Renowned businessman Bill Gates has said that if he were a child today, he would be diagnosed with autism. According to him, his obsessive and strange behavior as a child would be labeled as a sign of neuro-human divergence in today’s society. He expressed this opinion in his autobiography, “Source Code”, in which he reflected on his behavior during childhood, The Telegraph reported. Gates, now 69, recalled that as a child he often missed social cues, often “wobbled in place” and was able to concentrate intensely on certain subjects. He stressed that if he were a child today, he would have been diagnosed with the “autism spectrum.”
“My parents had no guidance or books that would help them understand why their son became so obsessed with certain projects, missed social cues, and could be distracted or inappropriate, without understanding the impact his behavior had on others,” he said.
The comment comes at a time when autism diagnoses have risen sharply, with a 2021 study finding that autism diagnoses in the UK nearly quadrupled in the two decades between 1998 and 2018. Gates has also admitted that he didn’t realise he was different until he was asked to write a 200-page paper for the state of Delaware as part of a school assignment, while his classmates were submitting 10-page papers. “I knew I could focus when I was curious, but that made me look like a weirdo. My ability to focus was very developed, but my social skills were slow to develop,” he said. Despite this, Gates has used his ability to focus in intellectual areas.
He dropped out of university to develop Microsoft and became a billionaire at the age of 31. Now also known for his work in the study of diseases, he has said he would never trade these “autistic traits” for a “normal” way of experiencing everyday life. “If they invented a pill that could say, ‘OK, your social skills will be normal, but your ability to concentrate will be normal too,’ I wouldn’t take the pill.”
