Careless People: Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis

Facebook’s main staff is notoriously difficult to reach, so Wynn-Williams spends a lot of time trying to contact them to pitch them on giving her a job. In 2010, she learns that they have hired Marne Levine to be vice president of global public policy, so she decides to try to network with her. She uses Facebook to find that she and Marne have one friend in common: Ed Luce. Wynn-Williams and Ed get drinks, where Ed is confused about Wynn-Williams’s fixation on Facebook but offers to help by sending Marne and email.

Wynn-Williams follows up throughout 2010 but hears nothing back from Marne. When she finally gets a meeting right before the end of the year, she figures Marne must just be doing a favor for Ed. After working in the formal work setting of embassies, Wynn-Williams is shocked to see things like Nerf guns in the Facebook Washington, D.C. office.

Wynn-Williams is intimidated by Marne, who asks difficult questions about why Wynn-Williams wants to be a “diplomat” for Facebook. Wynn-Williams begins to make progress, however, when she points out how governments might eventually start making laws to limit Facebook’s growth. Eventually, however, Marne says that she’s looking for people more familiar with the U.S.’s regulatory process, not New Zealand’s. At the end of the meeting, she says they should stay in touch, but Wynn-Williams takes this as a rejection.

Wynn-Williams is surprised when Marne does indeed call her later. The Arab Spring has just happened, which reminds Marne of some of the things Wynn-Williams brought up in their meeting, and Marne wants an opinion on whether Zuckerberg should take  credit for Arab Spring. Wynn-Williams points out that it depends on Facebook’s China strategy, since taking credit for a people’s revolution might make China ban Facebook. Marne puts in Wynn-Williams’s resume for a Facebook position in Australia, but Wynn-Williams is devastated when she doesn’t get it.

That February, when Wynn-Williams is accompanying Tom, her boyfriend at the time and future husband, on a work trip in Atlanta, she gets a panicked call from her sister Ruthie on a number she doesn’t recognize. Ruthie says she thinks she’s going to die, and the call drops. Wynn-Williams soon finds out there’s been a major earthquake in Christchurch. After a lot of calling, she eventually manages to get through to her parents, who haven’t heard from her sister.

Wynn-Williams finally learns that Ruthie has survived when she sees a message from her on Facebook. Wynn-Williams learns more about the earthquake on Facebook, since traditional media in Christchurch is still down. Wynn-Williams decides to call Marne directly on her cell phone and tell her about what she learned about Facebook from the Christchurch disaster. Marne is reluctant, but over the course of three months, Wynn-Williams manages to wear her down and get the job of Manager of Global Public Policy at Facebook.