“He was saying ‘one comma zero comma zero,’ laying out some sort of math problem in his head,” Znaimer says.

Gates also engaged in the more traditional college pursuit of late night poker but, according to friends, his mathematical ability did not always translate into winning hands.

“He was known to be an aggressive player,” says C. Greg Nelson ‘75. “But in the crowd at Currier House where we played, he was about the median—definitely not in the top quartile.”

According to Nelson, the group usually played with six people and allowed participants to buy into the game for $100.

As the year went on, the pot would grow until some hands were being played for over $1,000.

But no matter how much Gates lost, which he did regularly, his friends say he would always settle his account immediately.

“I don’t remember a single time Bill was in debt,” says Nelson.

Programming_Whiz.exe

While Gates succeeded in the classroom, his primary interest in computers and programming often led him to spend hours away from his studies.

“[In high school], he and a half-dozen of his friends, were addicted to computers,” says his father, Bill Gates Sr. “Bill used to go to bed, and then get up and go over to this computer center that was four or five miles away and do computer stuff with his friends.”

It was in high school that Gates developed a computer program to monitor road traffic and started a small company to market it.

Gates was also hired, while still in high school, to help develop a computer program which could operate a river dam.

“He would talk about how he interacted with the adult professional programmers who were also working on the project,” Sethna says.