3.5/5 ⭐️

This book was a harder read than I had expected. I had expected a simple grind of how evil Facebook is. What this memoir was, instead, was truly a memoir. Memoirs are not perfect, nor, do I believe, should they strive to be. Pedantic, careful memoirs are not terribly fun (read: interesting) to read. Rather, a memoir should be a dumping of your thoughts on a topic, loosely following the theme you think is there, but perhaps meandering on side quests from time to time.

This, truly then, was a memoir. Wynn Williams is not perfect. Large chunks of this book laid bare how much of the situations she got herself into were of her own making, whether by simple ignorance, or more elaborately constructed logical crystals that protected her from the reality of what she was either asked to do, or actually sought out to do.

In two facing paragraphs, she'll describe someone as calculating and cold, and then explain how she really enjoyed having that person in the office, and bonded over fairly superficial things. In short, Wynn Williams was being a human, in a human world. Midway through her recounting of her life while she was working for Facebook I couldn't shake the feeling that her naivete and awkwardness led her to many of the worst situations she found herself in. Yet, on balance, by the end of the book, I could she how we all get trapped by our thoughts in any one moment, and that Wynn Williams really tried to make the best decisions for her family and her career at most junctions.

Did that help her avoid being complicit in some pretty heinous things? No. But it does make for some compelling tell-all style stories from inside those decisions. And she comes out looking a hell of a lot better than the rest of senior leadership at Facebook. I am glad I read this book, and I'm glad Wynn Williams found the strength and conviction to write her account. The world is a richer place for more different perspectives on how things played out. Ultimately, I think the biggest revelation I came away from this book with is how easy it is to spend a lot of your professional life doing work that simultaneously unfulfilling personally, and morally bankrupt, without feeling like you have a choice.

But as Dan Simmons articulates very well in the conclusion of Hyperion, we always have a choice. If there is one defining characteristic of humanity it's that choice is never an illusion, just a challenge. In the face of that, choose again. If you're unhappy or facing moral issues at work, choose again. If you want a better life for you family or your health, choose again. If the people around you are asking you to do things you'd rather not do, choose again. Wynn Williams' memoir is less a scathing indictment of evil (or simply careless) people. We know Sandberg, Zuckerburg and Kaplan are not role models, nor even really career models already. Instead, Wynn Williams memoir is a reminder to stand taller, respect yourself and choose again.