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Gates is rumored to have scored a perfect 800 on the math portion or his SAT. He was studying Math at Harvard and published a paper in 'Discrete Mathematics' de

Gates is rumored to have scored a perfect 800 on the math portion or his SAT. He was studying Math at Harvard and published a paper in 'Discrete Mathematics' despite having dropped out before finishing undergrad: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V00-45JC8FY-54&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=2f3c6366c54665187a1f58bf75396d13 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi... (pay wall, but you can see the abstract) I think there's reason to believe he could have been an outstanding programmer. Has anybody read the source code for a program verifiably written by Gates? Was Donkey.bas really written by him?

fuzzmeister 17y ago
I do not know enough about his background to say one way or another whether he was a great programmer, but getting an 800 on the SAT math section isn't exactly a legendary achievement. It is weighted so that the number of people getting an 800 is not insignificant.
- nostrademons 17y ago
  That was less true when Gates took it than it is now. Now, scores are "recentered", so you can get a couple questions wrong and still get a perfect 800. This wasn't true when Gates took it - perfect meant perfect then. At my undergrad, something like 1 in 10 incoming freshmen had perfect SAT scores, and I know a couple of folks at Google with perfect scores as well.
  - dgordon 17y ago
    "That was less true when Gates took it than it is now. Now, scores are "recentered", so you can get a couple questions wrong and still get a perfect 800." Not true, for the math anyway. You can get a few wrong on the verbal section and still get an 800, and don't ask me how the writing works. In any case, the effects of the 1994 recentering on higher-end scores (for whatever they're worth) are greatly exaggerated.
acangiano 17y ago
He was an outstanding programmer: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/05/15/could_bill_gates_write_code/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/05/15/could_bill_gates_wri...
- wglb 17y ago
  And this is what I had in mind when I suggesged "Argument bait". My own opinion is that they were both very good, with skill in different areas.

fuzzmeister 17y ago

I do not know enough about his background to say one way or another whether he was a great programmer, but getting an 800 on the SAT math section isn't exactly a legendary achievement. It is weighted so that the number of people getting an 800 is not insignificant.

nostrademons 17y ago
That was less true when Gates took it than it is now. Now, scores are "recentered", so you can get a couple questions wrong and still get a perfect 800. This wasn't true when Gates took it - perfect meant perfect then. At my undergrad, something like 1 in 10 incoming freshmen had perfect SAT scores, and I know a couple of folks at Google with perfect scores as well.
- dgordon 17y ago
  "That was less true when Gates took it than it is now. Now, scores are "recentered", so you can get a couple questions wrong and still get a perfect 800." Not true, for the math anyway. You can get a few wrong on the verbal section and still get an 800, and don't ask me how the writing works. In any case, the effects of the 1994 recentering on higher-end scores (for whatever they're worth) are greatly exaggerated.

acangiano 17y ago

He was an outstanding programmer: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/05/15/could_bill_gates_write_code/ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2001/05/15/could_bill_gates_wri...

wglb 17y ago
And this is what I had in mind when I suggesged "Argument bait". My own opinion is that they were both very good, with skill in different areas.