Billionaire memoirs
Mr Gates's programming prowess and entrepreneurial zeal were entwined from the start. Even as a youngster, he had a propensity to bend rules and push boundaries. Mr Gates describes how, as a schoolboy, he would climb out of his bedroom window and sneak off to use the computer at night. At Harvard he and a friend, Paul Allen, made unofficial use of the university's computers to develop Altair BASIC, the first product of the company they founded, known as Micro-Soft.
盖茨的编程能力和创业热情从一开始就融合在一起。即使在年少时，他就有一种打破常规、挑战极限的能力。盖茨描述，他还是小学生时，如何在晚上从卧室的窗户爬出来，偷偷溜出去使用电脑的经历。在哈佛大学，他和朋友保罗·艾伦(Paul Allen)未经学校批准而使用计算机，开发了Altair BASIC，成为他们俩共同所创立的微软公司的首款产品。
Also striking is how Mr Gates lucidly describes his childhood awkwardness. These days, he speculates, he would probably be diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. This makes the self-awareness on display in the book ("my ability back then to filter my reactions wasn't very highly developed", he recalls of his Harvard days) all the more surprising.
同样的惊人之处是盖茨清晰地描述了童年的尴尬经历。他推测，如果把那段经历置于现在，他可能会被诊断为患自闭症。这使得他在书中所展示的自我意识（他在回忆自己的哈佛时光时说：“那时我过滤自己反应的能力还有待发育”）更加令人惊讶。