5min book review #27. Sarah Wynn-Williams — Careless People…

Value for money

6/10

Year, Price, Pages, Cover design

2025, Macmillan USA; $16,45; 400 pages (including text itself in 48 chapters with prologue and epilogue, plus Dedication, Epigraph, Acknowledgements, About the Author sections)

I read the Kindle version

5 sentences about the book

Sarah Wynn-Williams is a New Zealand–born lawyer, diplomat, and former Facebook executive who worked at the company from 2011 to 2017, becoming the highest-ranking whistleblower to emerge from Meta after working closely with Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg. In 2025, she published Careless People, a bestselling memoir that exposes Meta’s toxic culture, ethical compromises, and entanglement with government censorship.

The book is not written by a professional author or journalist, and the uneven rhythm of the narration reflects that. Its strongly personal lens blends stories from Wynn-Williams’s private life with her years inside Facebook — a combination that can feel unpolished, yet also lends the account a raw and disarming authenticity.

The story is intriguingly framed by her personal struggles, beginning with a childhood shark attack and later a complicated pregnancy and traumatic childbirth, interwoven with the corporate dramas at Facebook. This mixture gives the narrative a sense of naturalism, encouraging the reader to feel empathy and step into the shoes of a woman trying to build a career under extraordinary pressure.

What could have been stronger is the balance: the book starts slowly, then lingers in the middle on anecdotal episodes from Facebook, while the real substance emerges only toward the end — when Wynn-Williams reveals how Facebook’s executives cooperated with the Chinese government and displayed breathtaking indifference to the platform’s role in fueling the Myanmar riots and Rohingya genocide. These final chapters are the book’s most powerful, laying bare not just corporate dysfunction but the catastrophic consequences of indifference at scale.

If you hesitate over whether to read this book because of doubts about the author’s trustworthiness, I would say: take her narration as one voice among thousands at Facebook. It is a single perspective, rooted in lived experience and based on facts, though inevitably selective. Many details are omitted — but that is normal when reading a memoir shaped through the subjective lens of its narrator, rather than a work of journalism striving for objectivity.

Former colleague Katie Harbath has publicly commented on the book, noting: “My former colleague’s book about Meta has kernels of truth but is riddled with factual inaccuracies and exaggerations.” This critique underlines the tension at the heart of Careless People: while Wynn-Williams offers a rare insider account that feels authentic and revealing, it is still one perspective, deeply subjective, and sometimes contested by those who shared the same corridors of power.

What Did I Learn?

• I felt something similar while reading this book as I did with Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter by Kate Conger and Ryan Mac — the sense that toxicity seeps from the pages, filling the space around me. I could only take it in small portions, chapter by chapter, slowly, because it is not pleasant reading. What struck me most was the uncomfortable question it forced me to ask: after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, after Frances Haugen’s revelations, who in their right mind — engineer or product manager — still chooses to work for Meta and Mark Zuckerberg? After all of this, shouldn’t anyone who remains in such a company feel at least some measure of shame?
• For many readers my reaction might seem too “hysterical,” and I ask myself why that is. In conversations with colleagues I noticed how easily they accept this corporate world as “normal” — as if such practices are simply how big business operates and cannot be changed. I disagree. That attitude is already a form of passivity, an uncritical acceptance of what is not normal. To think about this more deeply, perhaps it helps to recall a few critical voices:

Hannah Arendt — Banality of Evil: thoughtlessness and compliance create moral indifference.

Guy Debord — Society of the Spectacle: passive spectatorship replaces real engagement.

Jean Baudrillard — Simulacra & Hyperreality: obsession with appearances erodes reality.

Herbert Marcuse — One-Dimensional Man: conformity and false needs breed passive acceptance.

Zygmunt Bauman — Liquid Modernity: a fleeting, “liquid” life leads to detachment and carelessness.

Byung-Chul Han — The Burnout Society: digital capitalism causes exhaustion and the erosion of attention and rituals.

Slavoj Žižek — Cynical Ideology: people know systems are harmful but act as if they don’t.

