Careless People - Sarah Wynn-Williams

 Sub-title: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism

Sarah was the Director of Public Policy for Facebook from 2011 until she was fired in 2017.  She was "in the room where it happened" managing Facebook's strategies for expanding across the world.  And that strategy was horrific, the attitude and goals of its leaders being to put Facebook everywhere regardless of the impact on people.  She is under a gag order from the courts as Meta (Facebook) used her for violating her severance agreement.

I found the memoir disturbing - both as a portrait of a company run by the next generation and as a revealing, likely unintentional self-portrait.  It was strange to be invited into this world of power, unbelievable money, the edge of innovation and a new technology.  Sarah claims to have been part of an idealistic team of people intent on bringing access and connection to everyone on the globe.  Then she describes how they deviated from that goal, succumbing to the intoxication of controlling an unbridled tool.  Her story is convincing and disgusting.  What I grappled with was her staying in the middle of it; hanging on to the feeling she could make a difference being on the inside.  

She grapples with the second in command, a woman named Sheryl Sandberg (author of "Lean In") who preached the rights of women to work and have a family while demanding 24/7 working hours - to the point of Sarah choosing to send an email while she was in labor with her first child.  Insane acceptance of a destructive culture.  

As of July 2026, Sarah was still prohibited from promoting the book. If you can find it, read it.

Published: 2025  Read: September 2026  Genre: Memoir

Stolen Focus - Johann Hari

 Sub-title: Why You Can't Pay Attention - and How to Think Deeply Again

I cheated on this read and after going through the Introduction, I skimmed the chapters and cut to the conclusion.  Bottom line is get away from social media as an individual and as a society switch from consumerism and a goal of economic growth to enjoying what we have and economic stability.  Good summary at the end where he advocates for an "Attention Rebellion" and value something other than speed and growth.

Quotes:

[3 forms of attention, he adds a 4th] "spotlight (focusing on immediate actions, like, 'I'm going to make coffee'), starlight (focus applied to longer-term goals, projects over time), daylight (focus that makes it possible for you to know what your longer term goals are in the first place and, stadium lights (our ability to see and fight for collective goals."

[6 changes he made in his life]

1) pre-commitment to stop switching tasks so much (bought and uses a kSafe)

2) rather than beat himself up for getting distracted, he asks what would be something meaningful to me that I could do now?

3) takes 6 months of the year totally off of social media

4) act on what he learned about letting your mind wander (takes a walk without phone)

5) strict about getting 8 hours sleep

6) spend time with children just playing freely, non-structured free play

"...Under Covid, even more than before, we were living in simulations of social life, not the real thing.  It was better than nothing, to be sure, but it felt thinner.  And all the while, the algorithms of surveillance capitalisms were altering us - tracking and changing us -for many more hours a day."

"Growth can happen in one of two ways ...a corporation can find new markets by inventing something new or exporting something and the second is that a corporation can persuade existing consumers to consume more.  Mostly, we achieve growth today primarily through this second option [leading to our lack of focus]"

Published: 2022 Read: February 2023 Genre: Philosophy