Careless People

Meta truly doesn't understand the Barbara Streisand effect when it comes to public relations because they got me to read this book - and my record shows I don't read that much nonfiction. I found this memoir a page-turner and appreciated Sarah showing both how Meta affected her as a person and how she saw them affecting the world. While others may not appreciate the pieces of her personal life woven into this story of corruption, I think they play an important part in framing the habitual misdeeds of this corporation.

After finishing this book, I removed Instagram and Facebook from my phone in an effort to reduce my time spent, data given, and attention wasted for the capital gains of a man I don't believe in.

Ok, I'll delete my Facebook account.

While a cynic as jaded as me should not be surprised by the disgusting apathy, shown by these dangerous elites, to the world-changing impacts of their choices, I was appalled! Sara Wynn-Williams is brave and credible. Her candour and confidence in Careless People is powerful.

I left the Facebook and Instagram platforms years ago because of the vitriol and lies the platform promoted, which I wrongly assumed were the result of incompetence rather than malice. Now, I wonder why it took me a full 14 years to grasp the willful inhumanity at work there.

Ever the skeptic, I wondered what embellishments might have made it into the book, but checking my cynicism against the indisputable reality of the power, influence, and control wielded by those involved I am reminded that the truth is dangerous enough for this whistleblower. The smallest lie would undermine the purpose of this release.

Shocking but not surprising. Also serves as a cautionary tale about how difficult it is to 'fix the problem from the inside' and how you often end up simply perpetuating the issues that you came in to solve.

Some takeaways:

• Being attacked by a shark sounds almost as bad as having negligent parents
• Mark's staff let him win at Catan and he's too self-important to notice
• The answer to balancing parenting and work at that level is to let other people manage the children for you
• Sheryl is a horrible horrible person, espousing feminist ideals while doing the very opposite
• Joel is even worse, I can't believe these kind of men continue to get away with such obvious sexual harassment
• These people have blood on their hands

Did you know that Sarah is also a careless person? Almost getting kidnapped while pregnant, volunteering to be "the body" to test if facebook workers would get arrested in other countries while having that new baby at home, ALMOST DYING during the 2nd pregnancy and LUCKY to be alive and deciding not to give a damn OPENLY about doctor's advice, husband, and risking your life while you ALREADY HAVE two children so you could have a third?! WTF are you doing Sarah??? Careless.

I'm convinced that Sarah's book is just better marketed than the previous whistleblower book AND has a bit of a streisand effect going for it. I'm all about the dish on facebook though - so if you liked this you may like The Power of One: Blowing the Whistle on Facebook By Frances Haugen. (2023).

I was so tired of Sarah's nonsense - a disaster girl. One part i'm like, stop you're in a cult and the other part I felt like i was listening in on some juicy gossip. None of this is new about facebook, i've been curbing my usage before I just decided to delete it (in 2025 - 20 year user RIP) So, i knew exactly about a lot of the functions and discussion about it back in the day. I was entranced in listening to an insider perspective.

All in all - it was an fine read and I found it compelling enough to finish.

surprisingly entertaining. lots of little details that i had no idea about. lots of anecdotes about idiots with a lot of power & money.

I read all the Silicon Valley stories and these sociopath tech bros and their creepy misogynist squads are all the same. Nothing surprised me, except one attention-getting anecdote about Sheryl Sandberg that seems too childish to be real.

What stuck with me the most is how important it is to do the inner work to deal with your own demons. To learn how to value yourself, stand up from yourself, and say no.

I understand the dynamics in these places and that things slowly get worse, but I’m still amazed how much the author tolerated. She was young, and I tolerated way too much shit in my 20’s too, but I still can’t fathom flying across the world while still dealing with massive blood loss and near death after having a baby. I also can’t imagine demanding that of an employee in the first place. The failures of “leadership” all the time, on every level, is mine-boggling.

This woman has had TWO near death experiences, and that’s not including the scary situations she was in while representing Facebook.

She opens with a horrific story from her childhood that kind of explains why she perseveres when she shouldn’t, and I found that part heartbreaking. I hope she’s been able to heal from all that now.

In terms of the dirt about Sandberg, I have never trusted what I’ve heard about her and am proud to have never read Lean In. There were signs. She’s like the female version of Elon Musk: somehow had great PR and no one listened to all the people dropping hints until the stories hit some sort of tipping point. You don’t align yourself with and clean up the messes of the world’s sleaziest company and somehow have — or retain — any integrity.

The fact that the author so deeply believed in Facebook and is single-handedly responsible for getting Zuck to care about (and be involved in) politics… is wild. At the end, she realizes it backfired, but wow. That throughline, of her seeing the coming regulation and potential and need for someone to steward it was insightful, but at the end of the day Facebook simply does not care about the harm they cause, blatantly lie about everything, and collaborate with dictators if it pads the bottom line. Why anyone is on any of their platforms in the year of our lord 2025 is beyond me.

I think this reinforced a lot of my existing feelings about Facebook and Zuck and despite my disdain for hand-wringing about "echo chambers" I do have alarm bells going off off when I notice that type of thing is happening: am I receptive to this info because it's compelling and legitimate or because I want it to be true? I did not go in with any real preconception of Sandberg and her portrayal here was pretty shocking. Started out as a kind of "well I guess it makes sense that a powerful person behaves this way" but it gets worse and weirder as it goes on.

I intend to seek out some more info about some of the stuff in this book, but I will say very little in here seemed on its face to be unlikely to be true given other things I know or have heard—or if not "true" then at least an honest recollection of events.

Fantastic account of the meteoric rise of Facebook, the complicated questions it faced and the negligent people leading the way.

Gripping, thrilling, mortifying, and filled with existential dread. It may be one of the most important reads of the year.

The chapters are relatively short and the book is pretty easy to read. I was able to knock it out quickly. HIGHLY recommended.

Unpopular opinion coming. I think the reason Careless People is getting so many glowing five-star reviews is mostly because people love seeing someone stick it to Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg right now. And I totally get the appeal of criticizing big tech, but if you judge the book just on its merits, it definitely doesn't deserve this much praise.

Wynn-Williams is not a bad writer, especially considering it's her first book, and there are a few interesting or amusing anecdotes. But from the very first chapter, her tone is so exaggerated, it's hard to take seriously. She constantly presents herself as smarter, more ethical, and generally superior to everyone around her, including suggesting that Zuckerberg wouldn't even have had access to some influential people without her help. It's so exaggerated it quickly becomes annoying.

The book feels driven by bitterness, and the author often seems more interested in settling personal scores than offering meaningful insights or analysis. Almost every page comes across as a way for Wynn-Williams to highlight how everyone else around her is either incompetent, unethical, or just plain stupid. It completely undermines the credibility of her story and weakens any genuine critique she might have.

Additionally, the book suffers from a lack of focus. Many chapters feel random, filled with irrelevant anecdotes that go nowhere—like her long section about struggling to find a manual breast pump in Turkey or being worried about getting Zika. It's not deep enough to be a biography, so not sure what role those stories play.

If you still want to read it, I'd suggest approaching it as casual entertainment rather than expecting deep insights into big tech. Wynn-Williams certainly has potential as a writer, but this book would have benefited greatly from being shorter, sharper, and far less self-centered.