>is quite wrong unless you're simply redefining the strings "three", "plus", "equals" and/or "two" to mean quite different things. Which are the different rule

>is quite wrong unless you're simply redefining the strings "three", "plus", "equals" and/or "two" to mean quite different things. Which are the different rules he talks about. Obviously he does not say that all rules have to apply t at the same time. What a silly thing to interpret into his words. >That is quite confused and conflates several different things. It isn't though? It is definitely an experience I had during my mathematics degree. >If this actually happened, I doubt that it took him as long as five minutes. And how does that square with "did it because he or she didn’t try to" ... surely Gauss tried to find a simpler way to calculate the sum. Also, Gauss had vastly more impressive achievements than this, although I suppose it depends on how young he was at the time. The point he is making is actually pretty clear. Namely, that there is a distinction between a good solution and a great solution. A good solution takes the hard way and does all the right things. A great solution completely understands the problem and gives a solution so clear that after that you do not even see the problem. >Mediocre mathematicians do the same--I'm not even that, but I was on my high school math team and was routin If you ever have done mathematics at a university level you will have encountered exactly what Torvalds describes. In your homework you make all the right arguments, and through many steps you work through a difficult proof. In the end it is correct. When another student presents their argument or when you later go through some textbook, there is a deceptively simple transformation and suddenly the argument becomes a trivial case of a previous theorem. Suddenly the problem has disappeared all together. What makes a great mathematician is no doubt that ability. In fact if you ask a mathematician what makes a great proof it will be exactly this, taking something which looks incredibly complicated and suddenly transforming it into something incredibly obvious.