[joewferrara]

Gauss died in 1855 and his work still influences modern mathematics. Someone told me while in grad school that in number theory we’re still figuring out stuff that Gauss already knew.

[keithalewis]

His motto was "Few, but ripe." I'm sure he had no conception of throwing compute power against the wall and see what sticks.

[mmmmmmmike]

I think that’s more about what he chose to publish. He was known for discovering things and keeping them to himself.

As I understand it, he actually first came to conjecture quadratic reciprocity after doing incredible amounts of calculation by hand and noticing the pattern.