Find the perfect gift this Christmas

Source Code

byBill Gates

My Beginnings

Format:

HardbackPaperbackEbookAudio Download

Pre-order:

AmazonOpens in a new tabBlackwellsOpens in a new tabBookshop.orgOpens in a new tabFoylesOpens in a new tabHiveOpens in a new tabWaterstonesOpens in a new tabWHSmithOpens in a new tab
Everyone is programmed a bit differently. Source Code tells the human, personal story of how Bill Gates became who he is today. Taking us back to his beginnings, Gates describes with candour his childhood in Seattle, the centrality of family – his close relationship with his card-playing grandmother and his demanding but caring parents – his struggles to fit in, his rebelliousness, his first deep friendships and the impact of losing his closest friend.

We follow his extraordinary development as a restless teenager who discovered a love of coding and computing at the dawn of a new era, and see the earliest signs of the phenomenal business acumen that led him to drop out of Harvard at the age of 20 to devote all his energies to Microsoft. We also learn what distinguishes him from others in his line: from his first encounters with the three Steves – Jobs, Wozniak and Ballmer – to when Microsoft signed its first deal with Apple in the late 1970s and beyond, Gates never forgot his mother’s reminder that he was merely a steward of any wealth that he gained.

This warm and inspiring book allows readers to understand Gates's energy and ambition – and to see how he sets himself in the world.

Refreshingly frank ... Bill Gates is John McEnroe of the tech world ... [he] recounts the first two decades of his life, from his birth in 1955 to the founding of Microsoft and its agreement to supply a version of the Basic programming language to Apple Computer in 1977. There is a genuine gratitude for influential mentors, and a wry mood of self-deprecation throughout ... a sense of the writer, older and wiser, trying to redeem the past through understanding it better

Guardian

About Bill Gates

Bill Gates is a technologist, business leader, and philanthropist. In 1975, he co-founded Microsoft with his childhood friend Paul Allen and today he is chair of the Gates Foundation. Bill is the founder of Breakthrough Energy, an effort to commercialize clean energy and other climate-related technologies, and TerraPower, a company investing in developing groundbreaking nuclear technologies. He has three children.
Details
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • ISBN: 9781802068412
  • Length: 336 pages
  • Price: £10.99
All editions