Source Code: My Beginnings
by Bill Gates
By his own account, Bill Gates growing up today would likely be diagnosed on the autism spectrum. This first of three planned memoirs follows a defiant Seattle kid who missed social cues and could hyperfocus, and it ends when he's about 23, before the Microsoft you know.
Core ideas
- Early access: At Lakeside School in 1968 he found a teletype linked to a remote computer, and by about 15 was writing payroll programs with Paul Allen.
- Near misses and loss: He was nearly expelled for hacking corporate computers, lost best friend Kent Evans to a mountaineering accident, and saw Microsoft nearly fail.
- Memory checked: Former Wall Street Journal reporter Rob Guth fact-checked the book and found Gates's ninth-grade grades were A's and B's, not straight A's.
Published2025
Pages336
ISBN9780593801581
ReadSep 2025
