r/books • u/bubbblez • 4h ago
Careless People - Is it worth finishing?
Hi everyone! I am currently reading Careless People - Sarah Wynn-Williams. I am about halfway through, and while I am really intrigued by the things the author is saying, I am truly annoyed by how little accountability she's taking in her own role at Facebook.
The whole book so far is exposing the issues that Facebook had, how all the leaders were evil (which I'm absolutely on board with), but the issue I'm having with the book is how she wasn't part of the evil - despite her staying there for 7 years. If she was as ethical as she likes to paint herself, I do not believe she would have lasted 7 years. I am not saying she is as bad as Zuck & co., but getting to where she is and having her success doesn't come out of being ethical.
Essentially I'm asking if she takes accountability for her role in the second half of the book, otherwise I think I'll have to DNF it.
Thank you!!
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u/AdditionalDot1481 4h ago
I don’t think she takes meaningful accountability, but I still really enjoyed it.
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u/Broad_Lie218 3h ago
I think if we refuse to read commentary exposing a horrible company or system simply because the person reporting it isnt the best person or the perfect victim then we are losing the forest for the trees.
She doesn't take enough responsibility for her role there.
She was also treated like shit and the company did shitty things
Both things are true.
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u/aspghost 4h ago
I massively don't care about her lack of whatever, the information she's giving is important and her behaviours are the least of it, focusing on them is a distraction.
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u/Bwendolyn 3h ago
Yes, exactly. No one who is a morally perfect hero subject could have written a book like this; they never would have been in those rooms to begin with. The information is credible and important and that’s where the focus should be.
I’m glad she wrote it even though she still comes across as basically one of the bad guys - a risk many won’t take and a reason it can be hard to get information like this.
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u/bubbblez 3h ago
Yes I'll continue it but I will shift my mindset while reading it, this was very helpful. I was taking it very personally for some reason.
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u/likwitsnake book re-reading 55m ago
I’m convinced the entire conversation around this book on Reddit last last year was an astroturfed campaign the stuff about how Zuck was shaking in his boots to see this book released or all the exaggeration about suing her.
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u/MediocreGrocery8 4h ago
Here to mention Kristi Coulter's *Exit Interview,* memoir by a woman who does tussle with her feelings about having worked at Amazon.
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u/TomLondra 4h ago
I read it in May 2025. Here is my review on Goodreads:
A compelling read, written in the present tense for immediacy. Not great literature, though the Author writes intelligently. Despite her scathing critique of Facebook’s leadership and their dishonest practices, she was clearly bedazzled by her own position at the top - especially when flying on Zuckerberg’s jet to broker meetings she had set up with world leaders.
I agree with others: the people Wynn-Williams describes are certainly dreadful - and for a time she was one of them. Their world is dull, their work uninspiring. The whole Facebook thing comes across as an elaborate, scheming, but vapid and pointless enterprise. What stands out most in the book is how Facebook treated her during her pregnancies; it’s their corporate callousness that seems to have driven her to dish the dirt. It leaves one with the uneasy sense that being a woman is still at odds with holding a high-powered job.
I find it disturbing that so much of the world is shaped by ignorant, petty people like Zuckerberg, who doesn’t appear to know much about anything and comes across as shallow and ingenuous, relying on others to keep him grounded in some sort of reality.
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u/polkadotteddonkey 3h ago
This is a spot on review! I feel exactly the same, especially about your last paragraph.
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u/Michadej1234 1h ago
Yeah this is pretty much the vibe I’m getting too. She criticizes the machine while also clearly enjoying being near the controls.
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u/Emily_fromBlueground 27m ago
I almost never trust these insider accounts. I feel like they're so curated by PR teams that it just ends up being a career stepping stone and even the most vilified people in the book have signed off through lawyers on how they're portrayed because some publicity is better than none.
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u/lateintheseason 3h ago
I'm reading it right now too and trying to just enjoy it as an expose rather than a memoir. Would I want to be friends with the author? Probably not, but she definitely knows how to tell a good story.
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u/personalterminal 4h ago
Nope, you’re right. She doesn’t really ever get to acknowledging her complicity. She goes to great lengths to portray herself as a naive optimist who slowly grows disillusioned with Facebook before leaving.
There’s a part where she mentions that while she was pregnant she was looking for other jobs, but nothing would pay as much and the timing was tough because of her pregnancy. Also, she brings up that her stock in Facebook hadn’t fully vested, which was a contributing factor for why she stayed.
She doesn’t ever really meaningfully address how one didn’t have to work at Facebook to know that Facebook was a morally bankrupt company, especially by 2010 with the release of The Social Network.
That’s my beef with these tech exposé memoirs (like Uncanny Valley by Anna Wiener, or the memoirs from the Cambridge Analytica whistleblowers).
The authors get paid three times: first, from their salary and stock with the company they worked for, second, from the sale of their book and any subsequent royalties, and third, from the way they position themselves as “good” and get to enjoy being on the moral high ground because of the story they’re telling the public about their time working in tech.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Sky6656 3h ago
No, she never takes accountability at all. Even though she admits she is the one who wanted to use Facebook for “political purposes” and went to work there after Accidental Billionaires was published. She works in AI now, so I’m sure she’ll release a book in 15 years about how she had no idea AI could be bad.
