promotion of the book. But Wynn-Williams failed to appear at the hearing or even send an attorney to answer Meta's complaint.

[emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

always looking for more reasons to hate social media

(thanks to the publisher for the copy)

[Ron Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Near the end of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby,” Nick says, “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money.”

“Careless People” is a brilliant title for the new exposé by former Facebook executive Sarah Wynn-Williams.

The book, subtitled “A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism,” reads like a spicy office memoir if your officemates travel by private jet and your boss asks for a rally of 1 million people. Wynn-Williams recounts her seven years in the social media empire now called Meta. Beginning in 2011, she worked as an adviser to Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg “as they were inventing how the company would deal with governments around the world.”

“It started as a hopeful comedy and ended in darkness and regret,” Wynn-Williams writes. “I watched hopelessly as they sucked up to authoritarian regimes like China’s and casually misled the public.”

Daisy Buchanan, you may remember, hit Myrtle with a car and then let Gatsby take the fall. From what Wynn-Williams describes, it sounds like Facebook ran over millions of Myrtles and then fled the scene to let parents, citizens and governments clean up the mess.

Working at Facebook, she claims, was “like watching a bunch of fourteen-year-olds who’ve been given superpowers and an ungodly amount of money,” but that’s not fair. Fourteen-year-olds would never behave like this.

Wynn-Williams’s tale of how she was allegedly treated by her boss while on maternity leave with life-threatening health problems is appalling.

But her complaints about the company’s reflexive secrecy and deceit are what should trouble the rest of us who still have to deal with the influence of Meta. She alleges, for instance, that senior managers devised “a cover-up” to contradict news reports that Facebook and Instagram allowed advertisers to exploit kids’ darkest insecurities.

Other allegations range from creepy instances of inappropriate behavior to dangerous acts of political interference. Speaking of her bosses, she writes: “They put staff in with the Trump campaign to help them stage the war of misinformation, trolling, and lies that won him the election” in 2016.

Another terrifying section claims that Facebook’s “lethal carelessness” allowed the platform to be used to spread hate speech and propaganda that destabilized Myanmar and led to....

Read the rest of this item in The Washington Post's free Book Club newsletter:
https://s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw...

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

I most loved this book for its takedown of Sheryl Sandberg and her toxic workplace behavior. Sarah Wynn-Williams does an overall nice job of writing about how Facebook lost its way and grew corrupt and careless about its impact on marginalized people across the world. For me, as someone who has experienced and witnessed workplace abuse, Wynn-Williams’s calling out of Sandberg (in addition to Joel Kaplan, and Mark Zuckerburg) was so cathartic to read. Wynn-Williams exposes how people like Sheryl can talk the talk about “leaning in” and supporting women and then outright perpetuate mistreatment against women in their day-to-day lives, including mean/explosive comments *and* sexual misconduct (gross and yikes). What I’m about to say isn’t included in the memoir but it stands out to me that Sandberg is also a vocal Zionist who’s perpetuated anti-Palestine propaganda so… anyway, just goes to show that you really can’t trust people with power based on what they say, when what they do is so much more telling.

The book on the whole was well-written and interesting. Engaging prose, “juicy” details (screaming at Sheryl’s racism toward Filipinx people and Mark forcing people to let him win at Catan and then acting ignorant and entitled about it), and some self-reflection. I do wish Wynn-Williams thought more about her own role and what led her to stay at Facebook for as long as she did; she attributes her staying for the health insurance, which is fair, though there was still something a little missing for me. The writing didn’t always blow me away though it definitely got the job done. I mostly rate this book highly for Wynn-Williams’s willingness to speak truth to power.

[Michael Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an important book—which is clear in Zuckerberg’s desperation to block its promotion. I’ve worked at Facebook, recognize many of the names and themes, and so I’m not nearly as shocked as I imagine many readers will be. We continue to give more and more power to the worst humans amongst us, and this book as is much about all tech companies and our government as it is about Facebook.

The writing is fine, and the writer certainly has her own narcissistic tendencies. She ends almost every chapter with an excuse for why she stays, even as she knows she’s enabling the worst people, and I just don’t buy her logic. While I’m thankful to her for staying long enough to whistleblow, there are entirely too many others like her who accept the riches while brushing aside their values. She, too, played that game seemingly longer than necessary.

That said, I hope enough people read this and finally deactivate their accounts. Nothing changes until we force the change.

[Musebeliever · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am very conflicted about this book. I feel it is presented as inherently good and important because Meta prevented its promotion, but this is not a virtue in itself.

I was very touched by the author's story of  facing medical negligence, discrimination and sexual harassment at work. It is not breaking news that silicon valley Companies have done next to nothing to fight misogyny and sexism but I found very interesting how some women within Facebook weaponised that. The chapters on Sheryl Sandberg are horrifying. How she has marketed herself as a feminist while treating women working for her as tools is astonishing.

Although the book broaches very interesting topics that are relevant nowadays, I felt it was lacking in self-awareness and honesty.

What the author wants is to be part of a structure that has the power to enforce change. She is frustrated by how slow the UN is and tired of US diplomats and politicians undermining New Zealand's relevance in the world. Her response to this is to find a way to "change things" and to make a social media company aware of their power and their ability to be a political force in the world. At this stage, she doesn't ask herself if she and Facebook should be placed in this position. Reading this is so mortifying. Because she survived a frankly horrifying shark attack worsened by medical negligence and neglect from her parents, she thinks she is alive for a reason. As if she were the chosen one.


