Bill Gates Suggests He Would Be Diagnosed With Autism If He Were A Child Now
Former Microsoft CEO, Bill Gates during the launch of a new funding partnership to eradicate polio in Brussels, Belgium in 2023. (Alexandros Michailidis/Shutterstock)
One of the world’s richest men says that he may be neurodivergent and would likely be diagnosed with autism if he were a child today.
In a memoir that’s set to be released next week, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates reflects on his childhood, which was marked by difficulty with socialization and a tendency to focus deeply.
“If I were growing up today, I probably would be diagnosed on the autism spectrum,” Gates wrote in his book “Source Code: My Beginnings,” which was excerpted in The Wall Street Journal. “During my childhood, the fact that some people’s brains process information differently from others wasn’t widely understood.”
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Gates said his parents “struggled with their complicated son,” but guided him by pushing him into situations that would promote social skills like joining the baseball team or Cub Scouts or having dinner with friends while also supporting him emotionally. In addition, Gates said he had “constant exposure to adults,” which tapped into his curiosity.
“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 and inappropriate without seeming to notice his effect on others,” Gates wrote.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Gates credited his parents for sending him to a therapist to help him understand how he applied his energy and for sending him to a great school.
“Even with their influence, my social side would be slow to develop, as would my awareness of the impact I can have on other people,” Gates wrote in the book. “But that has come with age, with experience, with children, and I’m better for it. I wish it had come sooner, even if I wouldn’t trade the brain I was given for anything.”
Gates said in the interview that he recognizes behaviors in himself today that are consistent with autism.
“I have a behavior where I rock that bothers people, but that’s also common, so-called self-stimming type thing,” he told the newspaper. “Looking back on that, because I didn’t behave in a standard way, and yet that deep concentration that got applied to math and science and eventually to all those programming experiences I had, that became a strength.”
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