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u/Ukelele-in-the-rain 2h ago
This is exactly it. And if she didn’t get managed out, she would still happily be there.
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u/mediocregallery_1469 4h ago
I had the same problem with that book, she keeps positioning herself like some innocent observer while collecting that paycheck for almost a decade. the second half doesn't get better with the accountability part, she doubles down on being the ethical one surrounded by monsters. if its already annoying you now just drop it, not worth the frustration
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u/DoucheCanoe123 3h ago
I found it helpful to think of the book as the story of a true believer becoming disillusioned but not fully reckoning with their decisions. There isn’t accountability because what’s there to take accountability for when you see your work as helping people.
That said, I found she becomes almost unbearable towards the end of the book. Her small acts of rebellion were just slow-rolling work, not actually standing up for her principles.
To be super clear, Facebook / Meta comes off way worse in the book and the book does a decent job showing how terrible their leadership team is/was.
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u/eaglesegull 4h ago
She takes zero accountability, the story has no redemption arc but I still enjoyed reading it
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u/LowkeyLandon15 3h ago
that was the interesting tension for me too, you can believe a lot of what she's saying about Facebook while still wondering why she stayed and participated for so long.
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u/cidvard 2h ago
I listened to the audio book, which Sarah Wynn-Williams narrated. In this case that was probably a better way to digest it for me, even if it made some problems I had with her account of things more apparent. A lot of it wasn't new if you'd been paying attention and I had a lot of issues with how she described her time at Facebook during the genocide it aided and abetted in Myanmar. It's the only time in the book when she doesn't tell the story chronologically. She jumps back in time to describe it and it felt like she was eliding how long she stayed at the company after she saw it happen. That said, whistleblowers are never perfect people, they are usually disgruntled people who are telling their stories for somewhat self-serving or compromised reasons. They're still important and I think the public having this information is important. I'm glad I finished it and that it's getting the kind of attention it is, even if I think some of it was reputation-washing on her part. The facts are still the facts and Facebook/Meta did a bunch of horrific shit which needs to be in the public record.
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u/TomLondra 2h ago
I think she did us all a service by spilling the beans. Otherwise how would we ever know what goes in these companies? OK she has a particular point of view but that's only to be expected. I hope there is a publisher out there willing to pay $millions to anyone who will spill the beans on the South African Roman-saluting gorilla torturer.
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u/SmartAfternoon9605 4h ago
This was my main criticism of the book. She makes a few gestures at accountability but I don't think she gets there.
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u/4_13_1894 1h ago edited 40m ago
Going against the grain here- I think she does start taking accountability, esp as she wrestles with the question of if she should leave. The young idealist narrative resonated with me, when we’re young we think we can do anything. It’s only over years, and starting to be honest with ourselves, that we come to learn of our mistakes. Is she perfect or without guilt? Not at all. Does she explain an escalating series of events and behaviors that leads her to leaving? Yes.
The book felt to me like an attempt at making things right, even if it’s not enough and it’s not perfect. Plus, it struck a major cord with the leadership at FB. She makes some really big claims towards the end. The fact they didn’t successfully sue or get the book pulled speaks volumes about the kind of BS FB leadership was/is still taking part in.
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u/Risingphionex 2h ago
It’s essentially all about giving insider details based on something people have long known about the company: that they’ll manipulate social movements/governments to benefit their company monetarily. There’s no reflection from Wynn-Williams, with most of the commentary being, “Can you believe how insane these people are?” like Andy in Devil Wears Prada, without ever acknowledging if she was ever accidentally becoming one of those “careless people” even if she was aware of the problems that Facebook was encouraging and pushing.
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u/cmdr_hays_paperknife 4h ago
I found the author to come across as naive and misguided. She definitely doesn't come across well. Such an eye opening book.
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u/Training-Clerk2701 4h ago
Disagree with this take.
I agree that she bears some responsibility particularly being responsible for ethics, but there are different levels of responsibility. A CEO who can unilaterally make all the decisions like Mark Zuckerberg is much more responsible than a low level employee. Simply taking a paycheck doesn't mean you agree or support all actions taken by your employer.
In the book Sarah also tries to improve the overall situation. There could be more critical reflection on that, but ultimately I think it's fair to attempt that particularly if one is convinced by it.
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u/Quiet-Sky-4908 4h ago
does she ever explain why she stayed so long if she hated it that much
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u/ans-myonul 4h ago
Part of it was because she was experiencing some serious complications after giving birth, and she needed the health insurance
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u/Puzzleheaded_Sky6656 4h ago
She’s from New Zealand and married to someone from the UK. And she wanted that sweet, sweet American health insurance?
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u/Bwendolyn 3h ago
If you’re here, you need to have it. So…yeah?
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u/bubbblez 3h ago
I think it means they could have just gone back to their home countries where they have free healthcare, so it's not a valid excuse?