The book's inherent narrative is that:
1- initially, facebook embraced an ideal of better connectivity and could be a force of good.
2- that the situation in facebook and its impact on racial violence and politics grew worse and worse.

But nothing supports that in the facts and contents. The author tries to argue that things really started to take a turn at the 2017 US election while, in one of the last chapters, she states that lack of moderators and consistent guidelines led to the increase of hate crimes in Myanmar in 2014. This does not add up. The truth is that facebook's leadership has always been concerned by one thing, making facebook grow. Facebook is a business. This has been told to the author consistently from the start by the leadership team. Even before she joined.

Being delulu is not the solulu. Thinking that a multibillionaire has good ethics and will use all of his power and money for others is naive at best.

While I completely agree with the author that her colleagues are not very competent, she does not strike me as particularly competent or thoughtful either. What do you mean, you will wiggle your way into a conference with multiple heads of State in Panama, and you won't do any research on the culture and location you are sent to? That whole introduction was painful to read and gave the same white supremacist vibes she validly reproaches the FB team.

This is why I am conflicted. Her account as a whistle-blower is very precious, and I understand that some of her actions were the result of a very toxic and coercitive work environment. However, she is also complicit. Promoting Facebook's political relevance and letting governments know they could use facebook to influence their citizens was her idea. Of course, this does not mean that no one else would have thought of it, but she spends the first quarter of the book positively flabbergasted that no one else had that brilliant idea. She actively facilitated facebook's political status and fails to acknowledge this.

I was left very sad for her as a human. She was clearly treated in ways that compromised her survival and dignity. But, she was instrumental in the rise of Facebook as an autocracy.

[Kevin · Rating 1 out of 5]

It’s a shame that for her entire tenure, our author was the only person in the company with the scruples and blameless nobility to have second thoughts about her life's work. Thankfully she was able to muster the strength to consider quiet quitting. Where would we be without this paragon of action and bravery in the face of power.

The author's need to cleanse herself of the guilt associated with her life's work including, by her own estimation, putting Trump in the White House, is on display throughout the entirety of the novel. Her idea of atonement is setting up meet cutes with Xi Jinping and a jailed FB executive, in the "hopes" that Mark might have an awkward conversation - these either don't happen or are anticlimactic.

About 3/4 of the way through the book, there is this supposed conversation between the author and Zuck on a plane that sounds more like a shower thought she had years later than an actual conversation two humans would have, much less the shrinking violet that the author has presented herself as leading up to this point. She either had a lot more autonomy and backbone leading up to this conversation (before her firing, erm, moral reckoning) or it is embellished to such a degree that it becomes fan fiction in support of the author's self exculpation.

During a section in which the author attacks her fellow employees' indignant responses to accusations of gentrifying the Bay Area, she shares their comments: "I take exception to think that I am part of the problem" and "I won't be villainized by my own successes in life", without HINT of irony at her own move to the Bay Area to work in tech or how those phrases might be applied to her attempt at self exoneration in this very book.

Choose your own tl;dr:

a) The last 20% of the book should have been a Medium post, and the rest left in her Notes app drafts.

b) This is the author's attempt to cash in her sour grapes by writing a book and leaking enough internal info to provoke a NDA suit and ride that publicity for her book (see all of the gushing reviews on this page).

c) The author truly had misgivings about her complicity and active participation in bringing about Big Tech and the return of fascist nationalism worldwide, but the sweet sweet pre-IPO options were too rich to leave of her own volition.

[Natalia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wynn-Williams is an intensely frustrating narrator. She makes absolutely insane decisions about her health and life and blames them on needing the income and the insurance (but seems to mostly be driven by an inability to appropriately have a work-life balance. If this is the story from her perspective, I can only imagine what her husband was thinking while this was all going on, let alone their children)

The stories about Facebook are not as shocking as they should be. Zuckerberg's awkwardness around world leaders is well documented, his not-a-run-for-president was reported on at the time, and everyone knows that the Facebook and Instagram algorithms are poisonous to teenagers. The description of the sexual harassment could unfortunately be told at any number of companies large and small. I have long thought Sandberg's Lean In stuff was tone deaf and shallow, so no big surprises there.

It's worth reading, just to get a feel for what an insane mess Facebook was/is. But this is not objectively a great book. Had it been about any other company, it would not have gotten this kind of buzz. (of course Facebook themselves have helped it along. They should know about the Streissand effect)

[Nico · Rating 5 out of 5]

the perfect cathartic read for the moment… sarah wynn-williams is a wonderful guide into this den of callous, thoughtless greed. there’s so many gasp-inducing revelations about the depths of complicity Facebook employees gleefully delved to throughout her time there that I won’t bother to list them here - the book functions most incisively as a brutally clear warning of the dangers of unfettered shareholder capitalism and techno-libertarian ideology. the market has no morals. and those who hide behind the mantras of perpetual growth and individual autonomy are choosing, again and again, to actively deprioritize care, empathy, and respect for those subjects their product relies on. time and time again we see that the free market does not self-regulate, that these companies are too large, too coordinated, and too capable of circumnavigating any regulation designed to rein them in. nothing is free and fair about what they are doing, and governments across the world are ill-equipped to stop them.

