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Bill Gates speaks with GeekWire’s Todd Bishop about his book, Source Code. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)
In advance of the release of his new memoir, Source Code: My Beginnings, Bill Gates sat down with GeekWire for a wide-ranging conversion on topics including his extraordinary upbringing, the key people and influences in his life, the remarkable circumstances that led to his work in software, and his outlook on the world today.
We’re presenting this interview in two parts, this one focusing on Gates’ new book and his life, and his thoughts on where the world is headed from here.
On an upcoming episode, as part of our Microsoft @ 50 series, we’ll hear his thoughts on the evolution of the company that he and Paul Allen started five decades ago, opportunities in AI, and what’s next for Microsoft and the industry.
Listen to Part 1 of the interview on this episode of the GeekWire Podcast, see video highlights below, and continue reading for edited excerpts from the conversation.
What do you hope people will take away from this book, and from your story of growing up?
Bill Gates: Well, I was unbelievably lucky. I had a lot of fun talking about my mom, who was amazing, and I had a complicated relationship with her that somehow motivated me. My dad, I have such incredible admiration for the example he set. There’s a lot of times in my early career where he helps out, and I learned a lot from him.
And then the two other people who are prominent in this phase of my life are Kent Evans, who tragically dies [in a mountaineering accident] when I’m in 11th grade, and then Paul, who was two years ahead of me at Lakeside, but then after Kent is killed, [Paul] comes back and helps me with the scheduling program, and we got very intense in terms of, OK, we’re going to start a company.
As you acknowledge at the end of the book, you and Kent were destined to do something together as adults, to work together. Do you ever stop and think what Microsoft, or whatever you would have created, might have been like had he lived?
Gates: It’s hard to know, but Kent did a couple of things for me. Even in eighth and ninth grade, he was thinking, OK, should we be ambassadors, generals, or CEOs? And I was like, what? Okay, which of those jobs is more fun? Who makes more money? … He got me reading Fortune magazine.
He had this very out-in-the-world thing. He was getting good grades across the board, he was in the independent study where I was still kind of in this [mindset of], hey, act like I don’t care except in math and not work as hard. But he was very intense. And so, he was by far my closest friend. …
Paul, in his own way, was very unique. Paul was the one reading about Moore’s Law and telling me this exponential improvement thing. I was like, “Paul, do you know that’s mind-blowing? Everybody should be running around shouting because that means computing will be free.” I got the benefit of Kent’s unique thinking and Paul’s unique thinking.
Paul was also the person who introduced you to LSD.
Gates: That’s right. He got me drunk. He gave me pot. This guy was a problem. Jimi Hendrix, I mean, he made me listen to that music. [Laughter.]
Bill Gates speaks about his new book, Source Code: My Beginnings. (GeekWire Photo / Kevin Lisota)
I love it because you’ve got multiple forces in your life with the people around you. Your mom was this stabilizing force with high expectations. Your dad would ask, “Are you organized?” as his way of saying, do you have your life in order? And Paul would ask, “Are you experienced?”
Gates: Paul loved handing me challenges. So, the original thing where that computer terminal is there, and people are befuddled by it. I had done so well on a math exam that Paul was literally the one who said, “Oh, yeah. You think you’re so smart. Can you figure this thing out?” And kind of drew me into it, and I brought Kent along.
What has it been like for you to revisit these years?
Gates: It’s not my normal thing to be looking backwards. I mean, even when Microsoft would have our 10th anniversary, I’d be like “Hey, we’ve got to survive and move faster than everybody else.” And this looking backwards thing, I don’t know. But because I’m turning 70, Microsoft turning 50, the foundation is 25, and my dad would have been 100, it actually has been very interesting making sure I explain all these different opportunities I got.
Your parents, Bill Sr. and Mary Gates, set a very high bar in parenting.
