Source Code
My Beginnings
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Source Code
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Narrated by:
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Wil Wheaton
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Bill Gates
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By:
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Bill Gates
About this listen
Brought to you by Penguin.
Bill Gates is one of the most transformative figures of our age. In Source Code he takes us back to his beginnings.
He 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 see Gates’s extraordinary mind developing, the restless teenager who discovered a love of coding and computing at the dawn of a new era and felt that ‘by applying my brain, I could solve even the world’s most complex mysteries’. We see the earliest signs of his phenomenal business acumen, which led him to drop out of Harvard at the age of 20 to devote all his energies to Microsoft, the company he started with his childhood friend Paul Allen. He writes about his first involvement with three Steves – Jobs, Wozniak and Ballmer – who would play a crucial role in so much that followed.
The book ends in the late 1970s when Microsoft, still with only a dozen employees, signed its first deal with Apple. The deals would go on and Microsoft would grow unimaginably. Yet Gates never forgot his mother’s reminder that he was merely a steward of any wealth that he gained. This warm and inspiring book, Bill Gates’ origin story, allows readers to understand his energy and ambition – and to see how he sets himself in the world.
'A highly readable account of his early life up to the creation of Microsoft, Source Code is unusually personal and laced with self awareness.' - Financial Times
'A gentle, pensive autobiography...The pleasure of this reflective book is the sense of Old Bill Gates peeking over your shoulder, as bemused by Young Bill Gates as you are.' - Daily Mail
©2025 Bill Gates (P)2025 Penguin Audio
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What listeners say about Source Code
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Roy
- 19-02-25
An admirable gentleman
The story of success is well narrated but sometimes the technology overpowers the telling. From ordinary beginnings with solid family support a tale of hard won achievement.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kevin Leigh
- 19-02-25
Fascinating and informative early life of Bill Gates.
I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this absorbing book detailing Bill Gates’ family and early life and his creation of Microsoft. It’s a trip down memory lane of the first home computers and his involvement with all of them. The narrator is a great match for Bill Gates’ higher pitched nasally voice. You get used to it and it suits the narrative. I don’t know if their will be a follow up. Doubtless the rocket-like mostly upward projection of Bill Gates and Microsoft are already well-documented after he rose to fame in the computer world of the 1970s. This book gives the background to how it all began and explains the genius of the man while providing a fascinating sketch of how the personal computer evolved.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Mr. A. I. Hale
- 23-02-25
ideal America?
I get the impression that he and his parents and their community were doing the right things in the right place at the right time. And had the means to do so . This say lot for that section of society at that time. Elon Musk take note.
The narration is spoilt by the narrator "trailing off" at the end of sentences, often leaving the last word completely inaudible. Words are literally missing.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- M. Woods
- 10-02-25
Poor quality sound
I enjoyed this autobiography of his early life - the narrator did a good job - but the sound/recording quality was in places, terrible It seemed very distorted and fading away at the end of some sentences as if moving away from the microphone. I deducted one star for that reason. Otherwise it was a very good good listen.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 18-02-25
Very interesting beginning
A story of a competitive child who wants to prove himself to his mum while following and learning from his dad's approach in dealing with challenges.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- O'Dalaigh
- 04-03-25
Sorry Wil
A fascinating book, but I have to say I found Wil Wheaton’s read distracting. I’m just not a fan of an actors take on another person’s life. It isn’t a role. Fondly reminiscing and chuckling over some detail in the text is just an odd take.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- CC
- 02-03-25
Fascinating and … genuine
I kept wondering why Mark Watney was talking to me, not bill gates, but once I figured that out … all was good.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Justin Mathews
- 26-03-25
Genius in the making
Great insights into the early life of one of the great minds of our times. Leading life through myriad experiences, friendship, loss, business acumen and all the steps in those initial years are described with such colour and passion.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-02-25
Engrossing story
Well written, gripping account of his childhood and early years of Microsoft. Look forward to the next volumes
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- S. Bramble
- 17-03-25
Good book for all those who are Bill-curious
This book takes you behind the scenes of Bill's earlier life and tells you a lot of information that has not been previously documented. It explains his upbringing and how, as a child, he had very much an adult mind that was mature beyond its years.
It also explains how he met Paul Allen, Steve Ballmer, formed Microsoft and his early experiments with computing.
It would have been nice if the book went into detail about his early dealings with IBM, the Gary Kildall saga and how he made his initial fortune. It stops as soon as Microsoft was starting to become successful and the PC revolution was taking off.
I liked this book. Wil Wheaton's narration is a bit over enthusiastic at times and many of the lines mentioned in the book would not have been narrated with such vigor if Bill had been reading the book. His narration also trails off at the end of some sentences leaving them inaudible. This happens 8 or 9 times throughout the book.
I would recommend this book for anyone who is curious about the advent of the PC industry and the part that Bill Gates played in it
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