as we plunge deeper and deeper into a deregulated hellscape here in the States, it’s worth reading books like these to remember just how intentional these decisions are. the people at the top of these companies are aware of the harm they’re perpetuating. there are people like sarah wynn-williams at tesla, at twitter, maybe even at truth social. the concerns you have are being raised. they are being shot down.

to fix this particular status quo will require an amount of concentrated effort that currently feels impossible. any meaningful change will by necessity be enacted by a government that currently has no interest in fulfilling its basest obligations to its constituents.

i can’t sit here and say that our voices are being heard, because it doesn’t feel that way. but it remains important to stay informed. to read accounts like this, to track down good investigative journalism, to attempt to understand the myriad ways in which we are being manipulated by private corporations and governments across the globe.

perhaps it is a bit naive to be saying all of this about a memoir. sarah does not cite her sources. the book is full of he-said she-said anecdotes. but listen to your heart. look at the world around you. you know it to be true.

be vigilant ❤️

[mwana]

DNF. No rating.

After careful consideration, and listening to a bit of the audiobook, I've decided to officially DNF this. I can't bear to listen to this woman wax poetic about the vapid capitalism and waste in practice at Facebook. She's also trying to present herself as a wide-eyed idealist but it's just Facebook ma'am. Calm down. Zuckerberg is a predator, not a visionary. I don't care to learn more about his growing agonies. It was a pain to endure the foolishness of this company.

I'm sure the book goes into how the company affected politics in the US. But I'm also aware of how it fuelled hatred and stoked unrest in the 2017 elections in my country. I also read extensively about how Facebook was used to spread Islamophobic propaganda in Myanmar leading to the genocide and displacement of millions of Muslims in Rohingya. I do not give a good goddamn that when this woman started working with the company she was shoe-shamed by some assistant who could afford Louboutins.


Earlier thoughts.

Facebook just tried to silence this author. So I will make a point of reading it.

Additional reading

https://bsky.app/profile/gbrockell.bs...

[Sierra · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think the only reason this book is so highly rated is because people hate Facebook that much.

Sarah Wynn-Williams is a storyteller and nothing else. For 400 pages she whines about how horrible everyone is at Facebook, yet she continues to go above and beyond for them. why? Apparently because she didn’t realize she could say “no”.

She paints herself as the only moral person that works there which should make everyone highly suspicious.

Nothing new was learned.

[JanB · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh the irony that a platform who supposedly is pro-free speech, wants to silence the author.

If Meta doesn’t want you to read the book, and halted the promotion of the book, saying it violated non-disparagement agreements, then it’s a book that must be read.

That alone was enough for me to put this book at the top of my list. A buddy read with Marialyce, we are both disgusted!

The book’s title comes from F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby: “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy – they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness.”

Careless or evil narcissists? You decide.

Wynn-Williams was the former head of global policy at Facebook, traveling around the world as she, Mark Zuckerberg, and the then COO, Sheryl Sandberg, met with foreign leaders and shaped Facebook policies, and worked toward a global presence.

What follows is a troubling picture indeed of an entitled boy king (Joffrey in Game of Thrones came to my mind as I read), who lives inside of an echo chamber, surrounding himself with yes men and women.

Just a handful of the allegations made:

* sexual harassment in the workplace. A group of women formed a secret group, The Feminist Fight Club, all of whom were victims of sexual harassment. The author accused Joel Kaplan of asking her multiple times on a zoom call where she was bleeding from after giving birth; calling her sultry, and grinding up against her; plus he gave her a poor performance review, saying she wasn’t responsive enough to issues and communications. Never mind that she was in a coma on a ventilator after suffering an embolism after giving birth. After she filed a complaint, she was fired for “toxic behavior”, “poor performance”, and for making “unfounded sexual harassment allegations.”

* Facebook was so determined to break into the Chinese market, they developed systems which have enabled them to censor and gain access to the user’s data, even if it meant the user could be arrested, or even killed.

* The author maintains Zuckerberg lied to the US Congress about Facebook’s efforts to gain favor with the Chinese government

* The military in Myanmar was allowed by Facebook to post hate speech, including the use of racial slurs. The UN has traced Myanmar's 2017 genocide to Facebook posts. Facebook calls that “old news”.

* Facebook targeted teen girls who deleted selfies by showing them ads for beauty products and “slimming teas”. There was zero concern over the effect on the mental health of these girls.

* Mark’s minions allowed him to win at board games played during long flights on his private jet. When he challenged the author to a game and she won, his conclusion was she had to have cheated (yes, this is petty, but it all adds up when these behaviors are seen as a whole)

* Prior to a visit to Jakarta, Zuckerberg told the author that he wanted her to come up with an idea for him to be surrounded by people or be "gently mobbed." Maybe a peace rally or a riot. (What???)

* The author was sent to an area where the Zika virus, known to cause birth defects, prevailed, although she was pregnant at the time. Yet when Mark Zuckerberg visited Peru during a Zika outbreak, he was built a special room to protect him. It was dubbed “Operation Perfect Sperm”

* Sheryl Sandberg, the supposed champion of empowering women, who wrote the bestseller, Lean In, did not practice what she preached. She coerced female employees into “sleepovers”, employees were encouraged to not talk about their experience as a mother (if other employees didn’t know you had a child, it was praised), and she led by intimidation and coercion, icing out anyone who defied her “suggestions”.

