Tech billionaires mired in their reality-distortion fields

TECH billionaires are so deep in their own reality-distortion fields that their perception of the world can get dangerously warped. That’s the conclusion I drew from reading Sarah Wynn-Williams’ astonishing memoir about her time running global policy at Meta Platforms. The company has sought to block its publication, offering a case study in the Streisand effect and vaulting Careless People to the top of the charts on Amazon.com.

The book chimed with what I previously heard from former Meta executives about the company’s hypocrisy, its obsessive drive for growth and chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg’s fixation on developing a fanbase. But Wynn-Williams’ vantage point in his inner orbit and that of former chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, detailing the power they wielded, also highlighted a dire need for limits to some tech leadership tenures. Wynn-Williams doesn’t offer answers, but here’s one: No single person should lead a platform for billions of users for more than a decade, never mind more than 20 years, as Zuckerberg has. Over the years and amid a string of political leaders entering and exiting power, he has been a constant presence, a monarch in a hoodie. Perhaps he needs a break just like them.

Wynn-Williams was at Facebook from 2011 to 2018. She persuaded early executives to make her the company’s first head of global policy because she believed in Facebook as a force for good. Over time, she watched with detached and horrified fascination as Zuckerberg exercised his growing power. She was in his private jet when a policy director explained how the company likely helped Donald Trump clinch his first presidential election in 2016.