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quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Sarah Wynn-Williams, a young diplomat from New Zealand, pitched for her dream job. She saw Facebook’s potential and knew it could change the world for the better. But, when she got there and rose to its top ranks, things turned out a little different.
From wild schemes cooked up on private jets to risking prison abroad, Careless People exposes both the personal and political fallout when boundless power and a rotten culture take hold. In a gripping and often absurd narrative, Wynn-Williams rubs shoulders with Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg and world leaders, revealing what really goes on among the global elite - and the consequences this has for all of us.
Candid and entertaining, this is an intimate memoir set amid powerful forces. As all our lives are upended by technology and those who control it, Careless People will change how you see the world today.
Sarah Wynn-Williams is a former New Zealand diplomat who was Director of Public Policy at Facebook between 2011 and 2017. This memoir of her time there contains few new revelations about Facebook’s activities and her apparent naivety never rings true but does offer insight into Zuckerberg and Sandberg and the disconnect between their words and actions while also providing context for Facebook’s current activities and political alignment.
I picked up this book because I read newspaper reports about how Wynn-Williams was subject to an arbitration order that prevented her from promoting the book due to her having signed a non-disparagement agreement when she was sacked in 2017. I’ve read a number of books about the tech industry and social media companies and am interested in the increasing role they take in politics so wanted to see what someone who worked alongside Zuckerberg and Sandberg and was at the company’s upper echelons had to say about it.
In terms of Facebook’s activities there isn’t a huge amount in this book that you won’t have already learned from newspapers reports in terms of how Facebook has encouraged politicians to engage with it to boost their visibility to the electorate and shape what voters see in their feeds. There is, however, a lot about Facebook’s activities in China, which should give any regulator reading it cause for concern. I had known that Zuckerberg was keen to gain access to the Chinese market but the deals he was prepared to make with the Chinese government, especially with regard to server access, are genuinely chilling, as is the way it was prepared to brazenly lie to Western authorities over the same.
The real insight here comes from Wynn-Williams’s access to both Zuckerberg and Sandberg, neither of whom come out particularly well. Sandberg emerges as a plastic feminist, keen to boost her own profile at all costs and who preaches the gospel of supporting women (provided they also lean in) so long as the women around her do exactly what she wants them to do and showing no concern or empathy for new mothers or women suffering harassment. The accounts of how she requested female assistants to share her bed on private jet journeys is downright creepy and in a righteous world, she would never show her face within elite society. But then the other thing that comes out in this book is how the elite all protect each other - she and Zuckerberg operate a closed society of friends supporting friends, all from similar backgrounds and political persuasions.
Zuckerberg himself is shown as initially politically disinterested and disengaged, his sole focus being on growing Facebook and moving into new territories. Yet the fact that he views Augustus Caesar and Andrew Jackson as political heroes shows that he’s always been drawn towards ruthless authoritarians and certainly provides some insight into why he’s currently so keen to be close to the Trump administration. Also interesting is how he fell for the celebrity that his role as Facebook CEO gave him, used to being feted and courted. Wynn-Williams shows how his initial disinterest in courting world leaders slowly changed over time - the hinge coming when he saw how voters treated the Indonesian president - and how even he wasn’t immune to wanting to be in the same room as Obama. Indeed, it appears that it was a dressing down from Obama that drove Zuckerberg’s own brief exploration of politics as he set about his own aborted 2016 run at the presidency.
Wynn-Williams is a good writer, especially when it comes to recounting her near death experiences - the shark attack that almost killed her as a child and later the infection she caught after giving birth to her second child, which left her with chronic bleeding (her Facebook bosses’ reactions to this make it all the more horrifying). She is credible at describing the attitude of people working for Facebook, including those who had made their money from getting share options in the early days of recruitment and she has a fine eye for how the executive elite were wilfully blind to what was happening in the world around them and complacent about the effects of what Facebook was doing. I believed in her initial optimism about how Facebook could be a force for good and admired the gumption she had in essentially creating the role for herself by using her contacts and keeping on at Facebook until they realised they needed global support. I even believed that her desire for the job meant she did not negotiate the pay deal the role deserved and that she willingly engaged on what could be incredibly dangerous trips in order to advance Facebook’s agenda because she believed in it.
Where the book falls down though for me is that while I could buy Wynn-Williams’s naivety during the first couple of years of her role, as she got closer to Zuckerberg and Sandberg and saw how they behaved I didn’t understand why she maintained her belief that she could change their course. There is literally nothing that she shows in the book that could support that belief and as the book goes on, it definitely comes across as Wynn-Williams overselling her naivety to reduce her own culpability. That’s a shame because there’s a lot that could have been gained had Wynn-Williams been willing to examine her own role in Facebook’s behaviour. This would have been particularly helpful at the end of the book where she talks about AI and her concerns about the same because there are clearly lessons that can be applied but she doesn’t mention anything about how politicians can be influenced to take the subject seriously or how to tackle executive attitudes about the same.
Ultimately I did enjoy this book and it kept me turning the pages. However I think it’s one of those books where Meta did it a huge favour by stopping Wynn-Williams from promoting it because it’s generated a Streisand effect that the contents don’t really merit.
The Verdict:
Sarah Wynn-Williams is a former New Zealand diplomat who was Director of Public Policy at Facebook between 2011 and 2017. This memoir of her time there contains few new revelations about Facebook’s activities and her apparent naivety never rings true but does offer insight into Zuckerberg and Sandberg and the disconnect between their words and actions while also providing context for Facebook’s current activities and political alignment.