* Zuckerberg refused to take meetings before noon, even with heads of state, or give an address before the United Nations. This led to chaos for his team

* The hubris of Zuckerberg not wanting to follow Big Bird’s speech (yes, that Big Bird!) at a global citizen festival, and the fiasco that followed from expecting others to bend to his will.

He's the “boy king” who is oblivious (or he just doesn’t care) to the people around him, let alone the public at large.

These are just a handful of examples of the corruption of absolute power of the narcissistic leaders of Meta.

Facebook had the opportunity to be a force for good in the world, but instead chose profit over people, with devastating consequences for millions of people.

[Jess Owens]

Historically, I have not rated memoirs, so I won't rate this one. Although, I wasn't aware going into it that it was a memoir. But, that's my bad.

I of course have a video with more thoughts here if you want to watch: https://youtu.be/VUrLu3IHu-4?si=opBc7...

I had so many feelings while reading this. Sarah Wynn-Williams is one of the Careless People this book is about, however, she fails to recognize that. I am an old and have had a Facebook since...a long time ago. So I have watched it change overtime and also heard/read a lot about different things Marky Zuckerface has done over the years. Not all of this was new, but I did learn some things or learned more about certain topics.

I think it is worth reading if you know casually what Facebook/Marky has done, but want more detail. Just know that Sarah Wynn-Williams is not some super reliable, non-responsible source. And look, no one is perfect. Many of us have been stuck in toxic work environments and feel like there is no way out. However, she acts like she was some bottom tier worker at Facebook and was just aware of what they were doing from here-say. No, Miss ma'am was working DIRECTLY with Zuckyface. Flying on private jets with him, going to conferences around the world with him. Her mission was to get him in the room with WORLD LEADERS/HEADS OF STATES. YOU KNOW, IMPORTANT PEOPLE IN POLITICS?! She thought Marky boy really needed to be in the same room with these people and talk to them because Facebook was just so important and could do great things. *I am rolling my eyes*

Now, we know that Facebook is unfortunately very involved in worldwide politics and that is not all to blame on Sarah, but she fails to reconcile with the fact that she was a part of him becoming more involved in politics. She stands by for YEARS and thinks to herself "well, surely, Marky can't be bad. He doesn't have bad intentions" even when she is in the room with him/on email chains with him and he is blatantly stating his intents. She witnesses the absurd things that Sheryl Sandbag and Marky say and do for years and still rationalizes like "but, they're that bad. This happened just once." Repeatedly! For years! And yes, I know health insurance is important and it's tied to employment in the US. HOWEVERRRRRRR, she is a citizen of New Zealand, why not go back home? Or I don't know, START LOOKING FOR ANOTHER JOB WHEN YOU WERE WITNESSES THEIR SHADY STUFF!?

Anyway, she's infuriating and has yet to come to terms with her involvement in the evolution of Facebook. So, just keep that in mind when reading this.

[Jill S · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is unbelievable to me the lengths Facebook went to to block this book when there is nothing in here that anyone who has been paying attention to the destruction Facebook has been causing all over the world doesn't already know. Maybe the specifics of the conversations with Mark and other senior executives are new (although as always, I question how precise conversations recreated from memory can ever be), but others have written about the cruel, delusional, detached and unsustainable work environments of Silicon Valley before, and better. We all know Mark Zuckerberg is a self-centered emotionally immature loser - you don't need to repeatedly tell us about how his coworkers let him win at Settlers of Catan to convince us.

The writing here is mediocre at best, cliche and painfully boring at worst. Honestly the most egregious part of this entire book is the lengths the author goes to to remind the reader (but mostly convince herself) that she was one of the good guys! She was trying to make things better from the inside out! The further I read into this book, the more these mental gymnastics irritated me, turning me against the author - literally the last thing a memoirist wants to do.

This book is about 5 years too late, and 300 pages too long. The last 20% should've been a long-form essay, and the rest should've been saved for her therapist.

The best thing I learned in this book was Angela Merkel scolded Mark Zuckerberg for Facebook's involvement the refugee crisis. Angela Merkel we love you.

[Rosh · Rating 2 out of 5]

In a Nutshell: An insider account of the allegedly nefarious people and practices at Facebook, written by one of its key ex-employees. Some familiar reveals, some worrisome ones. Slightly lopsided and selective in its narration – a common issue in memoirs. A decent nonfiction option for those interested in the topic, though it might be more impactful to those who still believe that social media is good for people and that corporations such as Meta don’t abuse user privacy. (Is anyone still living under this rock?) As with all memoirs, take it with a pinch of salt because there’s a lot left unsaid.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sarah Wynn-Williams is a New-Zealand-born lawyer and public policy expert. Her childhood was noteworthy in one thing: she survived a brutal shark attack. Following a stint with the NZ government and with the UN after her law studies, Williams realised that she could make a bigger impact at a company that genuinely believed in making a difference: Facebook. (Yeah, I heard you snort. But keep in mind that this was pre-2011, when we still believed that social media networks were good. What ignoramuses we were!) After campaigning for a new post at Facebook, Williams joined it in 2011 as the Director of Global Public Policy. In 2017, Facebook terminated her employment, citing poor performance and toxic behaviour as the reason. Williams alleges that her firing was a result of her reporting her immediate supervisor for sexual harassment.

