Is Bill Gates autistic? Probably not.

 There's some great media interviews with Bill Gates at the moment following the launch of his memoir 'Source Code'.

One in People magazine stands out: Bill Gates Says He Believes He Would Be Diagnosed with Autism if He Were a Kid Today https://people.com/bill-gates-says-he-would-be-diagnosed-with-autism-if-he-were-a-kid-today-8780432

Quite a few themes are mentioned but importantly: "... believes he would have been diagnosed with autism if he were a kid today" and "It used to be autism had a fairly narrow definition that was you know clearly identifiable". Such sentences tell us a lot about how the definition of autism has changed (the expansion of what constitutes autism) and an oft-forgotten issue: frank autism, where autism is clearly identifiable as and when it walks through the clinic doors.

Also: "The two things they did, one, send me to a therapist who got me thinking about how I applied my energy and then sending me to a really great school. Those were great for me." This is a really important message backed up by the available scientific data. It stresses that school - education, education, educations - works and works well in many cases, and that far from being 'lifelong', childhood traits are malleable not immutable, something that is research rising in the context that among the various plural 'autisms' at least one phenotype is not lifelong. 

Finally, within the context that a diagnosis of autism is not just about the presentation of autistic traits - traits that are seemingly apparent across a wide number of different conditions and not just autism - but also whether said traits significantly affect day-to-day life, the answer to the question 'Is Bill Gates autistic?' is probably not.