Tech Billionaires Need a Break From Their Reality-Distortion Fields
An explosive new memoir reveals how Meta’s leadership became trapped in mind-bending power bubbles.
Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergTech 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 Inc. 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 Inc.
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 and 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 done. 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.