Bill Gates' daughter attended secret Stanford class on ruling the world
There are college classes where you learn accounting, coding, philosophy, name it. And then there’s Stanford, apparently, where a hand-picked group of students can spend 10 weeks learning how to “rule the world.”
Phoebe Gates, the 23-year-old daughter of Bill Gates, reportedly took part in the invitation-only Stanford class known as “So You Think You Can Rule the World?” while she was a student at the university. Let’s go into the class description which gets progressively more villainous the longer you stare at it.
Welcome to “Rule”
According to reporting from the Stanford Daily and New York Post, the unofficial course, nicknamed “Rule,” is not listed like a normal Stanford class. It reportedly has no enrollment code, isn't publicly advertised and accepts just 12 students at a time.
The person behind “Rule” is Justin Lewis-Weber, a Stanford alumnus who created the course during his junior year. According to The Stanford Daily, Lewis-Weber wanted to bring together students he believed could have a significant impact on the world.
Students meet weekly for 10 weeks to discuss money, power, and the incentive structures and frameworks that supposedly determine how the world works. A former student described the course as teaching people how to essentially “hack” power and bureaucratic structures to get what they want. According to another former student, the approach was more about spotting vulnerabilities and loopholes than simply learning how institutions are supposed to function.
The Phoebe Gates tech-founder connection
The revelation of Gates’ participation in “Rule” comes at an especially awkward time for the billionaire’s daughter. Her AI-powered shopping startup, Phia, has recently faced allegations surrounding so-called cookie stuffing, a practice in which affiliate tracking cookies can allegedly make it appear that a company referred a customer to a retailer when it didn't actually generate the sale.
Reports citing testing by Bloomberg, affiliate-marketing researcher Ben Edelman and Capital One Shopping allege that Phia's browser extension tagged users in a way that could allow it to claim commissions on purchases it didn't generate.
Those allegations are separate from the Stanford class, and they don't establish that Gates did anything wrong. However, the timing makes both developments even more intriguing.
Some classmates weren't sold on Gates as a tech founder
It has come out that there was some skepticism among former classmates about Gates' technical background. Gates studied human biology at Stanford and, according to former classmates cited by Page Six, did not take advanced computer science courses. Some classmates reportedly questioned how prepared she was to run a technology company, particularly one built around AI.
That does not automatically mean someone can't build a successful tech startup. After all, plenty of founders aren't engineers, and running a technology company involves considerably more than writing code. But it does make the “Rule” story more interesting.
Sources: Barstool Sports, New York Post, UNILAD TECH
