Source Code by Bill Gates: Can a Life Really Be Explained?

The Book Brief Project · Sep 4, 2026 · 14m

Source Code begins with a seductive metaphor: if Bill Gates became Bill Gates, perhaps somewhere in his childhood we can find the instructions that produced him. Before Microsoft, the billions and the public figure, there was a difficult boy in Seattle, an unusually competitive family, access to a school computer at exactly the right historical moment, and friendships that changed the direction of his life.Gates returns to Lakeside School, his early obsession with programming, his friendships with Kent Evans and Paul Allen, and the combination of temperament, opportunity and loss that…