looking back

Bill Gates Looks Back on His Childhood in New Memoir: ‘I Was Different From Many of My Peers’

The billionaire Microsoft founder and philanthropist's new memoir, the first of three planned parts, reflects on his early life and how his neurodivergence shaped him

By Jonathan Zavaleta

Jonathan Zavaleta

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January 29, 2025

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Bill Gates is feeling reflective. After turning his focus outward with books like How to Avoid a Climate Disaster and How to Prevent the Next Pandemic, he’s looking inward on Source Code, the first of three planned memoirs by the multibillionaire founder of Microsoft. Source Code is available Feb. 4 as a hardcover, paperback, or ebook. Wil Wheaton (Stand By Me, The Big Bang Theory) and Bill Gates narrate the Audible version.

Bill Gates' New Memoir 'Source Code' Reflects on Childhood

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Source Code

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Source Code focuses on Gates’ early life, childhood, and his path to the world of technology. As the summary explains, “Source Code is not about Microsoft or the Gates Foundation or the future of technology. It’s the human, personal story of how Bill Gates became who he is today.” The book is published by Knopf, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

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In the book and while doing press, Gates has gotten candid about his neurodivergence, a term that did not exist when he was growing up. In an excerpt of the book shared with the Wall Street Journal, he wrote “If I were growing up today, I probably would be diagnosed on the autism spectrum,” adding, “My parents had no guideposts or textbooks to help them grasp why their son became so obsessed with certain projects, missed social cues and could be rude and inappropriate without seeming to notice his effect on others.”

In a Times of London interview, Gates also discussed his fellow billionaires. He was diplomatic regarding President Trump, calling their Mar-a-Lago meeting “pretty constructive” and telling the publication he spoke to Trump about green energy and finding a cure for HIV. Gates did not mince words when discussing Elon Musk, however, calling out the Tesla CEO’s attempts to influence foreign elections. “You want to promote the right wing but say Nigel Farage is not right-wing enough… I mean, this is insane shit.”

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