• Just as in Character Limit, where I found Jack Dorsey a far more intriguing figure than Musk, here too I was less captivated by Zuckerberg than by Sheryl Sandberg. She emerges almost like a caricature from The Devil Wears Prada — but without the elegance or sophistication of a Meryl Streep performance.
  Instead, she is portrayed as a striking embodiment of hypocrisy, narcissism, and relentless ambition, driven less by vision than by the hunger for wealth and status. If anyone should feel discomfort, even pain, from this book, it is undoubtedly Sheryl Sandberg: it strikes at her weakest points and dismantles the carefully constructed portrait she has tried to project to the world. Williams wrote:

“Thankfully, Davos has become routine. The hardest part these days is managing Sheryl’s ever-increasing desire to be in the spotlight. After months of negotiations, I’d secured a lineup she was satisfied with, making sure she was on the right panels, went to the right parties, and had more time with the microphone than her female frenemies. All of us accompanying Sheryl are well trained enough to know Sheryl’s expectation that we sit in the front row, applaud loudly, and provide admiring feedback on her words or, as I’ve come to think of them, her emperor’s clothes. Any deviation from this risks her chewing you out after.” Location: 4,340

• I tried to summarize what new perspective I gained from this book, but then I came across a short review by Mary Mahling Carns, who offered a sharp shortcut for understanding what (not only) Facebook does in the virtual space: Product launch + cultural ignorance = digital colonialism. If you pause and reflect on the products you use every day — email, search, browsers, messaging — you may realize how difficult it is to escape the grip of five to seven companies that divide the world among themselves much like the great powers of the 19th century. We may live in the 21st century, but the same colonial mindset — marked by ignorance and carelessness — still remains. In one place Williams pointed out this sort of indifference:

“The truth here is inescapable. Myanmar would’ve been far better off if Facebook had never arrived there. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what unfolded next in Myanmar, and Facebook’s complicity. It wasn’t because of some grander vision or any malevolence toward Muslims in the country. Nor a lack of money. My conclusion: It was just that Joel, Elliot, Sheryl, and Mark didn’t give a fuck. Joel was a veteran of George W. Bush’s White House. An issue in Syria would be met by a wave of his hand and, “Drop a bomb on it. I don’t care.” A joke, but also who he was. He was the man in charge of those countries for Facebook. And when it came to Myanmar, those people just didn’t matter to him. He couldn’t be bothered. There was no greater principle ever offered.” Location: 5,129

• The book confronts the culture of tribalism within tech companies, where individual drive is pushed to the extreme. As one passage captures it, “Marne, Elliot, and Sheryl ruthlessly manage their own labor, extracting as much work out of each day as humanly possible. They expect their teams to do the same. Effort, productivity, and the sacrifice of everything else in life are valorized and fetishized” (Location 712). This relentless pursuit of productivity becomes a badge of honor, but it also exposes the darker undercurrent: a system where human value is measured solely by output.
• That same uncompromising logic is mirrored in the way platforms are designed for users. The book makes it clear that engagement — regardless of the cost — was the primary metric. “Despite its public statement to the contrary, Facebook was long aware that its research, models, and programs sought to optimize user engagement at all costs. Facebook employed a series of ‘addictive by design’ features specifically targeted and tailored to exploiting the vulnerabilities of young users, while hiding the risky and harmful nature of such features. Forcing every lever to drive engagement and drive that addiction” (Location 4,907). The parallel is striking: the same ethos of extraction that governs internal culture also extends outward, shaping products that extract time, attention, and well-being from users.

Appendix: My notes for quick scanning

Let me briefly outline the main characters of the story — these notes barely scratch the surface. For me, it’s a kind of cheat sheet to quickly grasp the context.

Sarah Wynn-Williams (the narrator/author)

• A New Zealander working in Facebook’s global policy team.
• Acts as the book’s central voice and moral compass, reflecting on her own complicity.
• Responsible for government relations, navigating crises abroad, and introducing Facebook to world leaders.
• Torn between belief in Facebook’s mission and horror at its failures.

Mark Zuckerberg (CEO of Facebook/Meta)

• Portrayed as brilliant but detached, with limited interest in politics or morality.
• Obsessed with growth, power, and historical strongmen (Andrew Jackson, Emperor Augustus).
• Resistant to acknowledging Facebook’s role in global crises (Trump election, Myanmar).
• Comes across as emotionally distant, sometimes callous toward employees in danger.

