Title: Careless People
Author: Sarah Wynn-Williams
Themes: tech, whistleblower, nonfiction, memoir
Summary
Sarah Wynn-Williams is a New Zealand lawyer who worked in Facebook’s Global Public Policy team. After working in diplomacy for the United Nations and New Zealand, Wynn-Williams pitched a new international public policy role to Facebook executives during the platform’s hyper-growth era. Believing she could help the platform act as a global force for connection, she was hired to guide its interactions with foreign governments. The memoir depicts her experience working closely with powerful individuals, including Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, as she started as an idealistic diplomat, to a hurt and disappointed whisteblower of the tech giant. The memoir documents the process as she finds out that the company consistently prioritizes global growth and profit over ethics and human lives.
Overall thoughts
My favorite part of the book is the part where Sarah Wynn-Williams pitched her role to Facebook, and essentially, created a job for herself. As a diplomat, she has relevant experiences with global policies, as well as a network of people in the same field. When presented the opportunity to be connected with someone working in the tech giant, she saw that as a golden ticket to make a positive impact in the world, the way she’s most familiar with. I truly admire her assertiveness and her strong sense of self.
They say to never meet your heroes. The disappointment that Wynn-Williams had when she found out how major decisions are made recklessly and rather thoughtless, is something we can all relate to. This can be translated to even a smaller event, like failing a job interview. The reason your interviewer fails you could be as simple as “they just had a bad day”. The lesson I learned here is that there could be any reason for a decision to be made. Instead of questioning and being disappointed, ask yourself, “Regardless, this is the reality now. What can I do going forward to improve the situation or change the outcome?”
Overall, I think this is a great book as an introduction to what corporate america is like. It is especially intriguing because the book talks about people we see in media all the time, as an insider exposes her experience working with them!
Special mentions: Professor Norm Matloff was a respected mentor and teacher of mine since my undergraduate days studying Computer Science in UC Davis. I’ve had fond memories learning about computer science, statistics, and his deep interest in R programming language. After graduation, Professor Matloff was still someone I used to go to whenever I had career doubts and questions, especially graduating during the COVID-19 crisis. As I progressed in my career, Professor Matloff had always been a strong advocate of pursuing further studies. His strong passion in academics is something I will always remember of him. “Careless People” was the last book he recommended to me before he left all of us forever. You will forever be in our memory, Professor Matloff. Thank you for everything you’ve done for the world!