# Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams

106 Hacker News commenters recommended Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams and 24 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** An insider's account of Facebook's executives and political dealings, praised as revealing and entertaining, though many critics say the author downplays her own complicity.

## Why people recommend it

- Inside look at executive behavior (9 comments): "I think it's great that Wynn-Williams wrote it and exposed some details at the personal level of how nuts these folks are." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47656917)) "It's a fantastic read to get inside the psychology of the folks that are making huge decisions about how society works." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47880152)) "My favorite story from "Careless People," was when his team let him cheat and ultimately win at Settlers of Catan." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47885270))
- Exposes Facebook's political and societal harms (9 comments): "according to the book, social media companies figured out they have real leverage with politicians since they can influence elections" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47521577)) "The book has plenty of prurient private-jet-boardgame stuff, but also deals directly with facebook's adoption in Myanmar" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48702387)) "Provides a lot more context on how Facebook evolved their Public Pulicy team into a political manipulation team." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48702879))
- Essential reading for tech workers (5 comments): "I can highly recommend the book "Carless People" by Sarah Wynn-Williams if you want to know just how bad it really is/was." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49371124)) "Everyone in this industry should be required to read Careless People by Sara Wynn-Williams" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47879878)) "an important topic to read about if you want to be a member of a free, democratic society" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49346832))
- Entertaining, like absurdist black comedy (3 comments): "Everything else in the book reads like absurdist black comedy to me and not how I would expect people to behave normally." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48956744)) "Her book is exceptional. You won't get these insights anywhere else and it's surprisingly entertaining." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48956061)) "If you loved Catch-22 you will love Careless people! I warmly recommend a read." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48952115))

## What people warn about

- Author complicit, absolves herself (9 comments): "pretended not to see how awful all her colleagues were until her priorities shifted" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49264789)) "I think the author may actually be self-deluding herself as I can’t imagine her or her editors think anyone buys this argument." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47642292)) "the author leaves out how she profited millions and then only complained after she was fired" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47522931))
- Anecdotes lack corroborating evidence (2 comments): "contains a number of implausible anecdotes which people repeat as gospel truth even though they have not AFAIK been corroborated" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49248331)) "Many of the juicy stories from the book have no supporting evidence other than the claims of the author." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47642698))
- Hard to finish (3 comments): "I didn't finish the book. But it was shocking to me what the author was admitting to." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50184476)) "I got very far into this book, but didn't finish it, in large part because the author clearly needed to work through her problems a little more before publishing it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47897686)) "I read half of it. I couldn't get past her weird character attacks at his autism traits" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49248573))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl](https://hackerapproved.com/p/man-s-search-for-meaning.md): 13 recommend
- [Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! by Richard Feynman](https://hackerapproved.com/p/surely-you-re-joking-mr-feynman.md): 11 recommend
- [Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell](https://hackerapproved.com/p/down-and-out-in-paris-and-london.md): 9 recommend
- [Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain](https://hackerapproved.com/p/kitchen-confidential.md): 9 recommend
- [Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mein-kampf.md): 8 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/1035065932?tag=YOURTAG-20) (affiliate link)
- [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/YOURID/9781035065936) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams", https://hackerapproved.com/p/careless-people/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).