This book might have gone relatively unnoticed had it not been for Facebook/Meta threatening Williams with legal action and stopping her from promoting her “memoir”. But their aggressive stance created a Streisand Effect, leading to greater publicity for this supposed tell-all.

Williams’ revelations fall broadly in four categories: her personal/familial challenges (kept to the minimal, only mentioned when it is a critical challenge), Facebook’s approach towards data and user privacy, Facebook’s deals and agreements with various governments around the globe including the controversial ones, and the behaviour of some of Facebook’s top honchos, including Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg. Each of these topics creates a different level of impact.

In the past few years, many of us are already aware of the extent to which our private data is floating out there on the World Wide Web and even beyond in the Dark Web. Whether we upload our photos or update our travel plans or share our emotional moods, every bit of information is utilised to modify our feeds and offer targeted adverts. As such, the data-connected revelations of the book might be surprising only to those who aren’t aware of such secretive data-mining. In 2025, most of this is old news. (And if it isn't, just remember that all these tech company top honchos don’t allow their children access to any screens, forget social media. There’s a reason you should be wary of how much you post on SM.)

The content about Facebook’s official deals with global governments might be a tad more explosive as much of this is unknown to the general public. Facebook’s lack of ethics and their two-facedness comes out well in these disclosures.

As regards Williams’ comments on Facebook employees, many of us are already aware of Zuckerberg’s shameless about-face on professional fact-checking after Trump’s re-election earlier this year. Even prior to this, Zuckie hasn’t exactly been an angel in public. So Williams’ divulgences just reveal greater details of aspects already known. But I must admit, her revelations about Sheryl Sandberg were more surprising to me. Sandberg is acclaimed widely for penning ‘Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead’, her pioneering work on empowering women in the workplace. But when I read ‘Lean In’ in 2019, something about it rubbed me the wrong way. I know many of my friends went gaga over its message and its *helpful* tactics on balancing work and home, but to me, it seemed like Sandberg conveniently ignored several challenges faced by those who didn’t have the same support system or financial resources she did. I felt a bit guilty at having rated a book on such a necessary topic only 2.5 stars; not any more! Williams has echoed several of my misgivings, so whether she is right or not, I feel heard in my disquiet over the content.

I firmly believe that all memoirs must be read with a pinch of salt because they contain only one person’s recalled truth, which may differ from actual truth. This is no exception. William’s spirited attitude is clear right from the start – she is a courageous go-getter who doesn’t stop at anything to get what she wants. But this same attitude also causes her to ignore several red signals, some of which are very obvious. It makes me wonder how such an educated and strong-willed woman allowed herself to be a pushover so many times. Something doesn’t ring true; the book isn't telling us everything.

Further, some of her complaints feel entitled and/or ignorant to me. Like, if you are going to a corporate summit organised by the World Economic Forum in a small town in Switzerland, are you justified in complaining that the summit didn’t make baby-care arrangements for those travelling with their infants? Wanting a daycare option in offices is an understandable requirement, but at a summit that is meant only for attending professionals and not for families?

Lastly, there is a lot of “I, me, myself’ in this memoir, making it sound like Williams was the only Facebook employee with any kind of moral compass and gumption. Reality is never that imbalanced, especially in such a large corporation. There are many events where the author could have spoken up or turned around (I’m not even talking of major issues but relatively minor ones like the case where one team member was left behind in the hotel), but she doesn’t, and justifies her silence either with some excuse or by shifting the blame to another.

Let me make it clear: I am not dismissing all the author has claimed. She does shed light on quite a lot of questionable behaviours and practices. She even acknowledges at times that she should have acted differently on a few occasions. But many of her points feel ‘airbrushed’ for greater impact. There is a lot of defensiveness in her tone as well, especially when she attempts to explain her inaction over something that ought to have provoked outrage. I don’t think I am far off the truth when I say that she behaved the way she did for her career prospects, and in retrospect, is trying to ratify those very decisions and actions through a moral compass. I try hard to stay away from commenting on the author when I review memoirs/autobiographies, but this time, it is difficult not to say anything about the double standards.

I tried searching for some reactions to this book from the numerous colleagues she has namedropped. (Not sure if it was with their permission.) Most of them refute her version of the anecdotes, claiming that they are exaggerated or distorted. Then again, many of these employees are still working with Meta, so who knows what’s the truth! This article I found written by another ex-Facebook employee addresses some of my concerns about the content. As this employee says, “The contradiction between [Williams’] words and actions is glaring.” Perhaps read this to get a more rounded picture? As they say in Hindi, ‘taali ek haath se nahi bajti.’ (You can’t clap with one hand’, meaning that there are always two sides to a story.)

Overall, if you are looking for a book that supposedly reveals some dark truths about Facebook as a corporation and as a social media giant and also about its top people (and if you have been surprisingly ignorant about all of this even until 2025), you could give this a go. But if you want a more grassroot-level book about how social media is invasively and constantly prying on your online activities, skip this and try Sarah Frier’s ‘No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram’, which is more focussed on misuse of user data and behavioural pattern analysis. The first reveals biased information from a macro top-honcho viewpoint; the second is more factual and relevant to us lay readers.

I am not sure how to rate this book. It does focus on some unsavoury truths about Facebook but many of those truths have been public knowledge for years. It also tries to portray its writer as a good person caught in a bad situation, but honestly, most good people would have protested far sooner. Silence is also compliance. Being a whistleblower after being fired takes guts, but it would have been far braver to speak against the malpractices when they happened instead of staying quiet for your salary and stock options. Giving it 3 stars would mean that I “liked the book”, but I didn’t. I guess I’ll just hit the two-star mark and leave it at that.

