Recent Reads | Source Code: My Beginnings

Source Code:  My Beginnings

By Bill Gates

Ross’ Recommendation

If you are younger than 80, it is likely that much of your work and personal communications experience has been shaped by the products of Microsoft Corporation (MSFT). It may have started with early versions of MS-DOS, transitioned to Windows, limited exposure to the recently demised Skype, carries on with LinkedIn, and now ChatGPT. Microsoft is the air we breathe.

MSFT founder, Bill Gates, stepped down as the Company’s CEO in 2008. He no longer serves an executive role in the enterprise at the forefront of the development of Artificial Intelligence, a leader in the Magnificent 7. The publication of Source Code may simply be a vanity project for a faded icon trying to maintain some sense of relevance.

On a personal, self-interested level, I downloaded Source Code, hopeful I might find something in this great man’s autobiography of his awkward adolescence that resembled my own. I wasn’t as smart or as dorky, but I hoped we shared some insight, some experience. Pure whimsy.

As a 15-year-old, I had the coveted position of store clerk and stock boy at a small-town drug store. You had a similar job, or maybe worked in a fast food restaurant. At 15, Bill Gates was writing software solutions for school systems, government agencies, and corporations, trying to gain an edge. We might not have been as awkward and dorky as Bill Gates, but we were never in the same league.

Absence of similarities aside, I really enjoyed this book. Bill Gates’ early motivations and drive were pure; he wanted to make something better and new. In his long-running second act at the Gates Foundation, he maintains that drive to solve the world’s problems.

In recent weeks, in response to the Trump Administration’s shuttering of US AID and other humanitarian efforts, Gates has gone public in his decision to accelerate disbursement of The Foundation’s $ 200B. He’s concerned that prior efforts are carelessly being abandoned and is stepping up to keep the programs alive.

We will do well to watch Bill Gates. We should support him.

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