Source Code

Introduction — A Memoir About Origins, Not Legacy

When most people think of Bill Gates, they picture a billionaire founder, the architect behind Microsoft Windows, a philanthropic leader tackling global disease, or a symbol of the personal computer revolution. Yet Source Code focuses on none of that. Instead, Gates rewinds to childhood—to the decades before fame, wealth, or global platform—and asks a more human question:

How did the kid I was become the person who built Microsoft?

The memoir isn’t a history of products. It’s a story about influences, mistakes, mentorship, grief, curiosity, obsession, privilege, and luck. Gates makes clear that success didn’t spring from brilliance alone but from a perfect collision of environment, opportunity, timing, and relentless drive.

This is not the Bill most people know.
This is Bill before the world knew him.

1. Early Life in Seattle — A Childhood Shaped by Timing and Environment

Bill Gates was born in 1955 in Seattle, Washington—one of the luckiest places in the world to be a future technologist. Post-war America was booming. Boeing dominated the local economy, engineering was admired, and technology felt thrilling rather than intimidating. Gates describes Seattle as a city where ambition wasn’t unusual — it was expected.

His family embodied discipline and achievement. His father, Bill Gates Sr., a tall, steady, rational attorney, believed in fairness and calm logic. His mother, Mary Maxwell Gates, was outgoing, socially connected, civic-minded, and relentless in organizing community efforts. One parent taught analytical thinking; the other taught leadership, networking, service, and responsibility. Together they formed a powerful environment for a child with latent intensity.

But the family dynamic was more than inspirational. It was demanding. Expectations were high. Bill wasn’t merely encouraged—he was pushed to participate, apply himself, and meet standards of excellence. His mother believed deeply in structured development: sports, activities, social involvement, and good manners. Bill, however, felt out of place in sports and resisted being steered.

Then came his grandmother, Adelle "Gami" Thompson.

If his father taught logic and his mother taught drive, Gami taught strategy.

She was sharp, competitive, and a ruthless card player. Young Bill initially saw her as magical—she simply won. But he eventually realized she was counting cards mentally, storing patterns, and calculating probabilities. When he learned to do the same, he finally beat her. That victory wasn't about games—it was a discovery:

Complex problems yield to patient thinking.
Intelligence isn’t talent — it’s technique.

This lesson would one day power how he approached code, business, and technology.

2. The Troublesome Child — Curious, Rebellious, and Exceptionally Intense

Gates doesn’t romanticize his early personality. He admits he was often difficult—argumentative, obsessive, and socially odd. He rocked back and forth while thinking, which drew attention. He was small for his age and uninterested in the sports most boys bonded over. Instead he read voraciously, devouring biographies, math books, science material, and encyclopedias for fun. Teachers viewed him as gifted but disruptive, brilliant but stubborn.

He would ace something if it fascinated him and ignore it completely if it didn’t.

Where most kids balanced school and hobbies, ...