Source Code

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death.

Gates began seventh grade at Lakeside School, an elite, all-white, college-prep school 20 minutes from his home. The class-clown persona that he cultivated at his public school was not successful at Lakeside, and Gates repeatedly received poor grades. In eighth grade, he became friends with Kent Evans, a fellow outsider who pushed Gates to consider what he really wanted out of life. The boys bonded over their interest in current events and love for camping.

Meanwhile, Lakeside acquired a teletype machine, which allowed students and teachers to have part-time access to a supercomputer in California. Gates quickly became obsessed with the machine, which satisfied his love for problem-solving. The first code that Gates wrote was a tic-tac-toe game; he then developed a more complex lunar-landing game. Gates quickly learned that code writing takes concentration and intention. Because the computer couldn’t infer his meaning or intuit mistakes, he had to be precise with his codes.

Gates was one of many Lakeside students interested in working with the computer. Another was Paul Allen, future co-founder of Microsoft, who secured Gates’s help in solving problems by insisting that Gates wouldn’t be able to.