Source Code (memoir)
2025 book by Bill Gates
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Source Code: My Beginnings is a memoir by Bill Gates. The book covers his early life and the foundation of Microsoft, ending in the late 1970s when Microsoft signed their first deal with Apple.[1] It is the first of three planned memoirs by Gates.[2] The second will cover his years at Microsoft and the third his philanthropy.[2] It was published by Penguin's imprints Alfred A. Knopf in the United States and Allen Lane in the United Kingdom.[1][3]
| |
| Author | Bill Gates |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Memoir |
| Publisher | Penguin Random House |
Publication date | February 1, 2025 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Book |
| Pages | 336 |
| ISBN | 978-0593801581 |
Reception
Several reviewers noted Gates’s penchant for self-deprecation and his ability to humanize his success. Writing for The Guardian, Steven Poole remarked that Gates conveyed humility, in contrast to other tech titans. Poole wrote: "There is a sense of the writer, older and wiser, trying to redeem the past through understanding it better."[4] David Shaywitz of The Wall Street Journal also praised Gates’s candidness, writing that the reader is "treated to an unexpectedly revealing account".[5] In The New York Times, Jennifer Szalai liked the description of Gates's youth but found that not much happened in many parts of the memoir: "Source Code contains plenty of nicely rendered details, but as far as narrative tension goes, for the first 50 pages or so there is hardly any."[6] She wrote that Gates might have to grapple with more difficult reflections on his later years in his two upcoming memoirs.