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Chapter 2
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Careless People, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Carelessness, Wealth, and Greed
Idealism and the Failed Promises of Technology
Sexism in the Workplace
Bureaucracy and Obstacles to Change
Summary
Analysis
Wynn-Williams’s first day at Facebook is July 5, 2011, at a new location of the Washington, DC, office. She makes the mistake on the first day of not bringing her laptop, not realizing that it is supposed to be her main work computer until a coworker named Meredith informs her. She runs back right away to get it before Marne comes in.
Wynn-Williams gets to work on her first day. She tries to set up a meeting between the prime minister of New Zealand (John Key) and Zuckerberg, only for her coworkers to inform her that Zuckerberg has zero interest in politics or meetings with politicians, leaving all of that to Sheryl Sandberg. Sandberg is also reluctant to take the meeting but agrees to “drop by” if Elliot Schrage, Marne’s boss, is listed as the official host. Debbie Frost, the director of global communications at Facebook, is skeptical about the meeting at first, but she eventually becomes one of Wynn-Williams’s closest friends at the company due to how frank she is.
This meeting with John Key becomes a way for Wynn-Williams to learn the dynamics of Facebook and its leadership. She realizes that if she wants to make people like Zuckerberg and even Sandberg care about Facebook’s role in global politics, she will have to convince them. The way that Sandberg will only agree to a meeting it it’s phrased as her “dropping by” shows how in spite of the tech world’s reputation for less formality, it comes with its own social rules to navigate.
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As Wynn-Williams organizes the New Zealand meeting, Facebook doesn’t yet have any talking points or strategy for foreign governments, so she tries to brief Sandberg on some potentially relevant issues. When the time for the meeting finally arrives, Wynn-Williams can tell that both the Facebook team and the New Zealand delegation are skeptical. John Key arrives early and everyone is surprised when it turns out they know each other—Key knows Ruthie from her work as a reporter and just heard recently about Wynn-Williams’s engagement.
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Just then, Zuckerberg enters the room, confused and annoyed by all the security. It’s Wynn-Williams’s first time seeing him in person. Zuckerberg repeats that he has no interest in meeting the New Zealand prime minister, not realizing that John Key is right there in the room. He complains that he heard his engineers were being pushed around by security. It’s an unspoken rule at Facebook that people from “Sheryl’s side” of the company can’t ever interfere with what the engineers do. Wynn-Williams gets a reluctant Zuckerberg to take a quick photo with John Key, which was one of the main things New Zealand wanted. Zuckerberg talks grudgingly for a few minutes before leaving.
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Later, when Wynn-Williams takes John Key to see Elliot Schrage and Sheryl Sandberg, the difference compared to Zuckerberg is striking. She is surprised at how charismatic Sandberg can be. To Wynn-Williams’s surprise, Sandberg and Key talk of almost nothing of substance, with Key talking at length about his friend Choppy who gives good helicopter tours of New Zealand.
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