BOOK CLUB | DECEMBER
December 2, 2025: Source Code by Bill Gates. Sharon Hunt will lead the discussion for the December meeting.
Source Code – a memoir by Bill Gates – is not only his own story, but also an insight to a remarkable individual. It is a candid review of the early years of the co-founder of Microsoft and one of the most influential and life-changing business leaders in modern times. Gates dropped out of Harvard when he was twenty-years old to start a software company that became an industry giant and changed the way the world works and lives. He is a billionaire many times over who later turned his attention to philanthropic pursuits to address climate change, global health, and U.S. education. But Source Code is not about Microsoft or the Gates Foundation or the future of technology. It’s the story of Bill Gates’ childhood, his early interests, efforts, and the personal story of howGates became who he is today. It’s the story of his principled grandmother and ambitious parents, his first deep friendships and the sudden, painful death of a close friend. The book details Gates’ struggles to fit in and his discovery of a world of coding and computers. In the era before machine learning and AI, when computer programs were exclusively written by humans, the term “source code” described computer programs that could be read – and understood, if you knew the programming language – enabling you to explain why the machine did what it did. Gates was a very lucky child. He was born in the right place at the right time to parents who gave him support and opportunity to grow. He shares, however, that it was an uphill battle at times. His parents discovered that they had a boy who was a strange blend of high IQ, arrogance, rebelliousness, and insecurity. “If I were growing up today,” he writes, “I probably would be diagnosed on the autism spectrum. My parents had no guideposts or textbooks to help them grasp why their son became so obsessed with certain projects, missed social cues, and could be rude or inappropriate without seeming to notice” the impact on others. Eventually, his parents sent him to a therapist, and to a remarkable private school in Seattle, with a relaxed, liberal, and supportive environment. More importantly, though, some of the school’s families purchased a Teletype terminal and a block of computer time for the school’s students to use. This was extremely unusual in the 1960s and allowed Gates and some of his friends to write software in their teens, including doing so for several companies in the Seattle area. In 1973, Gates went to Harvard. He was determined to sample every offering from that institution, while relying on his exceptional ability to cram ferociously before tedious assignments orexams. He dropped out after a few years, and along with Paul Allen went to New Mexico where they later co-founded what was originally called Micro-Soft.
DECEMBER 2, 2025
JANUARY 6, 2025
Source Code by Bill Gates. The philanthropist and co-founder of Microsoft describes events from his childhood and his discovery of computers. Sharon Hunt will lead the discussion for the December meeting.
An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us by Ed Young. A comprehensive description of the different ways that animals perceive the world. There Fiechter will lead the discussion for the January meeting.
Please join us on December 2, 2025, at 4:00 pm in the Women’s Lounge as we discuss Source Code.
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