The Mind Creative March 2014
of his mind allowed him to ultimately develop a simple system of
mathematics that had shortcuts for multiplication and other
arithmetic operations. He kept on jotting down parts of his theories
on pieces of wrapping paper and old envelopes while the rest was
stored in the recesses of his ingenious mind.
In 1944, having learnt that he was to be executed, Trachtenberg
worked feverishly to finish his system, working out new rules,
equations and formulae. Outside the concentr