Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and chairman of the Gates Foundation, shares insights from his memoir, "Source Code." He discusses the rise of conspiracy theories during the pandemic, attributing them to societal trends fueled by technology. Gates reflects on a dinner with Donald Trump, emphasizing the need for government support in global health initiatives. He also tackles the complexities of wealth distribution and the ethical responsibilities of billionaires, while contemplating the transformative impact of AI on society and politics.
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Dinner at Mar-a-Lago
Bill Gates had a long dinner with President Trump at Mar-a-Lago after the 2016 election.
They discussed global issues, including HIV, PEPFAR, and polio eradication.
insights INSIGHT
Political Concerns
Bill Gates expresses concern about potential political consequences for supporting Democrats.
He also notes broad attacks on foundations and vaccines.
insights INSIGHT
Vaccine Skepticism
Bill Gates highlights the counterintuitive nature of vaccines and the role of skepticism.
He mentions the conspiracy theories targeting him and Anthony Fauci, emphasizing the absurdity.
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In 'Source Code,' Bill Gates shares an intimate and personal story of his early life, including his childhood in Seattle, his close relationship with his family, and his struggles to fit in. The book details his discovery of coding and computing, his time at Harvard, and his decision to drop out to start Microsoft with Paul Allen. It also touches on his interactions with key figures like Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Steve Ballmer, and ends with Microsoft's first deal with Apple in the late 1970s. The memoir highlights Gates' extraordinary mind, his business acumen, and his personal growth, offering a warm and inspiring portrait of his life before he became a public figure.
In the nineteen-eighties and nineties, Bill Gates was the best known of a new breed: the tech mogul—a coder who had figured out how to run a business, and who then seemed to be running the world. Gates was ranked the richest person in the world for many years. In a new memoir, “Source Code,” he explains how he got there. The book focusses on Gates’s early life, and just through the founding of Microsoft. Since stepping away from the company, Gates has devoted himself to his foundation, which is one of the largest nonprofits working on public health around the globe. That has made him the target of conspiracy theories by anti-vaxxers, including Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who has asserted that Gates and Anthony Fauci are together responsible for millions of deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic. Gates views the rise of conspiracy thinking as symptomatic of larger trends in American society exacerbated by technology. “The fact that outrage is rewarded because it’s more engaging, that’s kind of a human weakness,” he tells David Remnick. “And the fact that I thought everybody would be doing deep analysis of facts and seeking out the actual studies on vaccine safety—boy, was that naïve. When the pandemic came, people wanted some evil genius to be behind it. Not some bat biology.
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