Then you haven't realized how well what I wrote actually scales. In base 10, 2 operations gets you the whole of single digit multiplication (versus memorizing t

Then you haven't realized how well what I wrote actually scales. In base 10, 2 operations gets you the whole of single digit multiplication (versus memorizing the whole table just to get it down to 1). It also gets you to 11, 12, 20, 21, 19, 30, 40 (by various use of the append 0 trick to multiply by 10 for free anywhere you want). Now try to work out which multiplications are possible within 3 additions/subtractions? How about 4? You should find the accessible fraction of the number line grows exponentially. Memorizing the whole multiplication table for 2 digit numbers isn't practical. That's a 100x100 table. But a small number of adding, doubling, and halving steps can get you anywhere you want in that table.