Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism by Sarah Wynn-Williams

My Thoughts

I read this book right before watching The Social Network.

The book gives you a peek into the mindset of leadership at Facebook. Similar to “Bad Blood”, it shows what bad leadership looks like, but something about this book makes it not as enjoyable as the others. The content was still very interesting to listen to, but I didn’t find myself wanting to come back to finish it.

It was interesting reading about the different products that Facebook launched, all in efforts to expand their reach. It was also fascinating to see how some of the people you see on the news or read about in articles actually function behind closed doors, and where they ended up today.

The book was also insightful into life in corporate as a woman. There’s several points in the book that made me think about things that I never have to worry about.

Many times I caught myself thinking, “There’s no way she actually thinks like this.” After sitting on it for a while, I’m realizing that there’s some oddity in the narrative that’s making me think that way. The author explains the situations that she was in well, but she also gives too much context around the future consequences of the situation. This makes it hard to put myself in her shoes and understand why she made the decisions that she did. The whole time I was listening, I kept thinking, “Why would she do this?” But really, the only reason I felt that way is because I knew what was coming and she didn’t at the time.

Overall, it was a good book, and I will be recommending it to others.