Careless People

A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism

By: Sarah Wynn-Williams

Narrated by: Sarah Wynn-Williams

#1 New York Times Bestseller

“Careless People is darkly funny and genuinely shocking...Not only does [Sarah Wynn-Williams] have the storytelling chops to unspool a gripping narrative; she also delivers the goods."—Jennifer Szalai, The New York Times

“When one of the world’s most powerful media companies tries to snuff out a book—amid other alarming attacks on free speech in America like this—it’s time to pull out all the stops.”–Ron Charles, The Washington Post

An explosive memoir charting one woman’s career at the heart of one of the most influential companies on the planet, Careless People gives you a front-row seat to Facebook, the decisions that have shaped world events in recent decades, and the people who made them.

From trips on private jets and encounters with world leaders to shocking accounts of misogyny and double standards behind the scenes, this searing memoir exposes both the personal and the political fallout when unfettered power and a rotten company culture take hold. In a gripping and often absurd narrative where a few people carelessly hold the world in their hands, this eye-opening memoir reveals what really goes on among the global elite.

Sarah Wynn-Williams tells the wrenching but fun story of Facebook, mapping its rise from stumbling encounters with juntas to Mark Zuckerberg’s reaction when he learned of Facebook’s role in Trump’s election. She experiences the challenges and humiliations of working motherhood within a pressure cooker of a workplace, all while Sheryl Sandberg urges her and others to “lean in.”

Careless People is a deeply personal account of why and how things have gone so horribly wrong in the past decade—told in a sharp, candid, and utterly disarming voice. A deep, unflinching look at the role that social media has assumed in our lives, Careless People reveals the truth about the leaders of Facebook: how the more power they grasp, the less responsible they become and the consequences this has for all of us.

©2025 Sarah Wynn-Williams (P)2025 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

'Devastating . . . funny . . . highly enjoyable . . . A Bridget Jones’s Diary-style tale of a young woman thrown into a series of improbable situations'—The Times

'Amazing: of all the books in all the world Mr Free Speech Zuckerberg wants to ban, it’s the one about him'—Marina Hyde, Guardian

"A darkly hilarious, shocking tale that starts as farce and ends as tragedy. It combines withering portraits of Facebook’s insular, callous leadership with harrowing details of what Wynn-Williams calls the company’s “lethal carelessness” on the global stage.”–Michelle Goldberg, The New York Times

Sadly, no surprises

Well written and narrated, a horrifying account of Facebook behind the scenes, and all of it entirely unsurprising.

Jaw-dropping

A fascinating, detailed, and well-told overview of how the sausage gets made, packaged, and sold at Facebook.

Fascinating story on how greed can overtake morality

loved the inside baseball on what was going on at Facebook. Makes me really think about how these companies impact our decisions.

Read this and NEVER use Facebook/Meta again!

This book blew my mind; not because of the types of things I read—greed, indifference to human suffering, bullying, sexual harassment, lying, nepotism, misogyny and more in one of the world’s most powerful company—but the extent to which these things have combined to give rise to the world we are living today; the extent to which Facebook aided/enabled the election of Trump in 2016, and even more so in 2024. The damage that this is doing not only to the US, but the entire world and we have only just seen the beginning.

After reading this book, I wonder how anyone who cares about this planet will want to ever use Facebook again. I certainly won’t and I will to my best of my ability try to share the contents of this book as widely as possible.

Great insight into Facebook Leadership

I normally wouldn’t have read this book, but Facebook’s PR campaign to disparage the book before it even came out made me curious. The narrative here is well structured and pulls you along easily through her time at Facebook. She was close to its leadership and clearly knew these people. I deleted my FB profile years ago. I can say that knowing more about the company now, I realize it was the right move. Companies like these are out of control.

Well told story by a very sincere and accomplished ex-employee of FB

Tight well structured narrative - would have liked more details about the dollar payouts to employees.

A unique perspective on the emergence of power

This is an important book, engagingly told. I picked it up because I saw someone somewhere suggesting Facebook might try to get this book taken down. I don't know if that's true, but now that I've read it, I can see how Facebook, Zuckerberg, or even various countries like China at least COULD feel that way..

It opens strongly. I thought "This is a person worth getting to know." I worried the pace was dragging slightly toward the middle, but then again it's a true story that sometimes offers foundation information so you can understand later parts better. Could it have been edited a little more tightly there? I don't know. Maybe. But just when I was starting to worry, it started to pick back up and it was solid to the end. So I mention it not to nitpick, only to say that it's worth sticking with it. It delivers the thing I hoped, many very fascinating observations and revelations that no one else is likely to volunteer.

The telling is brave and thoughtful and pulls no punches. It is reflective and even in some places self-critical in a way that gives the sense of someone trying very hard to be complete and fair. By the end, it draws a picture not just of one person's life, and the organization she struggled through, even somewhat helped to create, but also of the emergence and nature of power itself. You can really see how the ways in which power seduces and corrupts people.

It's also the story of a well-qualified woman and many obstacles she faces that have no place in business at all. People need to witness how such things play out, to break down the isolation, and to learn to better see and appreciate the consequences.

The perspective is quite unique and I thank Sarah for writing this. I also love hearing a good reading by an author who can do justice to their own work on audio, as is the case here.

Well written and enlightening, and scary.

The book is a cautionary tale of people who don’t have a sense of history, don’t have a sense of future, and don’t care. That’s why their careless. They don’t care. Stop thinking that they do.

Important and Timely

This book goes well beyond a superficial glimpse. It’s brave, funny, tragic, detailed and resonant. Well worth the read, especially in support of those who are willing to speak truth to power.

Fantastic

This book was gripping. A total page turner. Definitely must read. (Also, employees at Facebook wanted to name the weekly Q&A with Mark Zuckerberg: Question Mark 😂😂😂😂)