QQC- Chapter 0

Over time, humans became more numerous; we formed villages and towns and began trading with each other, and so the need for numbers grew. It became necessary to have shorter, easier words for numbers that could be said a little quicker than, "all the fingers and one more raised of jugs of milk in exchange for all the fingers raised and two brought together and raised with the others of eggs."

The main reason I found this part of the reading interesting was because it emphasizes how much we actually need numbers. It's something I hadn't really thought about and would probably never have thought about since we take numbers for granted so much nowadays. It feels weird saying something so long that basically means "eleven jugs of milk for twelve eggs", but I suppose in those times we didn't have the numbers that we do now so it was impossible to say. I feel like, living in those times, I either would have gotten frustrated from having to say so much just to get some simple things, or I would have kept going about my daily life, not thinking it was abnormal or out of the ordinary.