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Chapter 29
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
By February 2016, government leaders around the world are accusing Facebook of radicalizing terrorists, leading to increased scrutiny the basically the death of Internet.org. Wynn-Williams thinks Facebook needs to change its approach, but Joel, Sandberg, and Elliot remain committed to street fighter tactics. When Wynn-Williams is tasked with writing a proposal bringing up Facebook’s recent problems to the board of directors, she sees it as an opportunity to convince them to try something new, asking for expanded funding and staff to deal with the threat of regulation.
A board of directors is less involved in the day-to-day running of a company but can play a major role in determining overall strategy—even Zuckerberg must answer to his board. Wynn-Williams has begun to learn by now that Facebook is plagued by many of the same problems she ran into during her earlier career in diplomacy, where it can be hard to build enough of a consensus to effect change.
Active
Themes
Wynn-Williams hopes to frighten the board with her presentation about Facebook’s dire state, but none of them seem much concerned, and the ensuing conversation doesn’t solve anything. Later, at Wynn-Williams’s performance review, Joel says that Wynn-Williams is generally doing well but sometimes has “no poker face.” He cites the board meeting as an example, where it was obvious to some members that Wynn-Williams was rolling her eyes, something she didn’t realize. Joel declines to say when she rolled her eyes, but Wynn-Williams suspects it was when board members started suggesting that the rise of far-right parties in Europe could be good for Facebook’s regulatory problems.