This was a library read, accessed as an audiobook clocking at 13 hours 16 minutes and narrated by the author herself. She reads it well, so the audio version is a good way of trying this out if interested.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Connect with me through:
My Blog || The StoryGraph || Instagram || Facebook ||

[Caitlin Bronson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought I couldn’t get any angrier at Facebook and the Zuck, so I guess I can only say touché. This is a compelling, horrifying, enraging story from someone who had a front/row seat to some of the worst things one of our most powerful companies has done. Sarah Wynn Williams is an excellent storyteller, clear-eyed, insightful, and incisive. I can’t recommend this enough to anyone who cares about the state of the world and our collective humanity.

[Wick Welker · Rating 1 out of 5]

They aren’t good people but the author chose to work for them anyway.

This is a memoir written by a former Facebook exec, Sarah Wynn-Williams. The author worked closely with Mark Zuckerberg and other higher ups and has intimate knowledge of many things that happened during the transition of Facebook from something to connect old college buddies to a potent authoritarian tool. The short of it is that Zuckerberg and his ilk are rotten, bad people whose corruption from power is woefully predictable. These people don’t care at all about the social disruption wrought by misinformation and political extremism. They stood by while a militant regime in Myanmar used Facebook to perform ethnic cleansing. The truth of it is that Zuckerberg is not brilliant. He fell ass-backwards into creating the right thing at the right time that catapulted him to not only riches but global power. And he, and everyone involved, have become totally removed from the problems they’ve created. They are different billionaire creatures now who do not think or understand basic human dignity. After Trump won by clearly using Facebook, Zuckerberg was in awe of the power of Facebook and wanted to run for President himself. They are truly awful people and this book will show you how.

Wynn-Williams was part of it. That's why I'm giving this book a 1 star review. I’m almost totally certain that the only reason this book was written is because she was fired by Facebook for trying to bring up sexual harassment by a superior. Had she not been fired, she’d still be working for these awful people doing awful things. So, despite being a remarkable person, Wynn-Williams gets no redemption with this book and shows an embarrassing lack of introspection and awareness of her own complicity. She could've left the company at any time and she spends a fair amount in this book conjuring excuses for herself and the reader why she did not. This isn't to say I don't have sympathy for the author, which I do. I just think she shares the exact lost idealism of the villains of this story.

[Ruxandra Grrr · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5, rounded up, because of spite xx

Started reading this out of spite, continued reading it quite quickly because it was so engaging! I thought at first that Careless People isn't the right title for this - careless seems a bit too soft for me -, but I came to see the concept (and The Great Gatsby inspiration for the title) as very valuable as this very juicy, infuriating memoir was unfolding.

The beginning perfectly foreshadows what's to come. A very visceral (pun initially not intended) shark attack when Sarah was 13 ends up explaining a lot about herself as a person and the way she was raised that she would end up, years later, as an idealist trying to change a monstruous company 'from the inside'.

This book has the weirdest combination of elements in each anecdote that one might imagine, lending it a very surreal vibe.

Dying in childbirth while working in Silicon Valley is like being killed by a horse and carriage or consumption or a duel. Something that belongs in a different century or a different country. Weeks before this I was playing ping-pong in virtual reality with Mark Zuckerberg and the prime minister of Singapore. How did I go from that to nearly dying the sort of silent death you see in a nineteenth-century novel?

Sarah Wynn-Williams covers a lot of topics that intersect with this carelessness, from sort of mundane (not diminishing this, it's sadly mundane) workplace sexual harrassment, to enabling genocide and massive waves of sexual assault, with a lot of stuff in between. The sexual harrassment is equal opportunity, from both Sheryl Sandberg and Joel Kaplan, her bosses. It's so much information. It's almost unbelievable emotionally that a Facebook contractor would seize in an open-plan office and nobody would even look at her, or that the team would say that atrocities occurring in Myanmar, which Meta had such a big hand in, are not a 'priority' right now.

I kept wondering while reading what is Sarah's responsibility in all of this. She created this job for herself by tirelessly pitching for it, in the hopes that she could shape the policy of the company into something good. I have to ask how much her insights and briefs and political successes contributed to the success of Facebook. And, since people didn't see the usefulness of her job in the beginning, would the company had been way more fucked without her (in like a good way?). That's impossible to quantify, but her (at times incredible) story is a very good example of why you cannot change the system from within. Because a person with principles will never have enough power and clout to make the people in charge care about what she's saying.

Grat reading experience, though! I don't know if any of the meta people trying to bury this book will be even grazed by it, but I hope at least more people have their eyes opened on what Meta / Facebook is.

And it's not just Meta, actually... It's so many people in the world right now that are absofuckinlutely Careless. Just out for themselves, moving fast and breaking things or disrupting. It's all a battle of egos and greed and desire for more power. And it's also normal people, worried about their comforts when everything is burning.

//

I specifically want to read this because Meta is trying to bury it! Will just put it on top of my TBR, just out of spite xx

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I resisted joining Facebook for years. But then one day my sister casually mentioned something she’d learned about one of my sons—something she’d seen on his Facebook post. I hadn’t known any of it. That was my wake-up call. Not because I’m distant from my family, but because life appeared to be unfolding in real time online, often before it ever reached a phone call. There appears to be an unspoken expectation—especially from younger more ‘connected’ generations—that if you want to stay in the loop, you need to “join along.”