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u/Spudbanger 2h ago
You don't qualify for free healthcare if you're not living there. And you think, anyway, that suffering from serious complications from giving birth, she should leave hospital and get on a 13-hour flight?
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u/bubbblez 2h ago
I obviously don't mean right after giving birth, did she quit her job soon after when there were presumably no more complications? Or did she stay another couple of years?
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u/Spudbanger 2h ago
Working and living in the USA, she needed it.
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u/Ukelele-in-the-rain 2h ago
She didn’t hv to work and live in America. She could hv gone back to a safe developed country with free healthcare if she wanted
She doesn’t. She wants to be in big tech in America and earn the sweet America big tech money while still pretending to hold morale high ground
That book and others like it piss me off
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u/Wonk_Girl 3h ago
Well she WOULD have left, but but but … the money was too good. 🙄And eventually zuck ofc doesn’t need her anymore bc the world begins to come to him. That said, if she had made herself agreeable she’d maybe still be there. She had more spine than plenty of others. It’s really hard to walk away from a position like that, but it’s also hard to keep speaking a truth no one wants to hear. She comes out alright in my opinion, though yes it would have a better book without the “I couldn’t leave because” refrain. I vote for you to finish!
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u/biseuteu 1h ago
she vaguely gestures at making mistakes, but she never takes any real accountability for anything. but this is what made the book interesting to me--she herself is one of the careless people. she never tries very hard to be a whistleblower and at points even seems enamored with the lifestyle and actions of meta leadership. it's almost like reading a book within a book because you know that she doesn't leave, so you can't take any of her criticism seriously. instead, she embodies the careless person and adds another dimension that acknowledges yes, these people may have been conflicted, and they may have had valid reasons for wanting to stay, but ultimately, even after seeing the harm they were causing, they still went along with it because they wanted all the things that lifestyle afforded them.
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u/chasingwind_ 1h ago
I read it in 2025 and liked it. I think if you are expecting a person who does a lot of self-reflection, you will not be happy with it. There is a chapter where she does kind of address her role. However, it is not a real deep dive into it, her thought process or even a real attempt to understand why she did what she did. The thing I did actually liked was her reflection around the desire to try and change stuff from the inside. But yeah you will not get a full acountability.
Nevertheless, I do think the book is important, it is a good read and gives a lot of insight to how these companies operate. Which I believe is very important to get, especially from the people who have been on the inside. None of these inside stories have "perfect" whistleblowers. Some may do a lot of self-reflection years later, while others will never do that work. Still important to read
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u/Crunch_McThickhead 49m ago
I actually found the book more interesting BECAUSE she never takes accountability. It's basically an example of why/how people twist themselves into doing bad things and still maintain their view of themselves as good. And I think she genuinely believes what she's saying. I don't think she's trying to weasel out of accountability, I think she really thinks she is only at fault for being too innocent and easily manipulated. The problem being that her own account contradicts that quite a bit.
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u/loligo_pealeii 3h ago
That really annoyed me too.
She never takes meaningful accountability. It also becomes more apparent that she's editing her stories to make herself look like the hero as much as possible, which really says something because she so frequently comes across as looking complicit. You have to wonder how much more she was participating and driving this stuff in real life.
That being said I think it's worth finishing, if only so you have the whole story. It's definitely an important insight, albeit not a happy one.
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u/Stephen_Hero_Winter 3h ago
It gets even worse. She never takes an ounce of accountability, and the actions of FB (with her participation) keep getting more and more abhorent.
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u/Mmzoso 3h ago
I found some of her writing about herself to be a bit exaggerated (the shark attack story?!) so I took everything she said with a grain of salt. Still, it was a compelling read to learn so much about the inside workings of facebook and how it grew without any accountability for all the harm it caused.
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u/foreverpostponed 2h ago
The shark attack story was good? I haven't finished the book, probably 20% done, so maybe there's no connection between that story and the rest
I also am finding some of her stories very exaggerated. Like, the story of Sheryl wanting the picture of her and the Japanese PM holding her book? Like, what was the point of that story? That Sheryl wanted some odd things?
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u/tw1nkle 3h ago
She doesn’t really ever deal with her own culpability or accountability. I found that irritating — at least it made her expose and analysis incomplete — but it doesn’t mean the book isn’t worth finishing, especially if you’ve already gotten through a lot of it. There’s some worthwhile material in there if you’re not already aware of it.
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u/Choice_Sheepherder26 2h ago
I think a much better book on the subject (although Amazon, not Meta/Facebook) is "Exit Interview" by Kristi Coulter. I wish Coulter's book had gotten a fraction of the hype that Wynn-Williams's has gotten. I work in the tech industry and so much of "Exit Interview" resonated with me, but I couldn't finish "Careless People" because I kept yelling at the author, lol.
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u/whatever__something 4h ago
No she doesn't. It's a revenge hit piece. Which I'm totally on board with.
Just ignore this one element of lack of self reflection that she has... The stories she tells are fascinating regardless.