[Philo-Junius]

I don’t think Gauss learned to count by himself; his gift required context to operate. We don’t have to capture the essence of genius in a bottle to understand that environment shapes and channels it.

[Philo-Junius]

I assume the mathematical operation to which you refer was Gauss’ solution to the “birds-on-a-ladder” problem without knowledge of algebraic summations.

I believe he himself explained his key insight, which was indeed profoundly surprising for one his age, but not one demonstrating anything superhuman or, upon explanation, mysterious.

[stripes1776]

I don’t think Gauss learned to count by himself; his gift required context to operate. We don’t have to capture the essence of genius in a bottle to understand that environment shapes and channels it.

Well, if you grow up in Germany, chances are that you will count your numbers in German.