That said, Facebook’s drawbacks have become increasingly hard to ignore in recent years. And after the November 2024 election, my interest in the platform dropped sharply. How do we continue to support something that allows misinformation to spread so freely, with little visible effort to fact-check or curb inflammatory content?

This book attempts to answer that question by pulling back the curtain.

The author, who served as Facebook’s Director of Public Policy, shares her behind-the-scenes experience at the company.

Honestly, I probably wouldn’t have picked this book up had it not been donated to my Little Free Library Shed. Still, I was curious, and so I couldn’t help but be one of those interested in reading about the author’s experience.

And then it became clear what her intentions for writing this book might have been.

This is where context matters: she was terminated after reporting her boss, Joel Kaplan, for sexual harassment. And, for readers, that may inevitably raise questions. Is this a revenge story? And if so, why did Facebook fight its publication so aggressively?

Marketed as a memoir about her career at Facebook, the book blends professional insight with personal grievance. And of course, the more Facebook tried to suppress it, the more it seemed readers wanted to see what it contained. Let’s be honest—most of us are at least a little curious about insider gossip. Perhaps Facebook might have been better off letting it quietly fade away.

From her perspective, the author paints an unflattering portrait of leadership, including Mark Zuckerberg and especially Sheryl Sandberg, whose “Lean In” philosophy once made her a cultural icon. This is not a laudatory insider account, and it’s clearly filtered through the author’s personal experiences and perspective.

For readers interested in an insider’s look at a toxic workplace—and in broader ethical concerns about social media’s responsibility to the public—this book can be almost engaging and thought-provoking. It raises uncomfortable questions and offers answers we may not like to hear.

Ultimately, this is a compelling but uneven read: illuminating in parts, clearly biased in others. Worth reading for perspective, but best approached with an open mind.

[Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship · Rating 3 out of 5]

A hard book to review in that I love (literary) memoirs, but literary merit is beside the point here—the point being the exposé of Facebook’s leadership and business practices and how this affects all of us, whether we use Facebook or not. And yes, I read this because Meta (Facebook’s parent company) got an arbitrator to forbid the author from promoting it, thereby obligating us all to read it, if only to resist the encroachment of our would-be corporate overloads.

As an exposé I think it is a good one, and no doubt took guts to publish. Certainly Facebook’s leadership come across as raging assholes without a single moral compass amongst them, particularly Mark Zuckerberg (in an “entitled man-child” kind of way), Sheryl Sandberg (in a “corporate feminist” kind of way), and Joel Kaplan (in a “young Republican” kind of way). Much of the book is about the author’s dealings with them, which at least explains how the more far-reaching awful stuff happened. Speaking of which, there’s the collusion with the Chinese government to turn over data (even while insisting to everyone else that they would never do this for anyone). There’s the emotional targeting of advertisements to vulnerable people (such as ads for weight loss products aimed at teen girls who have recently deleted a selfie or posted words like “worthless”). There’s the close partnership between Facebook and Donald Trump, in which Facebook embedded staff members with his first campaign and he rode misinformation, trolling and an exploitation of Facebook’s algorithm to victory, even paying lower ad fees because his content got so much engagement (Facebook’s leadership was impressed). There’s the actual genocide in Myanmar, which seems to have resulted from hate speech and inflammatory lies proliferating on the site without any moderation—or when moderation happened, it was often to shut down peace groups.

Overall, it would be hard to come away from this book seeing Facebook as anything but a blight on humanity. Unfortunately, as detailed in the book, part of Facebook’s strategy for avoiding regulation involves both getting buddy-buddy with politicians, and being necessary to said politicians’ campaigns and communication with constituents, so they’ll be too dependent to stop it.

As a book, meanwhile, Careless People is… okay. It’s certainly engaging: gossipy, easy to read, and fast-moving, with relatively short chapters. The author tells her personal stories in a compelling way. It’s long for a memoir, and probably could’ve been cut down, but I nonetheless found it compelling enough to read quickly.

Others have pointed out that Wynn-Williams does not reckon with her own culpability, and that is true. Her narrative decisions here are quite strategic. First of all, she writes the entire memoir in the present tense, which is an awkward device that sometimes trips her up, see for instance:

It’s been a torturous process to get agreement to have Mark onstage with presidents, but the Panamanians have been helpful accomplices. That is until the White House heard what I’d done. They’re furious for reasons I never uncovered, but I think they don’t like the power dynamics of Mark onstage with Obama and other presidents.

Aside from the headache-inducing tense shifts, this creates a constant ambiguity about whether the author is speaking her from vantage point at the time of events or the time of writing—and, most importantly, leaves no room for reflection. By affecting to inhabit her perspective from the time of events, she can’t deploy hindsight, which means she doesn’t have to reckon with anything.

Her other strategic narrative choice is to present herself as a cypher, a generic heroine, combining a dedicated work ethic, strong moral compass and unhealthy amount of naivete with… no other personality traits whatsoever. When she sneers at Mark Zuckerberg for preferring karaoke over all other forms of letting loose (which has to be the least sneer-worthy thing about Zuckerberg) it was simultaneously the most personality she showed in 380 pages, and deeply strange because at no point do we learn what she does for fun.

