For his first trick, Peter Thiel will diss college and then teach the most popular course at Stanford University. Then, in his first class, the PayPal co-founder might welcome Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg to campus.
All bets are off for the Silicon Valley superstar's foray into the halls of his alma mater as instructor, as Thiel's "Computer Science 183: Startup" is the hottest thing on Stanford campus since... well, perhaps Thiel himself, who holds two degrees from Leland Stanford Jr. University, while encouraging budding minds to close the books and open up companies.
Thiel, who made piles of money after his stint with PayPay by bankrolling the likes of Facebook, LinkedIn, and Zynga, approached Stanford with the idea of teaching a class on entrepreneurship, which at Stanford is as popular as sleeping in and sweatpants are on other campuses, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
The class filled up to a capacity of 250 in minutes, according to the newspaper. There's a waitlist, and not everyone on it will get in: Thiel picks and chooses who gets to buy his books and listen to his lectures, which may include special guests like Zuckerberg, according to the newspaper.
Thiel's famously incongruous take on education is front and center. "If I do my job right, this is the last class you'll ever have to take," said Thiel, who holds bachelor's and law degrees from Stanford.
