Gurdjieff was teaching Ouspensky the first step on the stairway, or, the beginnings of this first step. Self-observation is enough for several years. Do NOT try anything else.
The whole of the book In Search of the Miraculous is about self-observation, and temporary and supervised tasks to enhance self-observation.
There are three questions:
1. What was Gurdjieff teaching ?
2. What was Gurdjieff teaching Ouspensky ?
3. How did Ouspensky interpret and understand, or, misinterpret and misunderstand, what Gurdjieff told him, or, . . . .what was Ouspensky teaching ?
These three questions lead to three completely different teachings.