He was a notorious formalist, and a damn good one; but it's hardly the only style of mathematics. Compare with Groethendieck who also invested a whole new field

He was a notorious formalist, and a damn good one; but it's hardly the only style of mathematics. Compare with Groethendieck who also invested a whole new field of mathematics, but had a completely different approach: saturate oneself in the problem until one understands it, then write the solution down. http://www.landsburg.com/grothendieck/mclarty1.pdf http://www.landsburg.com/grothendieck/mclarty1.pdf