Gates: Well, I couldn’t have been luckier in terms of both my mother and father. …
My parents encouraged me to talk to adults. My social skills were slow to develop. I was much better at talking to adults than I was even to most of my peer group. That comes from my parents having lots of events at their house with friends or related to my dad’s career. That was invaluable. I would ask some questions. The way my dad would share lawsuits and explain, “OK, this is what antitrust means,” it’s like, oh, wow, so interesting.
And yet, I think you would acknowledge, you were an extremely difficult kid to parent at times.
Gates: My parents, there was a period of about three or four years where they were befuddled …
That led to them having me see a therapist, Dr. Cressey, which that also worked out super well, because he, over a period of a year, and he did it in a very clear way, said, “You’re wasting your energy fighting your parents. They love you. Therefore, you win and that isn’t what you should be putting your energy into.” And he was very nice to me. He gave me an IQ test. He had me read all these books. And I was like, “Oh, God, you’re right.”
By the time I was 13 or so, it did improve quite a bit.
You write, “If I were growing up today, I’m sure that I would be diagnosed on the autism spectrum.” Why was it important for you to write that or to say that publicly?
Gates: Well, I think it’s a level of honesty there, that when I would do a 200-page Delaware report, and I would turn that in, and everybody else’s report is 10 pages … it’s like, wow, I am different.
In social situations, OK, who do I sit with? And how do people perceive this thing? And I’m miscuing, or even that when I’m in thought, still to this day, and people give me a hard time, when I’m thinking hard, I’ll start rocking, which is a stimming, comforting behavior. …
And I do think it’s valuable for anybody who’s different to see that I was able to take that and make it a strength.
The level of candor was one of the things that struck me about this book, but of course, this is just the first installment in your memoirs. Do you think you’ll be able to keep up this level of introspection and self-criticism in the next installments about Microsoft and beyond?
Gates: Well, we’ll see. One luxury of hyper success should be that you’re willing to admit your shortcomings.
And the whole evolution of how I manage people, there’s a lot of mea culpa in that I managed other people like I manage myself, which is work harder, be tougher and don’t waste time. If you know something, move on to the next thing. And it works for me, managing me, but it only works with a very narrow set of other people who are like me.
So that limits the people you can have. And over time, I recognized that. I mean, I was so ridiculous.
We’re at a time of transition with the U.S. presidential administration. The Gates Foundation itself is in a time of transition, with you taking over in the sole chair role, and with Melinda [French Gates] departing. Can you give me a sense for where your thoughts are these days in terms of the broader world?
Gates: My general impression is that all of the innovation that I get to work on — whether it’s Microsoft, OpenAI, AI things — is going faster and better than I expected. … Innovation is going in climate, in software, and global health and agriculture is going faster than I expected. … The world that we’re delivering that innovation into is a less stable, more polarized world than I would have expected. And that’s somewhat of a surprise to me.
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Has working on this book changed how you’re thinking about your own life from here, and how you’re going to continue, and ultimately finish this story of Bill Gates on Planet Earth?
Gates: Well, turning 70 is stunning to me, because in a certain sense, there were no old people in the [early days of] personal computers. … Now, I feel like I still have some ability to understand and even help guide these things a little bit. It’s so different than when I was young, thinking older people really could never figure out the important things.
I probably have, with a little bit of luck, 20 years where I can play an active role. And so, in my full-time job, which is the foundation job, Mark Suzman and I and the team, over the course of this year, will talk about what our goals are for the rest of this time, for the next 20 years. …
The climate work, there’ll be some policy things that are less favorable. But even so, I think the theory of innovation, making cheap, clean technology is one of the few things that survives the [reduced] willingness to subsidize.The [Inflation Reduction Act] has a lot of good stuff in it. We’ll see how much of that ends up being preserved.
But, yeah, when you write a book like this, it does make you think, OK, boy, I have a limited amount of time. How do I want to focus my time? Which goals do I want to work on? And I want to take the money that I’m lucky enough to have from Microsoft and have the foundation spend it to the greatest impact possible.
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