The Man Who Counts: Grammar And Engineering

"'What's so unusual about the motion of Ikt'hanis?' It was his name for this planet, and did not mean 'earth' but - in a language where nouns were compared - could be translated 'Oceanest,' and was feminine."
-Poul Anderson, The Man Who Counts IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, 2009), pp. 337-515 AT V, p. 366.

I had some problems with nouns being "compared," but Sheila, a Modern Languages graduate, helped:

"big," "bigger" and "biggest" are the positive, comparative and superlative forms of the adjective, "big";

"ocean," "oceaner" and "oceanest" would be the positive, comparative and superlative forms of the noun, "ocean," if such forms were to exist in English.

Nicholas van Rijn says:

"'I am not an engineer. Engineers I hire. My job is not to do what is impossible, it is to make others do it for me.'"
-op. cit., VI, p. 371.

Thus, early in the story, its title character states the entire point of the story. "The Man Who Counts" is the one who motivates others. He hires, bribes, threatens, pleads, acts, does not mind if he comes over as stupid or pathetic - whatever it takes. The job gets done. Van Rijn is Anderson's equivalent of Harriman, "The Man Who Sold The Moon." Harriman is neither a rocket engineer nor an astrogator - but he makes sure those guys do their stuff.

Because van Rijn - and not just because of his physical bulk - is like a planet with the others as his satellites, we see him from their points of view. Only (I think) in "Margin of Profit" are there a couple of passages narrated from van Rijn's pov.