Sheryl Sandberg (COO of Facebook/Meta)

• Charismatic, polished, and highly ambitious, but also volatile and controlling.
• Central authority in policy decisions, often overriding teams.
• Obsessed with image, spotlight, and personal branding (e.g., Lean In persona).
• Frequently berates staff, instills fear, and mixes personal benefit with company work.

Elliot Schrage (Head of Communications and Policy)

• Senior executive shaping messaging and handling crises.
• Pragmatic, sometimes cynical — focused on optics more than substance.
• Involved in decisions on global crises, often minimizing moral concerns.

Joel Kaplan (Vice President of Public Policy)

• Former George W. Bush administration official.
• Sees Facebook through the lens of US power and geopolitics.
• Impulsive, dogmatic, dismissive of international concerns.
• Infamous for his callousness (“Drop a bomb on it” attitude toward crises).
• His personal ties within Facebook leadership (including with Sheryl Sandberg) are portrayed as part of the company’s insular, tribal culture.
• Sarah’s concerns about harassment became entangled with Joel and Elliot’s influence, with investigations shifting focus onto her and ultimately contributing to her departure from Facebook.

Marne Levine (Chief Business Officer, longtime Facebook executive)

• Highly disciplined, close to Sheryl.
• Known for stamina and relentless work ethic.
• Sometimes shields staff from Sheryl’s anger.
• Embodies the culture of overwork and loyalty.

Sam Lessin (Director of Product)

• Known for extreme wealth and self-description as “price insensitive.”
• Represents Facebook’s culture of privilege.

Debbie Frost (ex-Googler at Facebook)

• Made wealthy by Google IPO, treats Facebook salary as irrelevant.
• Waits for Facebook IPO to increase fortunes further.

Andrea Besmehn (Mark’s assistant)

• Manages Zuckerberg’s schedule.
• Prioritizes Mark’s comfort (e.g., nixing UN speech for being too early).

Kenny (tax strategist/lawyer)

• Involved in designing Facebook’s tax avoidance schemes (Ireland structures).

Javier Olivan (“Javi”) (growth team leader)

• Leads Facebook’s aggressive “growth at all costs” strategies.
• Embodies the company’s reckless expansion ethos.

Diego Dzodan (employee jailed abroad)

• His imprisonment highlights Facebook leadership’s lack of care for staff safety.
• Becomes a test case revealing Mark’s coldness and fixation on PR rather than people.

Notable Figures (Mentioned in Context)

• Angela Merkel — German Chancellor, refused a meeting with Sheryl, which deeply upset her.
• Xi Jinping — President of China, central to Facebook’s failed attempts to enter China.
• Donald Trump — His campaign’s use of Facebook exposed its vulnerabilities and influence.
• Paul Mozur — New York Times reporter who exposed Myanmar’s Facebook-fueled misinformation campaign.

Favourite quotes

“In the early days, when I traveled anywhere in the world with Mark, people would approach us and pour out heartfelt stories of how the platform changed their lives; how they reconnected with someone who became their husband or wife; how they made new, life-changing friendships; how it helped them start their businesses; how they were all alone — immigrants to a new country like me, gay kids in conservative towns, people with rare diseases and no one to talk to about their care — and found community on Facebook. It felt promising and vast, and sometimes actually historic. Now I’m consumed by the worst of it. The grief and sorrow of it. How Facebook is helping some of the worst people in the world do terrible things. How it’s an astonishingly effective machine to turn people against each other. And monitor people at a scale that was never possible before. And manipulate them. It’s an incredibly valuable tool for the most autocratic, oppressive regimes, because it gives them exactly what those regimes need: direct access into what people are saying from the top to bottom of society.” Location: 5,303

“At every juncture, there was an opportunity to make different choices; China, Myanmar, elections, hate speech, vulnerable teens. They could’ve made it right again. A different path was possible. And in the long term, it would’ve been in their own self-interest too. Facebook, the business, the brand, and the company, would be better off. We all would be better off. And my bosses seemed deeply and blindly unconcerned about any of this. In fact, just the opposite. Turn after turn they encouraged it. In China, they specifically built the software to order. In America, they put staff in with the Trump campaign to help them stage the war of misinformation, trolling, and lies that won him the election. And in Myanmar, they enabled posts that led to horrific sexual violence and genocide. A lethal carelessness. That’s what this company is, and I was part of it. I failed when I tried to change it, and I carry that with me.” Location: 5,396