QQC Part Eight

" Nevertheless, the difficulty of reading his works greatly hindered the diffusion of his ideas; and it seems a perverse economy to save a few words or pages at the cost of many unnecessary hours of struggle and frustration by those who wish to learn."

First let me say that I absolutely love this quote! I love this quote because it applies not only to the text but also to daily life. In relation to the text I completely agree with the agitation shown by the many people who could not immediately understand but I also understand Gauss's need for utter structure and the clarity in which he wrote his proof's. In relation to real life, I think I can safely say that every student at one time or another has had this feeling in a Math class. It is completely frustrating to be staring at a problem when a teacher, whether they be written or in person, has not clearly, step by step, or just plain gone over the problem before hand. My question then becomes did Gauss really care that because of how his equations and proofs were presented that many did not understand? Or did he stand there like the teacher who just lets his students figure it out on his own?