Bill Gates has revealed he was branded a ‘wise-ass’ and almost expelled from Harvard over ‘rule-breaking’.
The billionaire Microsoft co-founder, 69, reflected on his time at the university – which he enrolled at in 1975 – in his new memoir Source Code.
While he and friends were creating what would become the first Microsoft software, he was questioned about why he was spending so much time in the Aiken Computation Laboratory – 711 hours in the month of February alone.
Speaking of an associate director who confronted him about his usage at the centre, Gates penned: ‘In notes I recently found in my Harvard records, he wrote, “He [me] did not understand the ramifications of his activities and seemed totally unimpressed when I explained them to him.”
‘Other notes in my record have him commenting that I was “a wise-ass”. Perhaps I was. My ability back then to filter my reactions wasn’t very highly developed.’
Gates also shared how he almost became in deep trouble over breaking the strict rules of the laboratory.
‘As always, my dad went right to the key questions: Were the rules of the lab written down and communicated to you? How does the school distinguish your use of the computer from professors who use university resources for their commercial work?,’ he wrote.
Opening up about his LSD usage, a psychedelic drug that can cause hallucinations, the tech billionaire revealed ‘one of the last times’ he would ever take the substance.
Bill Gates has revealed he was branded a ‘wise-ass’ and almost expelled from Harvard over ‘rule-breaking’. Pictured in 1977
Speaking with the Wall Street Journal in a wide-ranging interview, the 69-year-old made the bombshell revelation
During his Harvard days, he took a trip with Paul and his girlfriend Rita to celebrate her birthday.
After taking Paul’s LSD, Gates became deep in thought and considered putting a new theory into practice.
‘At the height of the evening, a curious train of logic passed through my mind. On a computer you can delete a file and even wipe out all of your stored data. Since the brain is just a sophisticated computer, I thought, ‘Hey, maybe I can command my brain to zero out all my memories”, he wrote.
‘But then I got worried that testing that notion might actually set it irrevocably into motion. Better not even think about it!
‘Taking a shower the next day, I ran through an inventory of my cherished memories, relieved to find that everything was intact. That would be one of the last times I would do LSD.’
Gates also revealed he would be diagnosed with autism if he were a child in the present day.
Speaking with The Wall Street Journal ahead of the release of his memoir, the billionaire said: ‘This whole thing of Asperger’s or on the spectrum is a fairly new thing, it used to be that autism was clearly identifiable. I have a behavior where I rock that bothers people, that’s also common. So there’s a bit of a match there.
‘Looking back on that, because I didn’t behave in a standard way, that deep concentration that got applied to math and science, that became a strength.’
Gates poses in front of hundreds of boxed Microsoft products in 1986
Gates and Musk shake hands at a breakfast meeting during the Boao Forum For Asia Annual Conference 2015 in Qionghai, China
The wedding photo of Melinda Gates and Bill Gates taken in 1994
Gates also shared more from his previously reported Boxing Day dinner with Trump and their respective chiefs of staff.
Together, he said, they will work to fast-track vaccines in the way that Trump was able to do during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The tech mogul and philanthropist also spoke about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. now being in charge of America’s health, and gave his thoughts on Elon Musk.
Musk has been given the reigns of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) by Trump.
Gates said that he hadn’t spoke to Elon directly since his ascendency amongst Trump’s allies and that he ‘admired a lot of the work he has done’.
According to Gates, the idea of DOGE could be a ‘valuable thing, saying: ‘I think the idea that looking at government expenditures on a sort of zero base budgeting approach could be a valuable thing.
‘I’m amongst the people that believe the deficit needs to be brought down, because otherwise it will create a financial problem for us. That effort could come up with some good things.’
Gates added that he did have some concerns over certain government departments being cut including HIV medicines.
He said: ‘I believe in HIV medicines, where the US is keeping tens of millions of people alive.
‘If you cut those off, not only would they die when we have a cure on its way, the negative feelings you’d have say in Africa would be worse than never having done that thing at all.’
