Andrew O'Brien (Aug 05 2025 at 15:05): Andrew O'Brien (Aug 05 2025 at 15:05):Anyone else reading/read Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams? Made a splash back in March when Facebook caused a Streisand Effect by fighting against it. I'm late to the party, so a lot of the biggest revelations/accusations have already been spoiled for me.
Now that I'm out of reliving the idealist early-2010s phase and into unethical misadventures with dictators and billionaires it's feeling more like a slog. I just immediately assume they're going to do the worst possible thing.
Also, while I'm giving her a fair amount of credence (probably because what's she's saying aligns with my current feelings about the company, social media in general, etc.), I'm aware that the implicit goal of a memoir is to make the author look good (or at least sympathetic). She's portraying herself as a socially awkward fish-out-of-water at the same time as being someone capable of moving in diplomatic circles and balancing different leaders' national goals and obligations. Or she's in the middle: the only "normal" person around who's willing to say what everyone else is thinking (or too naive to know better).
I'll probably push through because this feels like something we have a responsibility to read, but I'm finding it hard to go back to. Anyone else?
Siddhartha Golu (Aug 06 2025 at 08:02):I had listened to the audiobook back in May and had a similar feeling. The author keeps harping on about how she could not leave the organization because she thought she could do more good from the inside (haven't we all heard that before).
However, keeping the I'm-not-a-perpetrator-but-a-victim vibe aside, I still thought it was powerful for her to come out so publicly and document the inner belly of Facebook. We've all heard the stories but it always comes from "anonymous sources" because nobody wants to commit a career suicide by writing even a critical blog post about their former employer, let alone a book.
I'd still recommend this, mostly for her courage to put her name to it.
Last updated: Aug 17 2025 at 19:36 UTC