How to Rule the World - by Theo Baker (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

"Poignant, maddening, and genuinely hilarious, How to Rule the World is to be devoured--and fast, before Stanford buys up and sets fire to every copy. (Talk about a burn book!)" --Mark Leibovich, #1 New York Times bestselling author of This Town

Winner of the George Polk Award for his investigation that brought down Stanford's president, Theo Baker offers a revelatory and gripping account of Silicon Valley hubris

Slush funds. Shell companies. Yacht parties. This is life for Silicon Valley's favored teenagers.

Seventeen-year-old Theo Baker showed up for freshman year at Stanford University as a tech-obsessed coder. It seemed like paradise. There were Rodin sculptures next to nuclear laboratories and inventors lounging with Olympians. But Baker soon discovered a culture that embraced corner-cutting, that vested infinite excess and access in the hands of kids with few safeguards to catch bad behavior.

Stanford, he realized, was less a school than a business. Its annual budget was nearly twice that of Harvard or Yale and higher than those of 116 countries. The product? Students. Especially those special few identified as the next trillion-dollar startup founders. For them, there were secret societies, "pre-idea" funding offers, and social calls from billionaires, all with the expectation that these geniuses would soon join the ruling elite.

At the helm of this business was Marc Tessier-Lavigne, a superstar neuroscientist and wealthy biotech executive. But when Baker joined the student newspaper and started poking around the Stanford president's record, he discovered never-reported allegations of research misconduct in studies published across two decades bearing Tessier-Lavigne's name.

Only one month into college and thousands of miles from home, Baker began receiving anonymous letters, going on stakeouts, and tracking down confidential sources. High-powered lawyers and public relations teams were hired to attack his reporting. By the end of the year, Tessier-Lavigne was out as president.

This is the incredible story of how a reluctant teenage reporter uncovered a scandal that shook the scientific world and became front-page news across the country. It is also an unprecedented inside view of the students learning to rule the world--and what they're learning from those who already do.

How to Rule the World is a shocking, hilarious, and moving debut, showcasing Silicon Valley's training ground as never before.

Review Quotes

Praise for HOW TO RULE THE WORLD:

"I am a sucker for books that illuminate cultures born of hubris, stories that make you say, 'I had no idea this world existed.' Theo Baker achieves this for several such worlds at the same time: Silicon Valley, 'Nerd Nation' (as Stanford calls itself), oligarchy, and precocious youth generally. Poignant, maddening, and genuinely hilarious, How to Rule the World is to be devoured--and fast, before Stanford buys up and sets fire to every copy. (Talk about a burn book!)" --Mark Leibovich, #1 New York Times bestselling author of This Town

"How to Rule the World is the story of a young reporter unafraid to challenge Silicon Valley's billionaires and the powerful institutions that enable them--including his own university. Dogged, fearless, unflinching--Baker proves journalism's future is alive and fighting. Both a gripping personal journey and a searing indictment of our entanglement with tech wealth and influence, this book shows how real reporting can still unsettle, expose, and hold the powerful to account." --Emily Chang, national bestselling author and Emmy Award-winning journalist at Bloomberg Originals

"I first loved How to Rule The World because it manages to tell you everything you need to know about America in this particular moment by focusing so closely on the cloistered yet unimaginably powerful world of Stanford. And then I met Theo, a young man so brilliant and erudite that I walked away from our first meeting with a full reading list. His vulnerability and brilliance leap off the page in equal measure." --Amy Pascal, former chairwoman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, founder of Pascal Pictures, and producer of the Spider-Man films, James Bond, The Post, Little Women, and The Social Network

"Theo Baker has written a page-turning drama about what happens when the search for scientific truth has to compete with personal and institutional power. His remarkable reporting has permanently changed the way we discuss research misconduct. Yet How to Rule the World is so much more. It's a vital story about how higher education has lost sight of the students and ideals it was created to serve." --Holden Thorp, editor-in-chief of Science and former chancellor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

"In How to Rule the World, the wunderkind Theo Baker combines the remarkable story of his astounding reporting as a Stanford freshman that led to the downfall of the university's president with his wry, insightful observations about Stanford's unique form of Silicon Valley arrogance. Both strands are rendered in spare and propulsive prose, making it a nearly unfathomable accomplishment from someone so young." --William Cohan, bestselling author of House of Cards

"How to Rule the World is a fascinating safari through modern academia, based on meticulous, damning reporting. Essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the culture of money and ambition that has taken hold at one of America's most storied institutions." --Jake Tapper, #1 New York Times bestselling author and Emmy Award-winning anchor at CNN

"Stanford is one of America's most influential and fascinating institutions, and the gulf between those qualities and the attention it receives is vast. The world badly needs an inside account of this mysterious corner of the country from which so much wealth has oozed, and Theo Baker is the perfect author to deliver it." --Jonathan Chait, staff writer at The Atlantic

"This book is a funny, mind-blowing and infuriating exposé of Silicon Valley's feeder school." --Michael Grunwald, contributing writer to New York Times Opinion and bestselling author The New New Deal and We Are Eating the Earth

"But if that scandal put Baker on the map, his upcoming book may cement his reputation as the rare young journalist willing to challenge Silicon Valley's startup machine. . . Baker represents something both exciting and increasingly uncommon: a star student betting his career on accountability journalism." --Connie Loizos, TechCrunch

Praise for the work of Theo Baker:

"Mr. Baker's reporting was thorough and fearless--undertaken in circumstances in which he had much to lose. . . . With young people like this, the future of journalism looks bright." --John Darnton, winner of the Pulitzer Prize and curator and winner of the George Polk Award for Journalism

"Theo Baker's investigation . . . stands alongside some of the most significant journalistic endeavors of the year." --Dan Rather Medal for News and Guts

"One of America's greatest journalists." --Jonathan Reiner, CNN medical analyst and professor of medicine at George Washington University

"Phenomenal . . . at any level." --Clara Jeffery, editor-in-chief of Mother Jones

"A great journalism story . . . Journalism can really have an impact." --Kara Swisher, New York Times bestselling author of Burn Book

"A doggedly reported investigation with immediate impact, and a masterclass in holding the powerful to account." --Investigative Reporters and Editors Award

"The world's most impressive college student of all time." --Josh Brener, president of Stanford University on the Emmy Award-winning TV show Silicon Valley

About the Author

Theo Baker is an undergraduate at Stanford University. His reporting led to former Stanford president Marc Tessier-Lavigne's resignation and made Baker the youngest-ever recipient of the prestigious George Polk Award. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, New York magazine, The New York Times, and elsewhere. He will graduate from Stanford in June 2026.