Sarah Wynn-Williams, a young diplomat from New Zealand, pitched for her dream job. She saw Facebook’s potential and knew it could change the world for the better. But, when she got there and rose to its top ranks, things turned out a little different.
From wild schemes cooked up on private jets to risking prison abroad, Careless People exposes both the personal and political fallout when boundless power and a rotten culture take hold. In a gripping and often absurd narrative, Wynn-Williams rubs shoulders with Mark Zuckerberg, Sheryl Sandberg and world leaders, revealing what really goes on among the global elite - and the consequences this has for all of us.
Candid and entertaining, this is an intimate memoir set amid powerful forces. As all our lives are upended by technology and those who control it, Careless People will change how you see the world today.
Sarah Wynn-Williams is a former New Zealand diplomat who was Director of Public Policy at Facebook between 2011 and 2017. This memoir of her time there contains few new revelations about Facebook’s activities and her apparent naivety never rings true but does offer insight into Zuckerberg and Sandberg and the disconnect between their words and actions while also providing context for Facebook’s current activities and political alignment.
I picked up this book because I read newspaper reports about how Wynn-Williams was subject to an arbitration order that prevented her from promoting the book due to her having signed a non-disparagement agreement when she was sacked in 2017. I’ve read a number of books about the tech industry and social media companies and am interested in the increasing role they take in politics so wanted to see what someone who worked alongside Zuckerberg and Sandberg and was at the company’s upper echelons had to say about it.
In terms of Facebook’s activities there isn’t a huge amount in this book that you won’t have already learned from newspapers reports in terms of how Facebook has encouraged politicians to engage with it to boost their visibility to the electorate and shape what voters see in their feeds. There is, however, a lot about Facebook’s activities in China, which should give any regulator reading it cause for concern. I had known that Zuckerberg was keen to gain access to the Chinese market but the deals he was prepared to make with the Chinese government, especially with regard to server access, are genuinely chilling, as is the way it was prepared to brazenly lie to Western authorities over the same.
The real insight here comes from Wynn-Williams’s access to both Zuckerberg and Sandberg, neither of whom come out particularly well. Sandberg emerges as a plastic feminist, keen to boost her own profile at all costs and who preaches the gospel of supporting women (provided they also lean in) so long as the women around her do exactly what she wants them to do and showing no concern or empathy for new mothers or women suffering harassment. The accounts of how she requested female assistants to share her bed on private jet journeys is downright creepy and in a righteous world, she would never show her face within elite society. But then the other thing that comes out in this book is how the elite all protect each other - she and Zuckerberg operate a closed society of friends supporting friends, all from similar backgrounds and political persuasions.
Zuckerberg himself is shown as initially politically disinterested and disengaged, his sole focus being on growing Facebook and moving into new territories. Yet the fact that he views Augustus Caesar and Andrew Jackson as political heroes shows that he’s always been drawn towards ruthless authoritarians and certainly provides some insight into why he’s currently so keen to be close to the Trump administration. Also interesting is how he fell for the celebrity that his role as Facebook CEO gave him, used to being feted and courted. Wynn-Williams shows how his initial disinterest in courting world leaders slowly changed over time - the hinge coming when he saw how voters treated the Indonesian president - and how even he wasn’t immune to wanting to be in the same room as Obama. Indeed, it appears that it was a dressing down from Obama that drove Zuckerberg’s own brief exploration of politics as he set about his own aborted 2016 run at the presidency.
Wynn-Williams is a good writer, especially when it comes to recounting her near death experiences - the shark attack that almost killed her as a child and later the infection she caught after giving birth to her second child, which left her with chronic bleeding (her Facebook bosses’ reactions to this make it all the more horrifying). She is credible at describing the attitude of people working for Facebook, including those who had made their money from getting share options in the early days of recruitment and she has a fine eye for how the executive elite were wilfully blind to what was happening in the world around them and complacent about the effects of what Facebook was doing. I believed in her initial optimism about how Facebook could be a force for good and admired the gumption she had in essentially creating the role for herself by using her contacts and keeping on at Facebook until they realised they needed global support. I even believed that her desire for the job meant she did not negotiate the pay deal the role deserved and that she willingly engaged on what could be incredibly dangerous trips in order to advance Facebook’s agenda because she believed in it.
Where the book falls down though for me is that while I could buy Wynn-Williams’s naivety during the first couple of years of her role, as she got closer to Zuckerberg and Sandberg and saw how they behaved I didn’t understand why she maintained her belief that she could change their course. There is literally nothing that she shows in the book that could support that belief and as the book goes on, it definitely comes across as Wynn-Williams overselling her naivety to reduce her own culpability. That’s a shame because there’s a lot that could have been gained had Wynn-Williams been willing to examine her own role in Facebook’s behaviour. This would have been particularly helpful at the end of the book where she talks about AI and her concerns about the same because there are clearly lessons that can be applied but she doesn’t mention anything about how politicians can be influenced to take the subject seriously or how to tackle executive attitudes about the same.
Ultimately I did enjoy this book and it kept me turning the pages. However I think it’s one of those books where Meta did it a huge favour by stopping Wynn-Williams from promoting it because it’s generated a Streisand effect that the contents don’t really merit.
The Verdict:
Sarah Wynn-Williams is a former New Zealand diplomat who was Director of Public Policy at Facebook between 2011 and 2017. This memoir of her time there contains few new revelations about Facebook’s activities and her apparent naivety never rings true but does offer insight into Zuckerberg and Sandberg and the disconnect between their words and actions while also providing context for Facebook’s current activities and political alignment.