I sort of get it, in that anyone who reads much knows that having a personality is the fastest way for a woman to be deemed “unlikeable,” and thus presenting herself as boring and yet as unimpeachable as possible is perhaps the best way to get out the information she has to share. If that means the conversation will be about Facebook rather than derailing to focus on the character of Sarah Wynn-Williams, that is a success.

But I also got vibes of an author seeking validation by asking readers to self-insert onto her, rather than owning or exploring her own feelings. This is particularly true when she describes her family’s and doctors’ behavior around a couple of near-death medical crises. What am I supposed to do, for instance, with that gem about her husband giving their baby a surprise name (after his mother, no less) while the author is in a coma after nearly dying in childbirth? I would be furious, but this didn’t happen to me, it happened to Sarah Wynn-Williams, it's her judgment that matters, and people don’t usually throw shade at current spouses in published memoirs, so maybe she thinks it’s funny? Personally, I hardly see the point of recounting this anecdote shorn of emotional context; I read memoirs to learn about the memoirist’s experiences and feelings, not to project my own. But perhaps that too is a strategy for appealing to the lowest common denominator, who will relate to her more for the projection.

In the end, a worthwhile book if you want to know more about malfeasance at Facebook, or just to thumb your nose at evil corporations. On a literary level, I’ve read better.

[Brandice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disappointing but not surprising is the way I’d describe Sarah Wynn-Willams’ experience working at Meta. Listening to her memoir, Careless People, I rolled my eyes, I cringed, and I shook my head hearing the things she endured during her employment there.

This description of the book is fitting — “An explosive memoir charting one woman’s career at the heart of one of the most influential companies on the planet, Careless People gives you a front-row seat to Facebook, the decisions that have shaped world events in recent decades, and the people who made them.”

As with other some tech industry memoirs I’ve read, I was eagerly awaiting Sarah’s exit plan. I understand the obligations of adulthood, but she hung on to this ride for far too long. I loathed a lot of what I heard but couldn’t stop listening to Careless People.

[Traci Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are some really juicy parts of this exposé memoir. I liked her writing style but think there were too many extra details about things that were only minor to her story (like her fear of getting Zika, which she didn't get). The last 30% she does get into the juicy stuff and proves facebook is run by a bunch of egomaniacal (or nicer, careless) people, who are not nearly as smart as we want to give them credit for. If this had been shorter it could've really packed a huge punch, but over all, for what it was trying to do I think she did a very solid job.

[Summer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Days before Careless People was to be published, the book made the news with Meta trying to stop the book from being released. Like thousands of other readers, I immediately preordered the book because clearly there is a good story to be told that Meta doesn’t want the public to hear.
I was right.

Careless People gives readers the behind the scenes look at what its like working at Meta. We get what Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg are really like and how toxic the workplace environment is.
(Spoiler alert: if you think they are bad people, you are right).

The majority of the book discusses Facebook’s global dealings with their desire to have the app available in every country and the process that entailed them to (mostly) grow the app globally. The author tells the story with bravery and brutal honesty while describing how naive she was at thinking Facebook was doing good in the world through the power of connectivity.

The book was nothing short of fascinating and as jaded as I am about negative human behavior some parts were shocking to me. I found the part about Trump’s 2016 election and how Facebook essentially won him the presidency to be the most interesting.

I rarely review books that I purchase on my own that are not gifted to me by publishers however, I feel that Careless People is an important story that readers should pick up. I listened to the audiobook which was read by the author and she did a fantastic job. If you do decide to pick this one up, I highly recommend this format!

[Jessica Woodbury · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a tell all in the classic sense of the word. The point of this book is to tell you shocking insider stories. It's at its best when it gets to business. But it is technically a memoir, which has a different goal than a tell all. And the two books here trying to co-exist are sometimes at odds. Wynn-Williams' personal life can feel like a distraction when we all know that we're here to talk about Facebook.

There are certainly an abundance of crazy stories and even if only half of them are only half true, and even if you already detest Facebook and everything it stands for, there's plenty here to bring your opinion of Zuckerberg and Sandberg to a new low. It's one thing to detest them generally, but now you can detest them very specifically!

What is so strange about reading this book is just how bad it is. So bad that I never could figure out why Wynn-Williams hadn't quit. (She reminds us eventually that her immigration status requires her to have employment, which is a very fair point, but she never seems to spend much time at all actually getting any other job.) I thought this would be a slowly getting worse situation. But instead it is pretty terrible pretty quickly. I would have quit this job at Chapter 7. And I think 95% of people would also have quit their job at Chapter 7 when your boss demands that you go to a country in the middle of a massive political crisis being run by a military junta and says you can't come back until you've made them change a law forbidding you from being there. That this is merely the first insane thing and there are many more to come is hard to swallow. But we see as time goes on that Wynn-Williams is willing to do a whole lot of stuff at great personal sacrifice for the larger goal of... something. It's not totally clear what. She is not your average go-getter, this is some real toxic attachment to your work stuff.

Her focus is almost entirely on international relations and public policy. I thought this might make the book not that much of a useful look inside the company. But actually you can make the argument this is the most important work that was happening at Facebook in the 2010's. And that what we see here is a shift from a technology company to a global force.

Wynn-Williams is a perfectly competent reader if you want to do audio. That way you get her New Zealand accent, too.