In an (uncritical) Washington Posts Q&A, Bill Gates seems to admit that he had a ghostwriter. "He would write it, and then I would edit it."
I know, you're not shocked. But---ethically speaking---it matters. The real author's name should be on the book.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/02/04/bill-gates-memoir-source-code/
The Washington Post · Why Bill Gates buried a headline in his memoir’s epilogue
@timschwab@mastodon.social Absolutely wild:
Yet the article is titled
He [Rob Guth] would write it, and then I would edit it, and then I would read, and I think, “My God, the impression you get here is just constant war.”Especially after the anecdote about Rob Guth, who did the "research" uncovering that Gates did not get straight As in 9th grade like Gates was sure he had (?!). I fail to see how this process is producing something that should be called a memoir or autobiography. This is literally not the writer's memory, and it is not being written by him.
Yet the article is titled
Why Bill Gates buried a headline in his memoir’s epilogueOn top of crediting the real author, words matter!
The Microsoft founder discusses “Source Code,” the first in a planned three-volume autobiography.
@abucci Given how big of a player Bill Gates is in funding research and journalism, both fields that have pretty strict ethical rules around authorship, I do think this bears scrutiny. At what point did we collectively decide that the rules don't apply to....billionaires?